How Resource Competition Impacts The Ecology Of An Assortment Of Species

c) The population dynamics of species A lags behind species B because the predator’s food needs to be abundant in order for its population to increase. As the prey population increases, it creates the food resource necessary for an increase in the predator population. As the predator population increases, more prey are killed and less food becomes available, resulting in a decreased predator population. The cycle can start again when the population of prey increases yet again.

The article discussed the changes in many habitats due to anthropogenic activity. Anthropogenic is an adjective that describes changes in nature due to the people. Next, this article discussed climate change and the impact that it is having on species like clams, and fish due to ocean temperatures rising. The article also addressed carbon dating of fossils to look for cause of extinctions. Human development and agriculture have had a tremendous impact on the population of many species that are terrestrial. Deforestation is a big problem that has caused a decline in the bird species. Commercial fishing in many areas has led to a decline in fish populations. Furthermore this article

This report discusses an experiment to study the relationship between the ecological niche and competition. The hypothesis formulated states that if competition traits are identical and resources are abundant than multiple species will be able to coexist, and if one species has an advantage over the others than this species will be more likely to out compete another species for resources. The objective of this experiment is to use a simulation model of a rabbit pen containing four different “species” of rabbits. The model establishes rules for each species that are based on a number of important characteristics reflecting their ecological niches and their competitive abilities. These

Since organisms living in communities form interdependent relationships, a change in the abundance of one species will not only affect the physical and more direct interactions, but could indirectly affect the number of other species within the community as a consequence (Wootton 1993). These indirect affects rise because the interactions between pairs of species are not independent of other species, such as increasing the density of vegetation may increase the survival rate of the prey, reducing the intensity of the interaction between the predator and prey (Wootton 1993, 1994). An

Sea otters (Enhydra lutris) are marine mammals capable of spending their entire lives in water. Being carnivorous in nature, they feed on sea urchins, crabs, fishes, mussels and clams. They are referred to as keystone species due to their profound impact on marine ecology. The interaction between sea otters, sea urchins and kelp forests has been studied as a model for the impact of predator-prey interactions on community ecology. Sea otters are keystone predators, whose presence has a far-reaching influence on the marine food web by affecting the populations of sea urchins, which indirectly affects the populations of kelp

3.The difference between population density and population distribution is vast. While population density is the number of individuals is the number of individuals per unit area, population distribution is described to be the pattern of dispersal of individuals across an area of interest.

Within communities, organisms compete for limited resources (food, space, mates, shelter). 613 of our native species (plants, birds, fish), compete with 240 introduced plant species, 19 introduced bird species, 9 introduced mammals and 2 amphibians. It is estimated that we have lost 30 native bird species due to this competition.

Unlike dominant species, a species that greatly affects a community due to its large biomass or abundance, keystone species are usually not the most abundant species in a community. Even though they are present in relatively small numbers, the individuals of a keystone species profoundly influence the entire community because they often effect the amount of available resources. Therefore, although both dominant and keystone species greatly affect a community, the removal of a keystone species can cause an ecosystem to collapse due to their small numbers and

Mendoza, J. E., Peery, M. Z., Gutiérrez, G. A., Herrera, G., & Pauli, J. N. (2014). Resource use by the two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni) and the three-toed sloth (Bradypus variegatus) differs in a shade-grown agro-ecosystem. Journal of Tropical Ecology,31(01), 49-55.

One example of cooperation is that of the queen trigger fish and the bar jack. Trigger fish feed on invertebrates like crabs, and shell fish, while the bar jack feeds on other fish. Becuase the trigger fish does not eat fish, other fish are not threatened by them. So the bar jack hides behing the trigger fish so it can get closer to its prey without being detected. A good example of competition is that of fighting corals. Because coral rely on sunlight, there is often competition between them for acess to this reasource. This can be seen in the DMZ's. These are areas were "corals have met, done battle, and withdrawn. This is an obvious space where neither coral ventures, having concluded that furthur conflict is not worth the cost."

The presence of herbivores has greatly altered the population density of the barnacles on Island B in comparison with Island A. While the population density of Chthamalus dalli has remained the same as on Island A, the population of Balanus glandula severely decreased (less than 10 percent coverage of the intertidal zone). Since only the population of Balanus glandula contrasts between the islands, it is most likely that the invasive herbivore species was only in completion with Balanus glandula and pushed the species out of its original habitat. These effects may be an example of the competitive exclusion principle, a hypothesis that no two species indefinitely occupy the same niche in the same community, and therefore are not able to coexist.

The exact scenario changes in each example, but the central idea remains that through a chain of interactions, a non-abundant species has an outsized impact on ecosystem functions.

According to Van Driesche, nonnative species are more likely to establish if they invade habitats with lowered biotic resistance, encounter prey with poorly developed mechanisms of self-defense, or invade habitats unaccompanied by their specialized natural enemies or when their invasion is facilitated by earlier invaders (2000).  Damage to these communities, then, can be seen both in cumulative effects and in a cycle of self-reinforcement.  Although pristine environments are still at risk from invasion, this positive feedback loop makes habitats already with a disturbance by exotics even more vulnerable to other invasions.

In any ecosystem, I tend to believe that everything lives in harmony. However, even in our small desert biosphere, there was competition. Both cacti root systems were very extensive but the Pigmyweed had the same sized root system

Species C is causing a population decline in Species B but has no effect on species A. Species A and C don't have any effect on each other because they could have different nutritional diets and live in different niches. Species B is very similar