Community Interactions EQ: What are Habitats, Niches, and Symbiotic relationships?

Habitat and Niche All organisms has to live somewhere. Where they originate from is called Native Habitat. Habitat: is location where an organism lives, uses resources, reproduces, and dies. It’s like a home address.

If habitat is an organism’s address, then Niche is its job or profession. Niche: a role that each species have within a community (an organism’s job) Some are producers (food and shelter) Some are food for others (rabbits) Some are population control (predator and diseases) Some are decomposers (cleaners) All organisms have a role or niche.

An unglamorous and unwanted niche of the beloved vulture…is it important?

Symbioses Nothing in nature “lives” alone; all have niches. i. Organisms always effect one-another = relationship. Symbioses: close relationship between different species. i. Example: flower and bees, clownfish and anemone, mosquitoes and human, lions and zebras.

There are five types of symbioses (relationship) Predation Parasitism Competition Mutualism Commensalism

Predation Predation: a relationship where one species eats another. (+/-) Animal eats animal (orcas and seals) Animal eats plant (deer and wildflowers) Plant eats animals (orchid and fly trap)

The two species involved are predator and prey. Predator: the species eating another species. (+) 1. Predators rely on: speed, strength, advance senses (sight, smell, hearing), stalking, poison, sharp body parts (claws, teeth, beaks), traps.

Prey: the species being consumed by the predator. (-) 1. Rely on: speed, agility, camouflage, poison, playing dead, armor, digging, flight, schooling. False warning, thorns

The most used defense is mimicry: animals color/appearance disguised as something else (camouflage). Blends in with surrounding. Pretends to look like something dangerous or poisonous.

Parasitism Parasitism: a relationship where one species uses another for nutrient; but does not kill. (+/-) Parasite: the species consuming the host. Host: the species providing nutrients for the parasite. i. Some parasites live on/in their host (worms, bacteria, fungus, chiggers, lice, crabs, fleas) ii. Parasites living off host: mosquitoes, mites, leeches.

Competition Competition: a relationship where two species need the same resource. (-/-) i. Food, water, living space, sunlight, nesting location, Competition will result in less resource for both species.

Mutualism Mutualism: a relationship where both species rely and benefit from each other (+/+) Sometimes relationship is so specialized that they cannot live without each other (termites and bacteria) Help each other feed, reproduce, escape predator, cleaning, protection.

Commensalism Commensalism: a relationship where one species benefit while having no effect on the other. (+/0) Species nor helped nor harmed. Example: Whales and barnacles Human and skin bacteria, Buffalo and egret