Community Ecology

Community Ecology will be the final topic covered on the First Midterm (Monday's lecture will be included on the exam). You are responsible for the material on pages 1198 - 1210 on this exam. You are NOT responsible for any material on Ecosystems on this exam.

Suggested Readings

Community Ecology- http://www.eoearth.org/article/Community_ecology

Competition- http://www.eoearth.org/article/Competition

Interspecific Competition- http://www.eoearth.org/article/Interspecific_competition

Exploitative Competition- http://www.eoearth.org/article/Exploitative_competition

Predation- http://www.eoearth.org/article/Predation

Mutualism- http://www.eoearth.org/article/Mutualism

Expected Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course a fully engaged student should be able to

- define competition, exploitative competition and interference competition

- identify and explain examples of exploitative and interference competition from a variety of environments

- define predation (narrow and broad sense), herbivory, and parasitms

- identify and explain examples of predation, herbivory, and parasitism from a variety of environments

- identify examples of morphological and behavioral adaptations that animals have to help capture their food

- identify examples of morphological, biochemical, or behavioral adaptations that animals have to protect them from predators

- identify and explain examples of mutualisms from a variety of habitats

- explain the results of Connell's experiment examining competition between two species of barnacles (Fig. 54.3) and Paine's experiment examining predation by the starfish Pisaster (Fig. 54.15)

- define a keystone species and an ecosystem engineer and provide examples of each.

Past Test Questions (answers at bottom of post)

In the southeastern United States, a weedy plant called Kudzu has caused a great deal of problems. Because Kudzu has such high growth rates it is able to rapidly overgrow buildings and other plants.

1. Which of the following would best describe the ecological relationship between Kudzu and a species of pine tree that is commonly overgrown by Kudzu?
(a) mutualism
(b) parasitism
(c) exploitative competition
(d) herbivory
(e) none of the above

Answer- 1. c