INDG 401 Lecture 10: Lecture 10
9 Jun 2018
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Department
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Lecture 10 – Primate community ecology : different kinds of
community organizations
Community
• the species that occur together in space and time
• / the plants animals, micro- organisms that are linked to one another by their feeding
relationships and other interactions forming complex network
o Vague definition because different for everyone/ all encompassing term
Why is it important
• Primates and logging : affecting the composition of the community – fruiting : positive or
negative effect. How will a community as a whole respond?
• Bush meat : what's happening the community? The bugger animals are going to get killed off
first/ hunted down and so the smaller ones pick up in numbers due to lowered competition
• Climate change : affect plants/ produce less or more fruit/ how does it affect the plant
community and thus the primate one?
• Diseases: Ebola – disease dynamics : relate back to community ecology
What makes up a community?
• Tropical forest community
• River : fish, vegetation along sides, the primates drinking from it – small
• Liken community : on the tree + the insects
• Birds : one taxonomic group in one location : narrow down the community group studied
• Communities of parasite within a closed system : from fish to bird and vice versa, cycle
Ecotone
• Regions of rapid replacement of species along a gradient
• Similarly vague to community definition, you can narrow it down depending on sub-topic
Disturbance of ecotone
o Disturbed area of ecotone defined in SPACE= the edge of the road / the trees found at
the edge of this road are typically trees that survive in disturbed areas and take down
certain other species (pioneer species – very small seeds, broadly dispersed and grow
quickly – the plant doesn’t devote time to toxins so hugely nutritiously beneficial to
animals)
o Ecotone in terms of TIME : usually after a disturbance
• Succession – sequential change in community composition subsequent to disturbance
• Climax community – the ultimate association of species associated : fallen out of favor because
things are always changing
• Disturbance examples : fires in forests or swamps / one big one that affects primates are
CYCLONES
• If pioneer plants come in after disturbance probably do really well due to very little secondary
compounds and create huge food supply : pros and cons to this disturbance concept?
RESTORATION ECOLOGY : new research concept– we've trashed so many of our forests and we can now
look around and save the monkeys one needs to save the forest/ small populations of primates will
ONLY survive if forest is regenerate to some point
Food Chain = abstract representation of the links between producers and consumer pops.(fig 8.1)
Food webs = a representation of feeding relationships in a community that includes all of the links
revealed by dietary analysis
Niche
• = role of an organism in the environment.; the activities and relationships of an organism in the
community
• An n-dimensional (n = number/as many as you want) hypervolume, every point in which
corresponds to a state of the environment which would permit the species to persist indefinitely
o Usually like simple definitions but prefer the second one because well rounded answer
• Diagram : water, sunlight, soil pH you give a plant -> best conditions in the middle of the graph
Primate Community Structure
1. Historical factors
o Glaciation periods: present vs 10,000 years ago – some primates will make it to certain
areas as opposed to others due to conditions/ historical factors influencing what species
are there and not
2. Determinants of individual species
o If the env. Provides that dietary needs to a certain species, you will find the species
where they occupy. (protein/fiber leaves)
o EXAMPLE: Red Colobos : leaf and protein/fiber levels must be high for these species –
also hae unexplained distributions across Africa and also vary with specific diets and
species of trees
3. Competitive interactions
o We've discussed the blue monkeys and mangabees before : BM = rare and M= very high
in numbers/ species competition has not been necessarily demonstrating over food
because we haven't noticed a limit in food
4. Possibly disease
Document Summary
Lecture 10 primate community ecology : different kinds of community organizations. Community the species that occur together in space and time. / the plants animals, micro- organisms that are linked to one another by their feeding relationships and other interactions forming complex network: vague definition because different for everyone/ all encompassing term. Why is it important: primates and logging : affecting the composition of the community fruiting : positive or negative effect. Liken community : on the tree + the insects. Ecotone: regions of rapid replacement of species along a gradient, similarly vague to community definition, you can narrow it down depending on sub-topic. Restoration ecology : new research concept we"ve trashed so many of our forests and we can now look around and save the monkeys one needs to save the forest/ small populations of primates will. Only survive if forest is regenerate to some point.
