Niches and Community Interactions

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Niches and Community

Interactions

What is a Niche?

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Habitat: the general place where an organism lives

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Niche: a range of biotic and abiotic conditions in which species live, and the way the species obtains what is needs to survive and reproduce

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Resources: necessities of life

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Plants: sunlight, water, nutrients

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Animals: nesting, space, shelter, food

Physical (abiotic): environment, weather, natural disasters

Biological (biotic): how it eats, how it reproduces, how it interacts with other species

Tolerance

Tolerance: the ability to survive and reproduce under a range of environmental circumstances

- Organisms have an upper and lower limit of tolerance for every environmental factor

- Once they reach their optimum range, the organism experiences stress

- Beyond their tolerance level, the organism will not survive

Tolerance Graph

Competition

- Competition can occur between similar species ( intraspecific competition ) and between member of different species ( interspecific competition )

Competitive Exclusion Principle: no 2 species can occupy the same niche in the same habitat and exactly the same time

Instead species will divide resources

Predation/Herbivory/Keystone Species

Predator-Prey Relationships: predators can affect the size of the prey population and determine where the prey can live and feed

Herbivory-Plant Relationships: herbivores can affect both size and distribution of plants and where the plants can grow and survive

Keystone species: a newly introduced species affects the population of another species

algae → sea urchin → sea otter

Symbiotic Relationships

Symbiosis: any relationship between two species that live closely together

Three types of symbiosis:

Mutualism: a relationship between two species in which both benefit

Example: Clownfish and Anemone

Parasitism: a relationship between two species in which one lives on or in the other organism with intentions to harm it (they do not kill the host)

Example: Tapeworms/Lice/Leeches

Commensalism: a relationship between two organisms where one organism is help and the other is neither helped nor harmed

Example: Barnacles and Whales

Examples of Symbiotic Relationships

Mutualism

Parasitism

Commensalism

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