Community Interactions
Vocabulary Habitat: the area where an organism lives, including biotic and abiotic factors Niche: full range of physical and biological conditions an organism lives in plus how it uses them, includes: Place in the habitat Place in the food web Range of temperature needed for survival Physical conditions necessary for survival When and how reproduction occurs
Resource Partitioning Within an ecosystem, there is competition for resources Water, nutrients, light, food, or space By occupying different niches, organisms avoid competition Example: Spruce tree habitat/different species of warblers
3 types of community interactions Competition- Same or different species attempting to use the same resource Predation- one organism hunting and killing/eating another one Symbiosis- Two species living closely together Three types- mutualism, commensalism, parasitism
Mutualism +/+ Both species benefit from the interaction Honeybees/plants Remora/shark Sea anemone/clown fish Humans/intestinal bacteria
Commensalism +/0 One species benefits while the other is unaffected Barnacle/whale Orchids/trees
Parasitism +/-- One organism benefits by harming the other Tapeworms/human Flea/dog Lice/human