Ecology & Biodiversity

Competition

• Competition is a relationship where individuals of varying species will compete for limited resources

  • Exclusion principle describes two species competing for the same resource cannot coexist permanently 

    • The competitor even with a slight minute advantage, will become enabled to eliminate the opposing competitor 

    • This demonstrates how such small differences may play a key role in the survival of an entire species or population

• Niche partitioning describes the process of natural selection driving competing species into different patterns of resource or different niches

Predation

• Predation describes a relationship where one species the predator, kills and eats the other species namely their prey

  • Adaptations of both predators and prey are refined by natural selection

    • Cryptic coloration: camouflage

    • Batesian mimicry: harmless species mimics a harmful one

    • Mullerian mimicry: two or more bad-tasting species resemble each other

Herbivory

• Herbivory describes an organism eating parts of an plant or alga relationships

  • A commonly known example would be a Koala or Pandas!

Symbiosis

• Symbiosis describes when two or more species lives in direct contact with another

• This is commonly seen between fish or land species

  • Parasitism is when one organism a parasite, derives nourishment from another, the host

  • Mutualism is when both organisms benefit from the relationship

  • Commensalism is when one organism benefits and the other is neither harmed nor benefitted

Facilitation 

• Facilitation describes when one species has a positive effect on the survival and reproduction of another without intimate association of symbiosis

• This occurrence is commonly seen in plant species

Species Diversity can be calculated through a formula. This is known as the "Simpson's diversity index", enabling the calculation of diversity based on a species's richess and relative abundance.