Chapter 37 Study Guide
Chapter 37 Communities and Ecosystems Study Guide
A 4-mm-long wasp called Apanteles glomeratus stabs through the skin of a caterpillar and lays her eggs; Yet another wasp, a chalcid, may lay its eggs inside the ichneumon larvae.
Structural Features of Communities
Communities are characterized by species diversity, dominant species, response to disturbance, and trophic structure interspecific competition Competition between individuals or populations of two or more species requiring a limited resource; may inhibit population growth and help structure communities competitive exclusion principle The concept that populations of two species cannot coexist in a community if their niches are nearly identical. Using resources more efficiently and having a reproductive advantage, one of the populations will eventually outcompete and eliminate the other resource partitioning The division of environmental resources by coexisting species such that the niche of each species differs by one or more significant factors from the niches of all coexisting species niche A population’s role in its community; the sum total of a population’s use of the biotic and abiotic resources of its habitat predation An interaction between species in which one species, the predator, eats the other, the prey;
The adaptations of both predators and prey tend to be refined through natural selection; Some prey gain protection through camouflage and mimicry
Batesian mimicry A type of mimicry in which a species that a predator can eat looks like a different species that is poisonous or otherwise harmful to the predator
Müllerian mimicry A mutual mimicry by two species, both of which are poisonous or otherwise harmful to a predator keystone species A species that is not usually abundant in a community yet exerts strong control on community structure by the nature of its ecological role or niche;
1) Piaster is a keystone predator that reduces the density of the strongest competitors in the
A 4-mm-long wasp called Apanteles glomeratus stabs through the skin of a caterpillar and lays her eggs; Yet another wasp, a chalcid, may lay its eggs inside the ichneumon larvae.
Structural Features of Communities
Communities are characterized by species diversity, dominant species, response to disturbance, and trophic structure interspecific competition Competition between individuals or populations of two or more species requiring a limited resource; may inhibit population growth and help structure communities competitive exclusion principle The concept that populations of two species cannot coexist in a community if their niches are nearly identical. Using resources more efficiently and having a reproductive advantage, one of the populations will eventually outcompete and eliminate the other resource partitioning The division of environmental resources by coexisting species such that the niche of each species differs by one or more significant factors from the niches of all coexisting species niche A population’s role in its community; the sum total of a population’s use of the biotic and abiotic resources of its habitat predation An interaction between species in which one species, the predator, eats the other, the prey;
The adaptations of both predators and prey tend to be refined through natural selection; Some prey gain protection through camouflage and mimicry
Batesian mimicry A type of mimicry in which a species that a predator can eat looks like a different species that is poisonous or otherwise harmful to the predator
Müllerian mimicry A mutual mimicry by two species, both of which are poisonous or otherwise harmful to a predator keystone species A species that is not usually abundant in a community yet exerts strong control on community structure by the nature of its ecological role or niche;
1) Piaster is a keystone predator that reduces the density of the strongest competitors in the