Ecology Notes

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Ecology Notes

• Niches through Succession

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Habitat vs. Niche

• Habitat is the PLACE an organism lives.
• Niche is HOW an organism lives.

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Niches

• A niche is the full range of physical and
  biological conditions in which an organism lives
  and the way in which the organism uses those
  conditions.
• Physical conditions that a bullfrog requires to
  survive are part of its niche
• It also includes when and how it reproduces.

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Niches continued

• No two species can share the same niche in the
  same habitat, BUT they can occupy niches that are
  very similar.
• EX 3 different species of North American
  warblers can live in the SAME tree, but at
  different parts of the tree

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Examples of same habitat-different niche
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Community Interactions

• Competition
• Organisms compete for the same resource

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• Predation
• Organism must hunt and kill another organism for
  food.
• Prey must have ways to avoid being captured.

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Mimicry
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• Mutualism
• Organisms that benefit from a relationship with
  each other.
• EX. pollination

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• Commensalism
• One organism benefits from a relationship the
  other organism is neither harmed nor helped.

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• Parasitism
• A relationship in which one organism lives on or
  in another organism without immediately killing
  it.
• Defense skin, immune system, mucus, earwax

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Ecological Succession

• Gradual change in living communities that follows
  a disturbance

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Primary Succession

• Succession that occurs where NO soil exists!

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Primary Succession
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Secondary Succession