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Community Ecology (Predator-Prey Interactions (1 predator, 1 prey (Two…
Community Ecology
Predator-Prey Interactions
Competition
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Interference Competition
Ex: Bracken ferns producing large leaves to gain more light than other smaller plants, blocking light for those plants.
Mathematical models have been constructed to study this more efficiently, but are often very complicated.
One organism restricts another organism's access to a resource.
Exploitation Competition
Makes a resource less available for an organism.
Very common form of competition.
Resource competition occurs due to two or more things using the same resource.
Selection among multiple prey
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3 factors
Decision by predator to attack.
Probability a prey will be eaten.
Probability a particular prey will be encountered.
Optimal foraging theory
Botanists and zoologists differ in points of view greatly here.
Examines factors between the 3 main factors of selection.
Optimal diet model
Makes 4 predictions
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If prey becomes scarce, the predator broadens its diet.
Some prey items will be eaten if encountered, others if needed.
Predators should prefer which prey yields most energy.
Probability a plant will be eaten depends on commanality of the plant in the area.
1 predator, 1 prey
Helps us human predators understand how we may better harvest our own prey.
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Two fundamental aspects
Handling time
Feeding rate
These aspects are critical to understanding these reactions.
The simplest system.
Functional Response
Combination of Handling time and Feeding time.
Prey-dependent
A predaotr's functional response. It is limited by amount of prey.
Diversity
Scale
Scale almost always plays a major part in community diversity.
Larger areas are more diverse.
Reasons for larger areas to have more diversity?
Variation in topography
Variation in geology
Variation in soil
More habitats.
More populations.
Several distinct sizes are used for different things.
Beta
Compares differences between several small sites within larger region.
Gamma
Number of species within a region
Alpha
Number of species that occur at a small site.
Latitude
Multiple theories as to why the phenomenon above occurs have been constructed.
Ecological explanations are somewhat satisfying but do not answer everything.
One answer is that the plants near the equator are descended from a longer line of plants, and have adapted more than "newer" polar latitude plants.
Polar lands have less diversity compared to equatorial lands.
New evidence
Until 50 million years go, Earth was much warmer.
The cooling of the Earth forced rapid evolutionary jumps to take place.
Evolutionary history seems to play a larger role than originally thought.
Temperate conditions are recent.
"To deny steak is to deny being an ascended individual." -A Wise Guy
