BIOL 2101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Ecotone, Climax Community, Species Richness
Document Summary
Community ecology is the study of the interaction of organisms and how those interactions drive the abundance of those organisms. Group of organisms that live together at the same place and time and interact directly or indirectly: directly (predator-prey, indirectly (an organism eats the same organism as another one) A community includes all of the interacting organisms present plants, animals, fungi, bacteria: any living organism that plays a role in these direct or indirect actions in included in the community. Common interactions within a community are pollination and predation. You need to know about a variety of topics to study community ecology. Community ecologists study things on a broader scale. They care about the interaction of the organisms and how they drive the abundance of the organisms. Need to know where these interactions occur. Borders between communities can be abrupt: study activities in one community and amongst communities. Often there is a gradual transition from one community to another.