Chapter 8 Vocabulary

Number of different species in a community

Number of individuals within a species in a community

The number of ecological niches, how they resemble or differ from each other, and how species interact with one another

Theory created by MacArthur and Wilson to explain the differences in species richness with island size

National parks surrounded surrounded by a sea of developed and fragmented land

Species that normally live and thrive in a particular community

Species that evolved somewhere else and then migrate into or are deliberately or accidentally introduced into a community

Species that serve as early warnings of damages or danger to a community

Species reproduce asexually and split themselves into pieces (fragments)

Species that play roles affecting many other organisms in an ecosystem

Situation in which one species limits access of another species to a resource, regardless of whether the resource is abundant or scarce.

Process of dividing up resources in an ecosystem so that species with similar needs (overlapping ecological niches) use the same scarce resources at different times, in different ways, or in different places

Situation in which an organism of one species (the predator) captures and feeds on parts or all of an organism of another species (the prey)

Common strategy used by animals. Prey species discourage predators with chemical that are poisonous, irritating, foul smelling, or bad tasting

Interaction between species in which one organism, called the parasite, preys on another organism, called the host, by living on or in the host

Type of species interaction in which both participating species generally benefit

An interaction between organisms of different species in which one type of species benefits and the other type is neither helped nor harmed to any degree

Process in which communities of plant and animal species in a particular area are replaced over time by a series of different and often more complex communities

Ecological succession in a bare area that has never been occupied by a community of organs

Ecological succession in an area in which natural vegetation has been removed or destroyed but the soil is not destroyed

First hardy species, often microbes, mosses, and lichens, that begin colonizing a site as the first stage of ecological succession

Plant species found in the early stages of succession that grow close to the ground, can establish large populations quickly under harsh conditions, and have short lives.

Grasses and low shrubs that are less hardy than early successional plant species

Mostly trees that can tolerate shade and form a fairly stable complex forest community