1. Competition & Niche Utilization

2. Nature exists at several levels of complexity

3. What is a niche? No 2 species can occupy the same niche!!
Sometimes it’s referred to as an organism’s “job”.
It’s the organism’s role in the ecosystem.
It describes how an organism uses and affects others use of resources.
No 2 species can occupy the same niche!!

4. Competition Competition:
the struggle of individuals to obtain a limiting resource .

5. Resource Partitioning

6. Temporal Partitioning

7. Spacial Partitioning

8. Spacial Partitioning

9. Spacial Partitioning

10. Morphological Partitioning

11. Predation Predation True predators - kill their prey.
Herbivores - consume plants as prey.
Parasites - live on or in the organism they consume.
Parasitoids - lay eggs inside other organisms.

12. Mutualism
Bird
Fish
Mutualism - A type of interspecific interaction where both species benefit.

13. Commensalism
Commensalism - a type of relationship in which one species benefits but the other is neither harmed nor helped.

15. Keystone Species
Keystone species - a species that plays a role in its community that is far more important than its relative abundance might suggest.

16. Keystone Species