BIOL208 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Species Pool, Keystone Species, Competitive Exclusion Principle
2 May 2016
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Document Summary
Aspects of environmental structure that are important to one group of organisms may not be important to another group. Ecological knowledge is required to predict structural complexity. Competitive exclusion principle - coexisting species have different niches. Warbler example: birds that share space on the same type of tree. Warbler diversity increased as stature of vegetation increased. Specifically, diversity was at a maximum when the greatest foliage volume was above 6 meters. High plant diversity can explain a lot of animal diversity, but it is hard to explain primary producer diversity. Primary producers like plants and algae violate the competitive exclusion principle. Ultimately, it is related to their ability to uptake nutrients, particularly when resource distribution is heterogeneous. A community is made up of the regional species pool, the environment, and biotic and abiotic factors in the community. The structure of these factors affects the community. Food webs: indicate how food is acquired, show competition, predation, parasitism and mutualism.
