Principles of Animal Biology - Study Sheets
Community EcologyReturn to the Study Guides Index

The following questions will help you to review the material from the lecture, the laboratory, as well as the text.
  1. Describe the differences between ecosystem ecology, community ecology and population ecology.
  2. Define the concept of a community as used in ecology. Give examples of five different communities.
  3. What is biodiversity? What is the difference between species richness and relative abundance? What can they tell us about a specific community?
  4. Explain the process of coevolution. Use an example to illustrate your definition.
  5. What are the three major forces affecting the evolution of interactions within a given community?
  6. What is the role of competition within community?
  7. What is the difference between intraspecific and interspecific competition? Examples?
  8. What is sexual competition? How does sexual competition fit into the question above?
  9. Explain the competitive exclusion principle (Gause's experiment). Why is this principle important in ecology?
  10. Define niche. Why is this an important concept in community ecology?
  11. What exactly is a niche as used in biology? Use an animal (e.g. a Blue Jay) to explain what a niche is.
  12. What happens when two different species have exactly the same niche?
  13. What is resource partitioning? What is the connection between resource partitioning and the niche concept?
  14. Give two examples of resource partitioning.
  15. Use the acacia tree as an example of how many herbivores can coexist due to resource partitioning. Explain!
  16. What is the role of evolution and natural selection as related to resource partitioning in a community?
  17. Why is predation such an important force within a community? What is the difference between predation and parasitism?
  18. Do predators have an "easy" task in the community of organisms?
  19. What is the role of coevolution in a community? Use the Heliconius and passionflower vine as well as the bat/noctuid moth examples from your lecture to explain the concept of coevolution.
  20. Explain the concept of an evolutionary armsrace. Toxic Newts [video 6 minutes]
  21. Give several examples of the evolutionary consequences of predation for both plants and animals (mechanical, chemical and behavioral; camouflage examples from lecture as well as the text). Camouflage? [video 1 minute]
  22. What is aposematic coloration?
  23. What is the difference between Batesian vs Mullerian mimicry (give examples).
  24. What is the connection between biodiversity and predation?
  25. Define the concept of keystone predator and be able to explain their role in the community (Focus on the Sea otter example from lecture). Can you give examples of other keystone predators?
  26. What is the role of symbiosis in a community?
  27. Symbiotic relationships. Define parasitism, commensalism and mutualism. Can you give (as well as recognize) examples of each?
  28. Explain the phenomenon of mutualism with the help of the interactions between the Bull's Horn Acacia tree and the Pseudomyrmex ants.
  29. Describe the relationship between Leafcutter Ants and fungi as an example of mutualism.Acacia and Ant Mutualism [video 5 minutes]
  30. Is symbiosis as important as predation and competition? Why or why not?
  31. Are biological communities stable or do they change? Explain.
  32. Succession: definition. Can you distinguish between primary and secondary succession? Examples?

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Page created by: Peter Svensson
Updated: February 17,  2015