LIVE UNDER THE SAME CANOPY:

FRIEND OR FOE?
(BASIC ECOLOGY & BIOTIC
INTERACTIONS)
 The hierarchy of
Community
biological organization
Population
(niche)
•Ecosystems 生態系統
•Communities 群集
•Populations 族群
•Species 種

Individual organisms
Ecosystems •Organ systems
Biosphere •Organs
•Tissue
•Cells
•Subcellular organelles
•Molecules
 What is ECOLOGY?
• Studying the relationships of organisms to
their environment
Abiotic environment
• sunlight
• temperature
• water
Biotic environment
• soil
• prey 被捕食的動物
• competitors 競爭者
• predators 捕食者
• parasites 寄生生物
 What is ECOLOGY?

Studying Explain and also predict

relationships the abundance &
& interactions distribution of organisms
 Community Ecology
• Community
– All populations of organisms
living in a defined area
– Habitat- the physical place
where an organism lives
• Community Ecology
– study of interactions among
all populations in a common
environment
• Components
濕地多美 [錄像資料] / 編導謝家豪 ; 監製古啓輝 ; 香
港電台電視部製作.
– Abiotic
http://esrc.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/tvprog/raco20040424.ram
3:30th min – 6:30th min
– Biotic
Niche 生態位

WHAT they do?

WHERE they do it?
What they NEED?
 Niche 生態位
• Each species occupies a particular position in the
community, both in a spatial and a functional sense
for survival, growth and reproduction.
– Spatially, each species has its own habitat, e.g.
underground, in the trees or in shallow water (abiotic).
– Functionally, each species plays a role, such as whether it
is a photosynthesizer, predator, prey, or parasite (biotic).
Moisture

Temperature
 Fundamental Niche VS Realized Niche
• Fundamental niche (基礎棲位/ potential niche)
– The set of resources it can utilize in the absence of
competition and other biotic interactions
• The realized niche (現實棲位)
– A species' actual usage of resources after competition and
other biotic interactions

Barnacle competition
 Principle of Competitive Exclusion

• Complete competitors cannot coexist

indefinitely
– X two similar species -the same niche - the same
time
Lion Tiger Leopard

一山不能藏二虎
• Two species of the protist Paramecium草履蟲

 The species that uses the resource more efficiently

will eventually eliminate the other locally
 Co-existence by Resource Partitioning

• Species that live in the same geographical area

avoid competition by living in different
portions of the habitat or by using different
food or other resources.

Yellow-rumped Bay-breasted Cape May Black-throated green Blackburnian

warbler warbler warbler warbler warbler
• Competing species evolve differences
– Minimize the impact of competition
• Reducing niche overlap
 Interactions among organisms: Biotic
interaction 生物交互作用
1. Competition 競爭
2. Predation 捕食
3. Mutualism 互惠共生
4. Commensalism 偏利共棲 Competition -/-

5. Parasitism 寄生
 Individuals of different species compete
for same resources (food, shelter, space)

Predation +/-

Commensalism +/0 Mutualism +/+ Parasitism +/-

 Interactions among organisms: Biotic
interaction 生物交互作用
1. Competition 競爭

Competition -/-

Predation +/-

Commensalism +/0 Mutualism +/+ Parasitism +/-

 Competition (-/-)
• Competition describes the interaction when two
organisms attempt to use the same resource when
there is not enough of the resource to satisfy both
– Interspecific competition:
between species
– Intraspecific competition:
within species

Gypsy Moth Nazca Booby

 Maple Coconut
Dandelion

Seed dispersal: WHY bother?

Burdock
Interference Competition
(相互干涉性競爭)

• Directly interfere by aggressively attempting

to exclude one another from particular
habitats

Lion vs Hyena (鬣狗，土狼) Fungi vs Bacteria

Exploitation
(資源利用性競爭)
• Indirectly interfere by
capturing resources faster
than their competitors
 Interactions among organisms: Biotic
interaction 生物交互作用
1. Competition 競爭
2. Predation 捕食
3. Mutualism 互惠共生
4. Commensalism 偏利共棲 Competition -/-
5. Parasitism 寄生
 Individuals of different species compete
for same resources (food, shelter, space)

Predation +/-

Commensalism +/0 Mutualism +/+ Parasitism +/-

 Predation
• Predator (捕食者) adaptations
– locate & subdue prey
• Prey (獵物) adaptations
– escape & defend
• Tactics: Speed, Horns角/Thorns刺/
Spines針, Coloration, Large group,
Toxins/ Deterrent 制止物
Predation (+/-) causes population cycles

Winter

Summer
 Predation drives evolution
• Coevolution is the adaptation of two or more
species to each other
Flatfish 比目魚 Nightjar夜鹰

Camouflage & Mimicry

Frogfish躄魚

Moth
Cheaters (mimicry)

Fangblenny Cleaner wrasse

 Warning
coloration &
False ‘eyes’
Red-backed poison frog

Trials of Life (~29:50; BBC, David Attenborough)

 Plant defenses against herbivores
Toxins/ Deterrent

Thorns/ spines

opium poppy; 罌粟
- morphine嗎啡

tobacco煙草
-nicotine尼古丁

chili pepper 辣椒
-capsaicin 辣椒素
Trees Evolved Camouflage
Defense Against Long
Extinct Predator
<10 cm 10-300 cm Araliaceae tree

moa 恐鳥

Seedling Sapling
>300 cm

Wiley - Blackwell (2009, July 23). New Discovery Suggests Trees Evolved Camouflage Defense Against Long Extinct Predator.
ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 19, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090722083723.htm
University of Bristol (2006, December 30). To Elude Bats, A Moth Keeps Its Hearing In Tune.
ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 24, 2009, from
 Coevolution and Symbiosis
• In a symbiotic relationship, two or more
kinds of organisms live together in often
elaborate and more or less permanent
relationships
– there are three major kinds of symbiotic
relationships
• mutualism
• parasitism
• commensalism
 Interactions among organisms: Biotic
interaction 生物交互作用
1. Competition 競爭
2. Predation 捕食
3. Mutualism 互惠共生
4. Commensalism 偏利共棲 Competition -/-
5. Parasitism 寄生
 Individuals of different species compete
for same resources (food, shelter, space)

Predation +/-

Commensalism +/0 Mutualism +/+ Parasitism +/-

 Mutualism 互惠共生 (+/+)
• Each partner benefits from the other

Lichens (地衣)
• Fungal partner acquires
nutrients from
photosynthetic partner.
• Photosynthetic partner
gains protection from
radiation and desiccation.
Microorganisms微生物 & Herbivores 食草動物

• Microbes in special
chambers in
ruminants (反芻動物)
• Digest cell wall
materials of plants
(cellulose 纖維素 )
 Interactions among organisms: Biotic
interaction 生物交互作用
1. Competition 競爭
2. Predation 捕食
3. Mutualism 互惠共生
4. Commensalism 偏利共棲 Competition -/-
5. Parasitism 寄生
 Individuals of different species compete
for same resources (food, shelter, space)
Barnacle and whale
Predation +/-

Commensalism +/0 Mutualism +/+ Parasitism +/-

 Commensalism 偏利共棲 (+/0)
• Benefits one species but neither hurts nor
helps the other

Clownfish & sea anemone

• Clownfish is protected and

feeds on the detritus left from
the host anemone
Oyster’s crab
• receives shelter
• snatches particles of food
from the oyster

Oxpecker (啄牛) and

impala (黑斑羚)
• The oxpecker eat insects
off of the impalas
 Interactions among organisms: Biotic
interaction 生物交互作用
1. Competition 競爭
2. Predation 捕食
3. Mutualism 互惠共生
4. Commensalism 偏利共棲 Competition -/-
5. Parasitism 寄生
 Individuals of different species compete
for same resources (food, shelter, space)

Predation +/-

Commensalism +/0 Mutualism +/+ Parasitism +/-

 Parasitism (+/-) 寄生
• One species (parasite) benefits while the
other is harmed
Tapeworm 絛蟲
• Absorbs
nutrients from
the host
Common cuckoo 布穀鳥
• A nest parasite of Reed
Warbler 蘆葦鶯

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mb0GOITRUU
 References
• Audesirk, Audesirk & Byers. Ecology: Community
interactions. In Life on earth (5th edition). Upper Saddle
River, N.J. : Prentice Hall, 2008. Chapter 27.
• Johnson G. B. Essentials of the living world. Dubuque, IA:
McGraw-Hill, 2010. Chaper 19.
• Community Ecology. In Encyclopædia Britannica.
Retrieved from
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/129392/community-
ecology
– Ecological niches
– Interspecific interactions and the organization of communities