Ecological Communities

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

9:58 AM

Definition - groups of species that are related to each other in that they
interact with each other
They are living in the same habitat
E.G. - for new guinea forest we might be interested in all the species or a
subset such as the
Tree community
Bird community
Stream insect community

Characteristics of a species - recognize characteristics of species

Habitat Where a species lives; its address
Niche

What a species does for a living "its occupation"

Physical environment tolerances - cold tolerance, how much drought

Example: buffalo

Habitat - grassland (prairie) - not in desert, not in swampy areas

Niche - grazes on grasses
o
Able to survive in water

Species relationships

Possible relationships between species

Competition sp1 - sp2 - (negative, the species on each other is negative, means
you have two species trying to get same resource, any time one gets it the other is
negatively affected)

Commensalism sp1 + sp2 0 (species 1 benefits from it but species 2 doesnt get
affected)

Predation and parasitism sp1 + sp2 - (species 1 benefits from interaction

(predator or parasite) and species 2 is negatively affected)

Mutualism sp1 + sp2 + (two species mutually benefit each other - polination)

Coevolution When 2 species affect each other (all relationships except commensalism)
there is coevolution - adapts in one species leads to or affects adapttation
in the other species
If there is adaptation in one species it could lead to an adaption in another
spcies
Prey evolves to get faster - predators get faster to keep up with prey coevolve, evolve together
Different than evolving to deal with physical environment - this
environment doesn't change when you adapt

Competition - both species negatively affected by interaction

Only Occurs when there is overlap in the niche of two organisms - if niche
is same
Niche - indication of what you do for living - if what you do and some other
does is the same - you are competing with each other

If they don't overlap - not tapping into same resources and not competing
Two kinds of competition

Intraspecific competition (within a species)

Very intense because niches overlap completely - individual buffalo competition between other buffalo - eating same thing you are eating niche is exactly the same

Interspecific communication (between species)

Less intense, partial niche overlap - other species aren't doing exact same
thing you are doing - only partial niche overlap

Types of competition - two general kinds

Exploitative - effect fell through the depletion of shared resources (2 straws in
a glass) effect of competition is indirect - felt through depletion of shared resource
Interference - fight for resources
Physical activity/fighting for resources

Aggression
Territoriality (intraspecific) - minimized - seen in birds and mammals
- home territories - rather than have all individuals of species
competing head to head - each individual carves out terrirtory that is
exclusively his or her own - protect territory against other individuals

Consequences of competition
Competitive exclusion principle gause
Two species with same niche cannot coexzist
Consequences of competition

Loss of one species

o
e.g. experiment with paramecium species
o
g.g. when non native species are introduced - such as honeybees and
house sparrows - native spcies may disappear

One outcome - competitive exclusion principal by cause - two species from same
niche cannot exit - two species doing same thing for living cannot exist, one will
drive the other out of business - graphs - two different paramcium species - growth
in red and other in blue - grow paramesium - single celled species found in pond grow them in lab - one species - start out with a few and we let them go for period
of time - population grows and reaches steady state point - carrying capacity second species - start out a culture just with that species - population also takes off
and reaches steady point - carrying capacity - put two species together - very
similar in what they eat, injest small particles
Put two of them together - third graph - small amounts of species - initially
everything is going okay - both populations are growing - blue population declines
and is out competed by species in red line - gauses principal - very similar - one will
outcompete the other
Consequences of competition -

One species dissapears in that particular habitat

Non native species introduced
Honeybes, house sparrows at feeders - introduced species, not native to the united
states
One things that happened - native bees and native birds - numbers go way down or
dissapear - typically without predators to keep theirn umbers down

Consequences of competition
Resource partitioning
Two species that are competing with each other - one thing that can
happen - adaptations can occur that competition is reduced - two species niche changes because of evolution and chances sufficiantly so there is
partial overlap and species can coexit
e.g. kangaroo rats

South weset desert and nothern destert

Small mammals that eat seeds and come out at night were fewer predators
Sonoran desert - put out traps with peanut butter and capture
Sonoran desert - 6 different species
Aren't kangaroo rats competing with each other?
Different species come in different sizes - big one and very small one - look at what
they are eating - can tell by as they eat they fill up cheek pouches with food and go
back to burrow - they all eat seeds but big kangaroo rat is eating big seeds and little
kangaroo rat is eating little seeds and in between are eating in between seeds - one
of the ways is that this competition is resolved - resource partitioning - evolutionary
changes in size of species - now niches is partially overlapped and don't overlap to
cause extinction of species
5 different species in great basin desert that differ in size and eat different things

e.g. chipmunks

Diets are all relitively similar

One of the ways is that they live and feed in somewhat different areas
Name of chipmunks where you can find them
Alpine - highest elevations
Least - lowest elevations
Living at different elevations avoid overlapping with each other and coexist
Some interference competition to some extent - some species keep other
chipmunks away aggressive interactions

Nich of species - compressed to some extent because of presence of

competitor
fundamental niche - what a species could be doing

Realized niche - what a species is restricted to doing because of

competetors
Two barnacle species - find them in intertidal area along coast line - line comes in
and tides come out
Barnacles underwater some of time and some of time exposed to open air
Tolerances of these species for being submerged or exposed to open air varies component of niche
Lines - fundamental niches of species - what a species could be doing - what it could
be occupying if the other species wasn't there
Brown species could be throughout whole area - but cannot because of the other
species
Can find by removing other speices
Look at realized niches of other species - brown one is only close to top part and
blue one is towards the bottom
Situation where precense of competitor has reduced the nice area that it can
actually occupy and cannot go low down as potentially capable of doing

Commensalism Benefits one species - no effect on the other

e.g. cattle egrets - cattle
Example - cattle grazing - tall white bird - cattle egrets What they do is fallow around cows as they graze in field and they eat small things frogs, snakes, insects
Cattle kick up insects and snakes and so on and cattle egrets eat them
They benefit from the cows
The cows really are unaffected by relationship, could care less if they are there and
are not negatively affected by this relationship

Predation
Predator - prey
Predator larger than prey
e.g. lynx and hare - lynx predator
Predator prey systems
parasitism
Both are under General heading of predation

Parasitism - predation
Similar sort of relationship - one species benefiting one negatively
affected
Paraside - smaller than host - lives on or inside host
Caterpiller with number of white cacoons - had wasp layed eggs on
caterpiller and eggs hatched larvea and they burrowed into catipiller and
came out and made cacoons

Pig - parasitic round worms

Prey and predator strategies Often time - a lot of adeptations to avoid being eaten - strategies - prey
have - come in variety of guises
How organisms avoid being eaten
Camouflage, weapons - deter predators from eating them, toxins, warning
coloration, mimicry
Potential prey speccies with toxin or weapons - warning coloration to tell
them to stay away from because they have nasty chemicals
Mimicry - look like something in environment that the predator wouldn't
be interested in eating

Camouflage - one way species have to avoid eating

Alpine environment - bird - willow tarmagen - coloration modeled brown
and white - blends in vary well with environment - white and brown
modeled - if you blend in with environment - have to be still when
predators approach - if moving - obvious wasn't stone or rock
Some hold ground - until right on top of it and than it will fly off

Toxins - frog - look obvious to us - not trying to blend in - warning

coloration Very powerful toxins on skin - in this case - adeptations for a toxic
individual to have warning coloration - doesn't do good for an indivudual if
predator eats you - predator might throw up/die
Many species have toxin and warning coloration - I got a toxin, don't
bother me - can excape predation

Mimicry Resembling something indedible - moth looks like bird dropping

Number of kinds of mimicry

One case - mimic something that is inedible Sidewalks under trees - bird droppings - white portion and darker portion
Moth - looks like bird dropping - during day inactive - sitting on leaf
looking like bird dropping and most birds - are not very interested in
eating bird dropping and pass over it

Mimicry Resembling something toxic

Batesian

Model is distasteful and has warning coloration

Mimic is tasty

Mullerian
Non related poinsounous species resembling one another
e.g. viceroy and monarch butterflies

Do avoid species - because of warning coloration Situation batesian - perfectly edible species - mimics warning colors of toxic species
Model species - toxic with warning and mimic - perfectly tasty - looks like toxic thing
Lots of examples of butterflies
Toxic butterflies eat plants that are toxic and go into their systems
Butterflies can look similar to each other but might or might not be toxic - bird
cannot tell them apart that well - doesnt want to deal with toxic vs non toxic
Mullerian - unrelated species - toxic - all mimic each other One pluses - predator doesn't have to learn many warning colors - one pattern many species share - and stay away from it

Viceroy and monarch butterfly - very similar - orange and black and speckled white different species - one point in time - thought it was batesian mimicry - thought
monarchs were poisonous and viceroy - edible to birds
Viceroy - bad tasting to birds as well
Are similar in coloration patterns
Easy for predators to avoid

Predator strategies

Camouflage, stealth, special behaviors

Sneak up on preyand get them

Aggressive mimicry
Wolf in sheeps clothing e.g. mantis that looks like a flour
Predator looks like it's not a predator - mantis - flower - looks very similar
Rests in flower - potential prey - does not see anything there that could be
threatening - comes up to flower and is grabbed

Mutualisms Two organisms benefit each other

Two general types
Facultative - two organisms can survive without each other but benefit
with each other
Plants and polinators because plants are stationary
Pollination, seed dispersal, plant protection
Mychorrhizae, fungus that lives on plant roots
Plants - don't have a lot of seeds to move around in environment - fruit - take fruit
away and consume it, disperse seeds

Plants use insects for protection against herbavors - back of sunflower like plant has ants on it - attracted - necteries - extrafloral necteries that produce sugar for
ants - and ants very protective of inflorecents - seed predator flies - want to lay
eggs in seeds of overies and ants kjeep them away
Mychorrize- fungae that live on plant roots - almost all plants have this - fungi extract some minerals from soil that plants wouldn't be good at and plant roots
provide nutrients and carbohydrates due to photosynthasize

Obligate - 2 organisms cannot survive without each other - yucca and

yucca moth - lichen (algae and fungus)
Lichen - rocky surfaces and old dead trees - not a single species but two species Algae and fungus (or bacteria)
Two organisms - algae and fungus - provide different things for each other
Algae photosynthesis - carbohydrate
Fungus - good for minerals and mostiure in surface Growing intertwined with each other and providing nutrience for each other
Pease apart cells - cannot live on own
Yucca plant and yucca moth
Yucca moth - travels between yucca plants - visits flower and takes plant and puts it
on stigma of another one
Physically involved in polonation
Yucca plant relys on this moth for polination
Yucca plant cannot seed
Moth - relies exclusivley on yucca plant for food - female lays eggs in ovary - swells
and larvae eat seeds from that flower
More flowers that are polinated than are consumed by larvae - plus for both moth
and plant to produce more species

Mutualism and aggressive mimicry Cleanier fish and imposter - aggressive mimicry and mutualism
Imposter - many coral reifs - fish called cleaner fish
Large fish - orange strip - come to these certain places called cleaning
station - cleaner fish with black stripe - big fish are predators and go into
trance and little fish cleans off little parasites on skin and sometimes in
the mouth
Cleaner fish gets to feed and big fish gets to have parasites removed that
could cause trouble
Mimic species - thats a predator - two species with black stripe - one is
good guy and one is bad guy
Predator fish - aggressive mimicry - looks like its going to be a cleaner fish
- but predator fish - take a bite out of fin or some other part while the
larger fish is in its trance for cleaning fish

Community change - succession - composition may change - look at

different species - and come back later - in 100 years - composition of
community has changed - different tree species, plant species, and different
animals
Process called succession - relativley orderly process how community changes
Following distrubance - - fire, forest cutting down
Following the disturbance
Colonization by species resulting in changes in species composition until a stable
set of species is reached (climax community) changes a little bit
Situations - following disturbance and after succession process - stable set of
species - replaces itself from one species - remains set for a long period of time climax community

Two kinds of succession

Primary succession

Begin with barren habitat - rockslide, lava flow , glacier retreat - very little
living things
Process where vegetation comes in and we note species as it changes
through time
Pioneer plants invade first e.g. lichens
Pioneer species alter habitat making it more hospitiable for other species
Areas in alaska - glacier melted back - as it does that - area that is left behind - area
is very rocky and has been under glacer until that point
In years - see what happens initially looks like a bunch of rocks
Starting with lichens forming on rocks - lichens break up rocks and make them like
soil, getting smaller plants coming in and trees, finally get - after many years hundreds or more - get forests growing in these areas
Species there at one time - paved way at one time for other species to come in later
Pioneer - come in first after habitat is newly formed
Lichens
Pioneer species - modify habitat for small plants to get established because of soil
and trees to get established
Once we achieve final forest environment - climax community

Secondary succession Situation begins - disturbance - but not all species are eliminated by disturbance tree falling down in forest
Abandoned field, burned forest or grassland Opportunity for other species to colonize
Secondary succession in eastern part of u.s.
Colonists of us - tried to cut down trees and grow fields - fields abandon and trees
grew back
Fire not completely eliminate all species but effect composition slightly

Sand dune succession

Involves establishing stable environment for plants - some grass type species can
gain a foot in there - soil stablized - small shrubs come in and trees come in
Process occurs because of differences in dispersal and shades tolerances

Climax community - stable community - no changes in species tolerant of

own shade - beach maple forest
Climax - self sustaining species community - composition doesn't change
much 0 disturbances can come in but continual succession process happening
- roots being exposed creates an opening in forest canopy - some cannopy - a lot of
species cannot live in shade except species in climax - in shade of itself infact
Beach maple forest can continue
Tree fallen down - opening in canopy and some species have higher light
requirements can colonize temporarily

Community change - succession Disturbances can be bad things, but is a fact of life
Some species addapted that there is periodic disturbances
Fire - common in many types of communities - grassland, forests - burn
every few years
Species living adapted to disturbances
Pine trees - make cones - glued together by resin so that seeds are kept
inside Cones only release seeds when a fire comes through, melts resin and fire
comes out
Seeds on forest floor - cleared of vegetation
Grasslands - if fire grows through - resprout through roots
Trees - typically negativley affected by fire - grasslands maintained as grasslands
and not forests

Some cumminities do not recover from some disturbances

Plowed prairie - no way for community to recver from plowing a prairie
Not plow field - no prairie plants left or no seeds left - chances are nearest prairie 10s or 20 more miles away
Let field go - won't go back no seed sources

Community organization

How many species

What kinds of species

If you travel around world - tropics and temperate zones, desert areas - different
communities there
Tropic - many species and can vary from place to place
Determining factors
Number of factors
1

How many resources are available

a Pattern found - More species in tropical than temperate latitudes
- breeding birds - number of birds - temperate northern areas - 90
degrees north latitude - working your way south - number of birds
increases as you go south - more resources in tropics for birds,
environment which is capable of supporting life all year round - in
temperate - winter/downtime for species
Competition
a Limits the number of species that can be present - can't have too
many species competing for same resource - resource partitioning
can occur if a lot of species occuring, but limits by resources
available
Predators - interesting affect
a Effect on competition - reduce nuimber of species - and others
where number of species in increased
b e.g. periwinkle predators and algae species diversity
Disturbance
a Highest species diversity with moderate disturbance
most communities have disturbance - low or moderate - lead to
higher species diversity - environment mosiac of disturbed and
non disturbed areas and different species can live in distrubed vs
non distrubed areas - climax in some areas - if distrubance is
great - species diversity is reduced

Predation - affects number of species living in area

Intertidle area - snails on algae Predators are there - species diversity could be reduced - predators eating algae but in fact
When predation is present - predators focus on dominant algae species - dominant
algae species - dominant - better competitor than other species
Periwinkle eating most dominant allows some of other algae species have
opportunity to live
On y axis - number of algal species that are present - no predators at all - number of
periwinkle species is 0 - very few algal species - competition is present
A lot of periwinkles - keeps competition down and more algal species
But most of periwinkles - kills all algal species

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