Community Ecology: Chapter 8 Reading Q’s
Miller, Living in the Environment
APES______________________________________________________________________________________
Why should we care about the Flying foxes?
1. List and describe 3 roles that play in ecosystems.
2. What is a keystone species?
3. Identify 2 things that caused the changes in flying fox population.
8.1 Community Structure and Species Diversity
Section: Community Structure: Appearance Matters
a. How do ecologists describe overall community physical appearance?
b. What are 3 problems that can occur with increasing the edges of a community?
Section: Species Diversity and Niche Structure: Different Species Playing Different Roles
c. What is species diversity?
d. Compare and contrast species richness with species evenness.
e. What is niche structure?
2. Describe the main principles following theories
a. Species equilibrium model
b. Island Biogeography Theory
8.2 Types of Species in Communities
1. What are native species?
2. What are nonnative or invasive species?
Section: Indicator Species: Biological Smoke Alarms
a. What is an indicator species?
Case Study: Why are amphibians vanishing?
1. What has happened to amphibians since the 1980’s?
2. List 6 reasons why amphibians may be vanishing.
3. List 3 reasons why we should care about amphibians.
Section: Keystone Species: major Players
1. What is a keystone species?
2. List 4 types of keystone species and describe their roles in communities.
Section: Foundation Species: Other Major Players
1. What is a foundation species?
2. Give 2 examples of foundation species.
8.3 Species Interactions: Competition and Predation
Section: How do species interact
a. What are the 5 types of interactions between species?
Section: Reducing or Avoiding Competition: Sharing Resources
b. What is resource partitioning?
Section: Predators and Prey: Eating and Being Eaten
c. How can predators help prey species? Give 3 examples.
Case Study: Why should we protect sharks?
d. What is the trophic level of sharks?
e. Why are we killing sharks?
f. What can we learn from sharks?
Section: How do predators increase their chances of getting a meal?
g. List and describe 2 adaptations of predators to help them catch food
Section: How do Prey Defend against or avoid predators?
h. Describe two adaptations help preys avoid predators
8.4 Species Interactions: Parasitism, Mutualism, and Commensalism
Section: Parasites: Sponging off others
a. What is a parasite?
Section: Mutualism: Win-win Relationships
b. What is mutualism? .
Section: Commensalism: Using without Harm
c. What is Commensalism?
8.5 Ecological Succession: Communities in Transition
Section: Ecological Succession: How Communities Change over Time
a. What is succession?
b. What is the difference between primary and secondary succession?
Section: Primary Succession: Starting from Scratch
c. How does primary succession begin?
d. What are pioneer species?
e. How long does primary succession take?
Section: Secondary Succession: Starting Over with some Help
f. Where does secondary succession begin? How can disturbances, such a fire, be beneficial for
communities?
Section: How do disturbances affect succession and species diversity?
g. What is a disturbance
h. Explain the intermediate disturbance hypothesis
Section: Can we Predict the Path of Succession, and Is Nature in Balance?
i. What is a climax community?
j. How have scientists views changed about climax communities in recent years?
8.6 Ecological Stability and Sustainability
1. List and define 3 aspects of stability in living systems.
Section: Community Productivity and Sustainability
a. Does species diversity in a community lead to greater stability?