BIO-8 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Volatile Organic Compound, Habitat Destruction, Character Displacement
Document Summary
Many, weak, pairwise interactions that are hard to detect individually. Where n is number of transplanted species. C is the mean dry weight of species i in cleared areas. And u is the mean dry weight of transplanted species in the uncleared areas. The measure is the average loss of biomass due to diffuse competition among species in the community. Competition can drive some species to local extinction: competitive release: following the loss of a competing species, can lead to increased productivity, distribution and abundance for the remaining species. Predator populations appear to track prey populations: a classic example of this phenomenon is the lynx-hare pattern. Herbivory by introduced species can cause serious habitat destruction. Herbivory can be sufficiently extensive to have global change consequence. What controls global diversity of herbivores: can be related to the nature of the local plant quality, can strongly affect species composition, predation can have top-down effects.
