1. Community Ecology - Module 5 Dr. James Danoff-Burg Columbia University

2. Community Ecology Next step up the ecological hierarchy from populations Definition: A population of species co- occurring populations Together, they comprise the biotic component of the ecosystem

3. Community Function More than a Collective properties of participant species Emergent properties –ecosystem stability –limits to similarity of competing species

4. Community Drama Players Producers (Module 6) –Primarily plants and bacteria Consumers (Module 7) –Herbivores, Predators, Parasites, Parasitoids, Mutualists Decomposers (Module 8) –Vertebrates, Invertebrates, Fungi, Bacteria

5. Community Features Richness Abundance Diversity Evenness Community Similarity Trophic Levels Feeding Guilds Endemism Vertical Structure

6. Community Features Richness –number of species Abundance –number of individuals –either per species or gross abundance

7. Richness and Abundance Most commonly used features of community for summarizing Most intuitive BUT Could provide misleading results Why?

8. Problems w/ Richness & Abundance Edge species are often invasive/exotic, anthropophilic, and are everywhere May lead people to conserve areas that are less important Do not take into account endemicity

9. Other Community Features Trophic Levels Feeding Guilds Evenness of species Community Similarities Vertical & Horizontal Structuring Diversity (next most commonly used)

10. Diversity Indices Definition –Combination of richness & abundance, combine these data in different fashions –Information Theory based (assessing certainty of sampling all species present) Sensitivities –Unevenness in abundance often leads to strange results (e.g., deer herbivory study) –Unequal collecting effort

11. Diversity Indices Methodology –enter data, calculate indices –general comparison of relative sizes –some advocate for parametric statistics Common Indices –Shannon-Wiener –Simpson –Brilluoin –Fisher’s alpha

12. Today’s Activity - Brazil What is the influence of plant biodiversity in home gardens on that of beneficial and harmful insects? Could advocate for intercropping, a more sustainable form of farming

13. Methods Sample insects using pan traps (water, salt, soap) Use three home gardens of different overall plant biodiversity

14. Methods II Remove insects from pan traps Isolate parasitoids Isolate homopterans Sort both to morphospecies Total richness and abundance Input into computer program Calculate diversity indices

15. Methods III Compare plots to each other Make bar graphs of values and indices Use photos: sites, process, and animals Write up a paper of the class Use PowerPoint Football at 5:30