Community Interactions

     A community is an association of all the populations of species that occupy the same habitat. A habitat is the type of place where individuals of a species normally lives. Every species in the community has its own niche. A niche is the sum of all activities and relationships in which its individuals engages as they secure and use the resources required for their survival and reproduction.

Species Interactions

Commensalism

     Commensalism is ecological interaction between two (or more) species in which one benefits directly and the other is affected little, if at all.

Mutualism

     Mutualism is a symbiotic interation that benefits both participants. An example of mutualism would be like a bee and a flower. Both organisms are benefited from each other.

Parasitism

     Parasitism is the symbiotic interaction in which one species (a parasite) benefits and the other (its host) is harmed. The parasite lives in or on a host and feeds on its cells or tissues. An example of parasitism would be like a tick on a dog or cat.

Interspecific Competition

     Interspecific competition is the ecological interaction in which individuals that belong to different species compete for a share of resources in the same habitat.

Predation

     Predation is the ecological interaction in which a predator feeds on a prey organism. In this interaction, the predator do not reside in or on the prey. And example of this would be a Lynx and a snowshoe hare.

Competitive Interactions

Competative Exclusion

     Competitive exclusion is a theory that two or more species that require identical resources cannot coexist.

Resourse Partitioning

     Resource partitioning is when of two or more species that compete for the same resources, a sharing times, which allows then to coexist.

Climax-Pattern Model

     The climax-pattern model is the idea that physical conditions and other environmental factors often vary in their influence over a large region, so that stable communities other than the climax stage may also persist in that region.