Biology, Eighth Edition (Raven)

Chapter 56: Community Ecology

Learning Outcomes

• Describe the concept of a biological community and be able to cite several examples.
• Distinguish between individualistic concept of community and the holistic concept of community.
• Explain how an organism’s fundamantal niche differs from its realized niche and the importance of both fit into the organism’s habitat.
• Describe the effects of interspecific competition and how it can leads to competitive exclusion or species adaptation.
• Understand how predation affects prey population and ultimately evolution.
• Understand the principle of competitive exclusion and how there can be niche overlap where both species coexist.
• Explain how character displacement can alleviate competition.
• Understand the process of co-evolution and its advantages to both participants.
• Describe how an introduced species or elimination of a predator can perturb predator-prey cycles.
• Be able to cite examples of the co-evolutionary arms race.
• Describe the various ways in which plants defend themselves against being consumed by herbivores.
• Explain how some animals use plant secondary compounds in their own defense from predators.
• Differentiate between cryptic and aposematic coloration in terms of appearance, social habits, and selective advantages to other organisms.
• Differentiate between Batesian and Muellerian mimicry and give examples of each.
• Give examples of the various forms of symbiotic relationships and identify the category into which each should be placed.
• Explain how a parasite can manipulate its host behavior.
• Understand why it is difficult to differentiate between commensalism and mutualism, even though they are clearly different from one another by definition.
• Describe the intricacies of a parasitic relationship.
• Describe and give examples of the importance of a keystone species.
• Differentiate between primary and secondary succession and give examples of each.
• Describe how animals assemblages change in synchrony as vegetation changes during succession.
• Explain how a disturbance, either locally or widespread, can affect stability in a community.