1. Habitat and Niche and Community Interactions

2. Habitat
A habitat can be described as all of the biotic and abiotic factors in an area where an organism lives.

3. Niche
An ecological niche is composed of all the physical, chemical, and biological factors that a species needs to survive, stay healthy, and reproduce.
A niche includes:
Food
Abiotic conditions
Behavior

4. Competitive Exclusion
The principle of competitive exclusion states that when two species are competing for the same resources, one species will be better suited for the niche, and the other species will be pushed into another niche or become extinct.
Can result in:
Niche Partitioning
Evolutionary Response

5. Ecological Equivalents
Ecological equivalents are species that occupy similar niches but live in different geographical regions

6. Community Interactions
Competition
Predation
Symbiosis
Mutualism
Commensalism
Parasitism

7. Competition
Competition occurs when two organisms fight for the same limited resources.
Two types
Interspecific competition (2 species compete)
Intraspecific competition (competition within a species)

8. Predation
Predation is the process by which one organism captures and feeds upon another organism.

9. Symbiosis
Symbiosis is a close ecological relationship between two or more organisms of different species that live in direct contact with one another.
Three types:
Mutualism
Commensalism
Parasitism

10. Mutualism
Mutualism is an interspecies interaction in which both organisms benefit from one another.
Example – bees and flowers

11. Commensalism
Commensalism is a relationship between two organism in which one organism benefits from another while the other neither benefits nor is harmed.
Example – whale and barnacles

12. Parasitism
Parasitism is a relationship similar to predation in that one organism benefits while the other is harmed.
Example – human and tape worm