Term | Definition |
Community | Two or more populations of different species occupying the same geographical area |
• Community Ecology | The study of how different species interact within communities |
• Habitat | The physical place where an organism lives, e.g. a pine forest or fresh water lake.
(Some organisms, particularly migratory birds require more than one habitat) |
• Niche | The functional role of an organism in a community, its job or position |
Potential niche | What a species could do with no competitors or resource limitations |
Realized niche | The part of the fundamental niche that a species actually occupies in nature. (What a species really does due to competition and/or resource limitations) |
• Neutral species interaction | Two species that don't interact at all.
?-? |
• Commensalism | Beneficial to one species but neutral to another (birds that nest in trees, epiphytes (plants that grow on other plants)
:)-:| |
• Mutualism | Beneficial to both species(plants and their pollinators)
:)-:) |
• Parasitism | Benefits one species and is detrimental to another. (Note that the host is generally not killed)
:)-:( |
• Predation | Beneficial to one species and detrimental to another. In this case the prey is killed and eaten.
:)-:( |
Intraspecific competition | Competition among individuals of the same species |
Interspecific competition | Competition between different species |
The Theory of Competitive Exclusion | Species who utilize the same resources cannot coexist indefinitely - the "one niche, one species" concept. |
Resource partitioning | The resources are divided, permitting species with similar requirements to use the same resources in different areas, ways and/or times. |