BIOB50H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Species Pool, Niche Differentiation, Species Richness
13 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
Communities in tropics have many more tree species than those at higher latitude. Many different species coexist to form a community. The distribution and abundance of organisms within communities are dependent on 3 interacting factors: (1) regional species pools and dispersal ability (2) abiotic conditions and (3) specie interactions. These 3 factors act as filter to exclude or include species in a community. Specie supply is the first cut to community membership: figure 19. 4 and 19. 5. Regional species pool provide an absolute upper limit on the numbers and types of species that can be present within communities. Region of high specie richness tend to have communities of high specie richness. This relation is due to the role of regional species pool and more specifically the role of dispersal in supplying species to the communities. This is seen in invasion by non-native species. Human have increased the regional species pool by acting as a dispersal vector.
