BIO SCI 94 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Pisaster, California Mussel, Keystone Species

• School: UC-Irvine
• Department: Biological Sciences
• Course: BIO SCI 94
• Professor: Robin Bush

Document Summary

Discuss the various interactions among species, such as competition, consumption, and mutualism particular area. A biological community consists of the species that interact with one another within a. Community ecologists study the nature and consequences of the interactions among species in a community. Species act as agents of natural selection on other species: commensalism- occurs when one species benefits but the other species is unaffected, competition- when individuals use the same resources, resulting in lower fitness for both. Niche- the range of resources that the species can use and the range of conditions it can tolerate. More broadly, the role that species play in its ecosystem. Functional role of a species in its community. What it does, what it eats, who eats it, where it lives, how much of resources it uses, how much and type of waste it produces, what its parasites are, etc. Convergent evolution often reflects adaptation to similar niches.