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Habitat and Niche
- An organism’s habitat is where it lives. It includes all the biotic and abiotic factors in the area where
it carries on all its life’s activities.
- An organism’s niche describes how it can live within this habitat. It includes:
- its ability to tolerate the physical, chemical, and biological factors in its habitat
- its behavior during the day or night, when, where, and how it reproduces, and so on
Predator-Prey Relationships
Two different kinds of organisms can be competing for the same abiotic and biotic factors. If one is
better at it than the other, then its survival rate may be higher and the other lower. In the outdoor
wildlife site there are golden garden spiders and Carolina mantis.
- “This garden spider can be found in a variety of habitats, but prefers sunny areas among
flowers and plants. They weave an orb web and typically eat small flying insects such as
aphids, flies, and grasshoppers. The eggs of this species hatch in the egg case in the autumn,
but the young spiders do not leave the egg case until the following spring. They reach
maturity by the next autumn, when they mate, lay eggs, and then die.” – Source @ ODNR
Division of Wildlife
- “Mantids are found in woodlands and meadows, especially around flowering plants.
Females lay their eggs in a case formed from a liquid foam secreted from abdominal glands.
The foam quickly hardens to form a protective shell. In temperate North America, all adult
mantids die in the winter, and only eggs survive to the following spring. Mantids are
ordinarily very sedentary, and may spend their whole lives on one tree or in a single
meadow. They will stay in one place as long as there is a good supply of food. In late summer
males start to move around more, looking for potential mates. Males fly more than females,
usually at night. Mantids eat all kinds of insects and spiders, some of which are themselves
beneficial, including useful pollinators like bees and flies, and spiders that attack aphids.
(Hurd, 1999)” – Source @ Animal Diversity Web
o The following video documents a mantis eating a grasshopper. In the GHS-OWL site,
both mantis and garden spiders are in competition for some of the same sources of
food. Video (1:16 min) National Geographic
Predator- Prey Relationships in the GHS-OWL Site
Predator
Prey
Lady bug
Aphid
Spider
Lady Bug
Spider
Grasshopper
Praying mantis
Spider
Praying mantis
Grasshopper
Additional Relationships in the GHS-OWL Site
Symbiosis
- Whenever two organisms of different species exist in close
physical contact to the benefit of both organisms.
- Ex. The Lichen on the OWLS rock is composed of a fungus
and algae in a symbiotic relationship.
- How Stuff Works
Mutualism
- A mutualistic relationship is when two organisms of different species work together
each benefiting from the relationship.
- Ex. The honey bee needs the flower to eat food to survive and the flower needs the
honey bee to help reproduce by transferring pollen from one flower to the other.
- NECSI
Commensalism
- Two organisms of different species in which one of them benefits
from the association whereas the other is largely unaffected or not
significantly harmed or benefiting from the relationship.
- Ex. The Mourning Dove uses the tree as shelter and for a home so the
Mourning Dove benefits from the tree branch without harming the
tree.
- Biology Online
Parasitism
- A relationship between two species of plants or animals in which one
benefits at the expense of the other, sometimes without killing it.
- Ex. The rope dodder raps around the host causing the marsh elder
plant to die.
- Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.