Download Species Interactions - Colquitt County High School

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CHAPTER 41: SPECIES INTERACTIONS
1. Define community.
Concept 41.1 – Interactions within a community may help, harm, or have no effect on the
species involved.
2. Define interspecific interactions.
3. Ecological interactions can be grouped into three broad categories: competition,
exploitation, and positive interactions. Complete the following table.
Interaction
Competition (-/-)
Exploitation (+/-)

Predation

Herbivory

Parasitism
Positive interactions
(+/+ or +/0)

Mutualism (+/+)

Commensalism (+/0)
Description
Example
4. Explain how competition contributes to competitive exclusion, resource partitioning, and
character displacement.
Concept 41.2 – Diversity and trophic structure characterize biological communities.
5. What is species diversity? What are its two components? Why is it important?
6. Define trophic structure.
7. What is the difference between a food chain and a food web? Which provides a more “full”
ecological picture and why?
8. Know the levels of trophic structure in food chains. Give a food chain here, including four
links that might be found in a prairie community, and tell the level for each organism.
9. How is a keystone species different from a dominant species?
10. Compare and contrast the bottom-up model with the top-down model.
Concept 41.3 – Disturbance influences species diversity and composition.
11. Define disturbance.
12. What is the intermediate disturbance hypothesis? Give an example of a disturbance
event, and explain the effect it has on the community.
13. Ecological succession is the changes in species that occupy an area after disturbance. What
is the difference between primary succession and secondary succession?
14. Describe how humans have impacted disturbance.
Concept 41.4 – Biogeographic factors affect community diversity.
15. Describe how the latitude of a community and the area it occupies contribute to the
tremendous range of diversity in biological communities.
Concept 41.5 – Pathogens alter community structure locally and globally.
16. Describe the role pathogens play in structuring terrestrial and marine communities.