COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

CHAPTER 3

Oct’2020 – Feb’2021
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Community Community
in a forest in savanna
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CHAPTER 3

Oct’2020 – Feb’2021
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Ecological niche - biological role played by a
species in its community, or the sum total of
its use of the biotic and abiotic resources
of its habitat.

A habitat is the address; the niche is a

profession; how it fits into an ecosystem.

Example ; the niche of a tropical tree lizards

Niche include the temperature range its include ,
the size of branches on which its perch, the
time of the day it is active and the sizes and
type of insects it eats
 COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

Limiting resources limit the ecological niche of a

species.

Fundamental niche - the total range of

environmental conditions that are suitable for a
species existence without the effects of
interspecific competition and predation from
other species.

Realized niche -part of the fundamental

Niche niche that a species actually occupies.
Affected by competition
Can a species’ niche be influenced by
interspecific competition?

• Two barnacles species-that have a

stratified distribution on rocks along the
coast of Scotland.

• Chthamalus is usually found higher on

the rocks than Balanus.

• To determine whether the distribution of

Chthamalus is the result of interspecific
competition with Balanus, researcher
removed Balanus from the rocks at
several sites
Can a species’ niche be influenced by
interspecific competition?

• Result : Chthamalus spread into the region

formerly occupied by Balanus.

• Conclusion: Interspecific
competition makes the realized
niche of Chthamalus much smaller
that its fundamental niche.
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Resource partitioning -the niche is
partitioned into separate, minimal
overlapping differences in
resource use.

Species with reduced niche overlap

have reduced competition
because they have different
requirements for similar
resources.

Resource partitioning very often

results in species that
are specialists.
 COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

Resource partitioning among Dominican Republic lizards

7 species of Anolis lizards lived in close proximity, and all feed on insects and
small athropods.
However, competition for food is reduced because each lizard species has a
different preferred perch, thus occupying a distinct niche.
 COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

Resource partitioning in
Anolis lizards of the Dominica
Republic.
A. ricordii

A. alinigar
Each lizard forages for its
A. insolitus

arthropod prey in a different

A. christophei

part of the forest

A. distichus

A. cybotes

A. etheridgei
 COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

Competition leads to resource partitioning

Resource partitioning among 3 annual plants in

an abandoned field.

All require water and mineral ions but differ in

their adaptation for survival.
 COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
Character Displacement

• Character displacement is a tendency for

characteristics / particular traits to be more
divergent in sympatric populations of two species
than in allopatric populations of the same two
species.

• An example is variation in beak size between

populations of two species of Galápagos finches.
COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
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CHAPTER 3

Oct’2020 – Feb’2021
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Intra or interspecific Interaction
(Competition)
 Involve the interaction where two or more organisms in the same
space require the same resource.

 Food, water, nesting space, ground space.

 Interspecific or intraspecific biotic levels.

 Result of exploitation or interference.

 Intraspecific Exploitative
competition competition

Interspecific Interference
competition competition
Competition occurs
when individuals
of different species
or within same
species compete
for a resource that
limits their growth
and survival.
 COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

Intraspecific competition - Individuals compete with others of their own kind (that is,
members of their own species)

When populations grow, and individuals are therefore more closely packed, and/or
resources are scarcer.
 COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
Interspecific competition - Interaction between different species that
compete for a limit resources.
 COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
• Resource competition - Occurs when a
number of organisms utilize common
resources that are in short supply.

• An intraspecific/interspecific.

• All the individuals “share” the limited

resources, affected equally. None of them get
sufficient amount of resources.

• (no winners/losers) (0/0)

• Competitive Exclusion - a situation where no two competitively interacting
species can occupy exactly the same fundamental niche because of resource
limitations.

• Overlapping niche.

• The outcome – two species competing for the same limiting resources cannot
coexists permanently in the same place. In the absence of disturbance, one
species may use the resources more efficiently and reproduce more rapidly
than the other. A slight reproductive advantages will lead to local elimination of
the inferior competitor (local extinction the species that is a poorer competitor).
 COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

• INTERFERENCE COMPETITION - Occurs when the organisms seeking a resource

harm one another in the process.
• Inter/intraspecific.
• Intraspecific competition with dominant individuals get sufficient supply of the limited
resource.
• Also known as contest competition (fighting) (+/-)
COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

EXPLOITATIVE COMPETITION

All individuals have the equal

access to the resource but they
differ how fast or how efficiently
they can exploit it.
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CHAPTER 3

Oct’2020 – Feb’2021
COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
Interspecific Interaction (Predator-Prey)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dflq68GBoJY
 Predation
 A (+, -) interactions.
 A predator eats prey.
 Predation : A community interaction where one
species, the predator eats another, the prey.
 Herbivory, in which animals eat plants also
known as predator.
 Predator adaptations: many important feeding
adaptations of predators are both obvious and
familiar.
 Claws, teeth, fangs, poison, heat-sensing
organs, speed, and agility.
Mechanical Defense ; Hedgehog  Prey adaptation to defense against
predator.
Example : Defense Adaptations In Animals
 COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
Herbivory

• The act of eating plants

• Organisms that ate on plants are called herbivores – cows, goats,
rabbits, deers etc…
• Plants are chemically diverse and therefore herbivores are able to
distinguish between toxic and non-toxic plants.
 Herbivorous insects – chemical sensor on feet
 Mammalian herbivores – sense of smell, eat parts of plant,
special teeth and digestive system for processing vegetation
• Plants develop physical and chemical defence system to
reduce herbivory
 The presence of spines and thorns
 Poisonous compound such
as strychnine, tannins, nicotine and etc..
 Unpalatable taste – cinnamon, cloves,
peppermints and etc..
 COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
Strategies - Predators and Prey
Predation - predator feeds on the prey.

Strategies of Predators:

Pursuit predators - predators which chase their

prey. For example, Orcas or killer whale, which
hunts in packs, often herd salmon or tuna into a
cove so that they are easier to catch.

Ambush – camouflaged to avoid notice by their prey.

• For example, a various group deep sea fishes
called anglerfish have rodlike luminescent lures
close to their mouth to attract prey.
 COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
Defense against predation
• Secondary compounds (plants)
• Nutritional deficiencies (plants)
• Mechanical defenses (plants)
• Production of poisons (animals)
• Mechanical defenses (animals)
• Running away and hiding (animals)
• Fighting back (mostly animals)
• Cryptic coloration (mostly animals)
• Batesian mimicry (animals)
• Müllerian mimicry (animals)
 COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

Cryptic coloration

 Aposematic colors: Warn the predator that they (the prey) are distasteful.
 Cryptic colors: Hide the prey by blending it with its background.
Mimetic colors: one species to resemble another
species(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goQf5p64xRk)
 Batesian mimicry - the mimic (edible) looks like a
species that is not palatable (toxin)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/27yl8s/this_is_a_cater
pillar_not_a_snake_xpost_rwtf/
 COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
 Mimetic colors: one species to
resemble another species.
 Mullerian mimicry -mimics are all
inedible, but are too rare for the
predator to learn to avoid them, so
they look like one another so that
the predator thinks of all of them
as a single, poisonous type of
prey. This is done so that the
phenotype to be avoided is
reinforced in the mind of the
predator
 COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
Some preys adapt to certain behaviors in order
to avoid predators.

 Catalepsis - prey playing dead so that the

predator ignores the prey.

 Intimidation display: an attempt to avoid

predation by startling the predator long
enough to get away or to convince it that the
prey will be too costly to attack. For example,
many large eye-like patches on moth wings
are felt to be useful to startle predators Pterochroza sp.
 COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
Chemical defenses in prey either make the prey too toxic
or smelly or too distasteful to eat.
 Toxins can poison the predator, but this often does not save the prey (only the
next prey the poisoned predator never eats). This strategy will only work for an
individual if it is aposematically colored as the predator must know before it kills
the prey that it is toxic.

 Fighting chemicals can be used to harm a predator. For example, bombardier

beetles explosively eject liquids to startle predators into releasing them and
termites guard the nest and spray attacking insects with disorienting chemicals

 Some chemicals are distasteful and once again, aposematic coloration is

needed as an advertisement of the prey's distastefulness.
Click The
Plant defenses against predation
Video
• Plant predators are called herbivores.
Typically a plant and other stationary
organisms will not manage to achieve
complete avoidance of predation, but
instead will limit predation to those
organisms which possess appropriate
morphological or biochemical adaptations.

• Herbivores can be big as cows and as well as

small insects, fungi and bacteria. Thus, more
than one defense is typically necessary to
defeat all possible predators

• Plant defenses against predation include

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hja0SLs2kus
secondary compounds, nutritional
deficiencies and mechanical defenses.
COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
CHAPTER 3

Oct’2020 – Feb’2021
COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
 Symbiosis

Symbiosis is a form of interspecific interaction

in which a host species and a symbiont
maintain a close association.
May be parasitism, commensalism or
mutualism.

Commensalism is a (+,0) interaction in

which the symbiont benefits and the host is
Commensalism between cattle egrets and
African buffalo unaffected.
Cattle egrets feed on insects flushed out of
the grass by grazing herbivores. They eat e.g : algae that live on the shells of
ticks and other ectoparasites from the
herviroes aquatic turtles or
barnacles that attach to whales
 Symbiosis

Symbiosis is a form of interspecific

interaction in which a host species
and a symbiont maintain a close
association.
May be parasitism, commensalism
or mutualism.
Mutualism is a (+,+) interaction
requiring the evolution of
adaptation in both species. A
change in either species is likely to
affect the survival and reproduction
of the other. Ants feed on nectar produced by the tree; ants will
remove fungal spores, small herbivores and debris
CLICK
HERE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm2qdxVVRm4
 Parasitism

A (+,-) interaction in which one organism, the

parasite, derives its nourishment from another
Ticks on head scalp
organism, the host, which is harm in some
way.
In parasitism, parasites live on/in a host and
depend on the host for nutrition.
- endoparasites live within the host tissues or
body cavities.
-ectoparasites attach to or briefly feed on the
Nematod worms inside
external surface of the host. intestine
 Parasites and pathogens as predators

A parasite derives nourishment from a host, which is

harmed in the process.
Endoparasites live inside the host and ectoparasites live
A wasp lays eggs on the surface of the host.
inside a caterpillar
Parasitoidism is a special type of parasitism where the
parasite eventually kills the host.
Parasitoidism parasites lay eggs on the eggs hole or the
body of the host
Pathogens are disease-causing organisms that can be
considered predators.
https://www.thinglink.com/scene/57875750449892557
0 by Elizabeth Philips, 2014
 Diseases

Sudden oak death due to Phytophora

ramora infestastion

• Similar interaction as parasitism

resulted with +/-
• Involves microscopic organisms called
pathogen – disease-causing agents
– lethal effect! Banana tree affected by Banana
• Ex: bacteria, viruses, fungi, prions Bunchy Top Virus
COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
CHAPTER 3

Oct’2020 – Feb’2021
COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
 Features of community structure
PLANTS COMMUNITIES

Community in grassland

• How many different species in these

communities?
• Which species is more abundant that Community in tundra

others?
 Features of community structure
ANIMALS COMMUNITIES

Is there any relationship among

species in the community?
 Features of community structure
Community structure is based on two fundamental features:
Species diversity & Feeding relationship

• Species richness
Species Diversity  Total number of different species in the community
- The variety of different species that • Relative abundance
makes up the community  The proportion of each species in ratio to total
individuals

Feeding relationship • Food chain

 Transfer of food from producers to consumers in a single
- Interaction between species in the chain
community based on food • Food web
consumption  Transfer of food from producers to many consumers in a
complex chains
Species Diversity

Species richness

Community 1 = 4 species
Community 2 = 4 species

Species richness in both

communities is the same!

Relative abundancy (RA)

Community 1 = all species has

similar abundancy

Community 2 = species A is more

abundant than others

RA = total number of individual species A X 100

total number of individuals in the community
 CLICK HERE IF THE
VIDEO NOT
AUTOPLAY
Feeding relationship
Feeding relationship
An Antarctic Marine Food Web
Factors influence the community structure

Invasive Keystone
species species

Dominant Foundation
species species

COMMUNITY
 • Species that has the highest number of
individuals in the community or have the highest
biomass (the total mass of all individuals in a
population)
Dominant • Species has better exploitation on the limited
species resources
• Species that most successfully to avoid predation
Sugar maple and disease
• Removal of dominant species not necessarily
impact the community
 • Foreign species introduced to the community and
later on reproduced abundantly – disrupt ecosystem
dynamics such as become pests
• Often lack predators or disease pathogens
• Usually exploited the natural resources very fast
• Commonly resulted with elimination of local species
Invasive
species

Kudzu – invasive species

https://www.mybis.gov.my/pd/319
 • Species exert strong control on community structure
not because of high abundancy but by its ecological
Keystone role, or niches
species • Ex: the role of sea star Pisaster ochraceus in controlling the
population of mussels and the role of sea otters in
controlling populations of sea urchin benefits kelp forest
Sea star eating mussel – keystone species
EXPERIMENT

Seastar are keystone

predators.
They are key in
preserving species
diversity in their
ecosystem.

RESULTS
Number of species

20

With Pisaster (control)

present

15

10

5 Without Pisaster (experimental)

0
1963 ’64 ’65 ’66 ’67 ’68 ’69 ’70 ’71 ’72 ’73
Year
 100

(% max. count)
Otter number
80
60
40
20
0 Sea otters are
(a) Sea otter abundance
keystone predators
400 in the North Pacific

Grams per
300

0.25 m2
200
100
0
(b) Sea urchin biomass

10
Number per

8
0.25 m2

6
4
2
0
1972 1985 1989 1993 1997
Year
(c) Total kelp density
Food chain
 • Species that cause physical changes in
the environment through their
Foundation behaviour
species
• Ex: behaviour of beaver in building a
Beaver dam – foundation species
small dam transform the landscape of
the environment
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CHAPTER 3

Oct’2020 – Feb’2021
COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
 Ecological succession

• A stable community refers to a constant composition of species although under disturbance.

• Stable community is rare in nature because disturbance causes for ecological damages and negative
affects the communities.

• Disturbance is divided into:

 Natural disturbance ; storm, heat wave, drought, flood, volcano
 Human disturbance ; agricultural activities, deforestation, housing development, domestic and
industrial waste

• Disturbed communities may be destroyed completely but the recovery process goes slowly and
gradually.
• The process where the disturbed area is recolonized gradually by the new species is called ecologica
succession.
Types of succession

Secondary succession

Starts from disturbed area which still have

Starts from disturbed area which still have
intact soil surface
intact soil surface
Firstly colonize by herbaceous plants,
Firstly colonize by herbaceous plants, weedy
weedy grass, shrubs and big tress.
grass, shrubs and big tress.
Insects and other animals came!
Primary succession Insects and other animals came.

Begins with lifeless area, soil is not formed yet

Autotrophic prokaryotes
Begins with lifeless follow
area, soil is notby lichens
formed
yet
Lichens form soil, facilitate the growth of plants
Autotrophic
Mosses, prokaryotes
grasses, shrubsfollows by lichens big trees,
and eventually
insects
Mosses,and big animals
grasses, came!
shrubs and eventually big
 General Process of Succession

Facilitate the
arrival of later
species
by making the Alter the soil
environment properties and
favourable permit Species of high
the arrival of other independency and
species tolerable among
by making the others
environment more
and more
favourable
 Ecological succession is the sequence of
community changes after a disturbance

 Ecological succession is the transition in species composition over ecological

time.
 Primary succesion begins in a lifeless area where soil has not yet formed.
 Secondary succession if an existing community has been cleared by some
disturbance that leaves the soil intact (e.g. abandoned agricultural fields)
The community passes through a series of predictable transitional stages
to reach a relatively stable state, the climax community.
 Primary succession-Example
 Initial – prokaryotes and protists
 Lichens and mosses grow from the windblown spores (first
macroscopic photosynthesize)
 Soil develop gradually as rock weather and organic matter accumulates
from the decomposed remains of the early colonizers
 Once soil is present , the lichens ad mosses are overgrown by grasses,
shrubs and trees that sprout from the seed blown by nearby areas or
carried in by animals
 The area is colonized by plants that become the
community’s dominant form of vegetation
 Primary succession
 It begins with bare rock and takes a very long time to occur. Weathering by
wind and rain plus the actions of primary successors or pioneer species
such as lichens and mosses begin the buildup of soil.

Herbaceous plants, including the grasses, grow on deeper

soil and shade out shorter pioneer species.

Pine trees or deciduous trees eventually take root and in most biomes will
form a climax community of plants that are stable in the environment.

The young produced by climax species can live in that environment, unlike
the young produced by successional species.
 Primary succession-Example
1) The exposed glacial
moraine is colonized first
by pioneering species(
liverworts)
2) After three decades,
Dryas dominate the plant
community
3) The area invaded by alder
( dense thick 9 m tall)
4) Two centuries, alder
overgrown first by spruce Glacial retreat and primary succession at Glacier Bay, Alaska
Example
Primary succession of bare rock
Example
 Secondary succession
 Secondary Succession can be defined as the growth of the community
in such area which was previously occupied, inhabited and that has
primary vegetation but got disturbed or damaged due to some
external or internal factors.

It occurs when an environment has been disturbed. This form of

succession often begins in an abandoned field with soil layers already
in place.
 Compared to primary succession, which must take long periods of time to
build or accumulate soil, secondary succession occurs rapidly. The
herbaceous pioneering plants give way to pines, which in turn may give
way to a hardwood deciduous forest
 Click here if video
not auto play

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqEUzgVAF6g
(a) Soon after fire (b) One year after fire

The large-scale fire in Yellowstone National Park in 1988

demonstrated that communities can often respond very rapidly
to a massive disturbance.
Climax communities tend to be more stable
than successional communities. Early stages of
succession show most growth and are most
productive.

Pioneer communities lack diversity, make poor

use of inputs, and lose heat and nutrients. As
succession proceeds, species variety increases
and nutrients are recycled more. Climax
communities make fuller use of inputs and are
such that the same species can continue to
maintain themselves, thus, they are more stable.

Human activity such as clearing a climax forest

community to set up a farm field consisting of a
cultivated pioneering species, such as corn or oil
palm trees replaces climax communities with
simpler communities.
 Comparison Table Retrieved from
https://biodifferences.com/difference-between-primary-succession-
and-secondary-succession.html
 Thank You
• Q&A
• Next slides = review and discuss with your
friends
Review
 Review
You should now be able to:
1. Distinguish between the following sets of
terms: competition, predation, herbivory,
symbiosis; fundamental and realized niche;
cryptic and aposematic coloration;
Batesian mimicry and Müllerian mimicry;
parasitism, mutualism, and commensalism;
endoparasites and ectoparasites; species
richness and relative abundance; food
chain and food web; primary and
secondary succession.
2. Define an ecological niche and explain
the competitive exclusion principle in
terms of the niche concept.
3. Explain how dominant and keystone
species exert strong control on
community structure.