BIO331H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Multivariate Statistics, Ecology, Community Structure
Document Summary
Ecology = study of the processes that control the abundance, distribution, and diversity of species. Ecology is not the same as environmentalism. Testing hypotheses and predictions; not hunting for facts: hypothesis: a proposed explanation for an observed phenomenon that includes the mechanism producing the pattern (how?, prediction: specific outcome or pattern we can observe (what/when/where?) Can be expressed graphically to be more specific. Theory: general mathematical relationships that describe or about their form predict ecological patterns. Community ecology: adding in species; do species interact, look at level of species; species" traits and how it affects interaction with other species, individual of species x interact with individuals of species x and y. Plant communities can be physically defined by elevation and moisture and taxonomically defined by dominant vegetation types. Communities are defined based on geography, resource use, phylogeny: definition depends on what questions a researcher is interested in. Communities are often characterized based on their diversity and structure: e. g.