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Module 20: Community ecology

Module 20: Community ecology

Competitive exclusion principle: two species competing for the same resources cannot co-exist, leads to...

Resource partitioning: time, space, type of food (one species picks one, the other survives)

Screenshot 2024-11-14 at 14.43.13.png
Screenshot 2024-11-14 at 14.43.13.png

Relationships:

  • Predation: predator and prey, one lives, the other dies
  • Symbiotic: 
    • Mutualism: both benefit
    • Commensalism: one benefits, no harm to the other
  • Non-symbiotic:Parasitism: one benefits, harm to other

Screenshot 2024-11-14 at 14.43.56.png
Screenshot 2024-11-14 at 14.43.56.png

Review: keystone species vs. indicator species:

Keystone species-many others depend on it, removal has an impact much greater than their relative population

e.g. beavers: create habitat for others (dams), so they are also "keystone engineers", only they don't wear funny hats.

Here's what a keystone looks like:

In architecture, if you remove the keystone, the arch collapses. Cool term, right?

This is different from a capstone (seniors might like this): a capstone is what you put on top of a finished structure

Another example: "keystone predators" e.g. sea stars, which eat mussels, clearing space on rocks for other species

Indicator species-signal health of a system, like some fish or worms signify water quality, also known as "bioindicators"

Succession: one species takes over another in time


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