ZOOLOGY 651 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Niche Differentiation, Dynamic Equilibrium, Climax Community
22 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
Where did all this diversity on earth come from? niche partitioning, competition is implicit. Vegetation distribution variation in climate: local conditions vary by temperature, rainfall, seasonality. Need to specialize to adapt to specific climatic conditions soils disturbance succession: recovery from disturbance. Disturbance eliminates plant biomass, allowing for succession. Succession: tree blows over in forest creates a gap. Gap has resources, opportunities for other life to colonize the gap sprinters: opportunistic, fast-growing species invade the gap and grow quickly r-selected characteristics: Marathon runners: more competitive plants and animals invade and replace early species forest gradually returns to its original state succession after natural disturbances is a pattern usually follows sequence primary or secondary. New soil long period of time example: landslides, volcanoes, sand dunes secondary: previously existing vegetation soil already present faster example: logging. Old field succession: perennial herbs and grasses begin to replace the pioneer weeds sprinters: shade-intolerant fast-growing.
