Organism Interactions

Compare and contrast density, dependent, and independent population regulations.

Density Dependent: can be affected by factors that affect birth and death rates such as competition and predation. Density Independent: can be affected by factors that affect birth and death rates such as abiotic factors and environmental factors, i.e. severe weather and conditions such as fire.

What do indicator species tell us?

Early warning system for an ecosystem, signals change as population changes.

What are examples of anti predator defenses?

Feigning injury, flight distance, early warning protean displays, unpredictable movement, tonic immobility, distraction displays, armor, spines, tail autonomy, fighting back, chemical warfare, mimicry, camouflage, deceptive looks, deceptive behavior, aposematic coloration

How do species interact?

Five types of interaction: competition, predation, parasitism, mutualism, and commensalism.

Compare and contrast fundamental and realized niche.

Fundamental: the full range of conditions and resources that an organism could hypothetically use in the absence of competition with other species. Realized: the portion of the fundamental niche that an organism actually occupies; actual range of conditions and resources that an organism uses. Niche overlap between species leads to competition.

Describe a niche.

How an organism lives in an environment. It is how an organism lives in an environment. It all the chemical, physical, and biological factors that an organism needs to survive, stay healthy, and reproduce.

Why is one species unable to reproduce with another to get fertile offspring?

In order for different species to be able to breed, they must be closely related - usually within the same genus, and at least within the same family.

Parasitism

Interaction between species in which one organism, called a parasite, preys on another organism, called the host, by living on or in the host.

Predation

Interaction in which an organism of one species captures and feeds on some or all parts of an organism of another species.

Interference

Interaction or halts in a system.

Explain the differences between interference and exploitation competition.

Interference: one limits the access to resources. Exploitation: ones gets more resources at the expense of others.

Why do we talk about succession in this chapter?

It is the way ecosystems respond to changing environmental conditions.

What is a habitat?

Its is where an organsism lives.

How does habitat relate to an animal's niche.

Niche is how an organism lives in a habitat or environment.

What limits the growth of population?

No population can continue to grow indefinitely because of limitations on resources and because of competition among species for those resources.

What are some disadvantages of being territorial?

Not all males breed > loss of biodiversity. There is a large amount of energy used in defending territory.

Commensalism

An interaction between organisms of different species in which one type of organism benefits and the other type is neither helped nor harmed to any great degree.

Ecosystem Stability

1) inertia: resistance to change 2) constancy: ability to stay the same (living system [population] to keep same numbers) 3) resilience: ability to rebound/ return to former conditions after a change or stress.

Symbiosis

A close relationship between two species that benefits at least one of the species.

Population

A group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area.

Species

A group of similar organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring.

Nonnative Species

A species normally living outside a distribution range that has been introduced through either deliberate or accidental human activity; also can be known as introduced, invasive, alien, nonindigenous, or exotic.

Niche

A species' share of a habitat and the resources in it. An organism's ecological niche depends not only on where it lives but also on what it does.

Primary Succession

Begins with no soil. Pioneer plants are lichen, moss. Pioneer plants form soil by trapping and recycling nuts, chemical weathering.

Positive interactions between species?

Coevolution, mutualism.

Intraspecific Competition

Competition between same species for mates, food, space, etc. Ex: Competition among a pack of wolves for the good parts of the kill. They also have territoriality. They protect mating and nesting sites, and foodnesting sites. Low predators are better environmental factors.

Interspecific Competition

Competition between two or more different species for food, sunlight, H2O, space, nesting sites, hidey holes. Ex. corrals species into realized niche, lions and hyenas in the savanna.

Why are organisms in the same niche in competition?

Competition causes organisms to not be able to occupy the full fundamental niche because they are fighting for the same resources.

Predator

Organism that captures and feeds on some or all parts of and organism of another species.

Prey

Organism that is killed by an organism of another species and serves as its source of food.

Negative interactions between species?

Predation, parasitism, competition.

Succession

Process in which communities of plant and animal species in a particular area are replaced over time by a series of different and often more complex communities.

Native Species

Species indigenous to an area. Able to live and thrive in a particular community, without causing ecological damage to other elements of the ecosystem.

Keystone Species

Species that play roles affecting many other organisms in an ecosystem.

Indicator Species

Species whose decline serves as early warnings that a community or ecosystem is being degraded.

Secondary Succession

Succession that occurs after a disaster. Disaster can be manmade or natural.

Exploitation

The action of making use of and benefiting from resources.

How do communities and ecosystems respond to changing environmental conditions?

The structure and species composition of communities and ecosystems change in response to changing environmental conditions through a process called ecological succession.

Why do alien species cause problems?

These invasive species can thrive and crowd out native species.

What responses do prey have to predators?

They either use defenses or just die.

Competition

Two or more individual organisms of a single species or two or more individuals of different species attempting to use the same scarce resources in the sam ecosystem.

Mutualism

Types of species interaction in which both participating species generally benefit.

Explain the differences between competitive, exclusion, and resource partitioning.

When species divide a niche to avoid competition for resources, it is called resource partitioning. Sometimes the competition is between species, called interspecific competition, and sometimes it's between individuals of the same species, or intraspecific competition.

Explain the three types of symbiosis with descriptive examples.

two different species living together for long period of time where one always benefits. 1. mutualism- both species benefit 2. commensalism- one benefits, the other is not affected 3. parasitism- one benefits at the others expense, parasite/host.