Lecture 12 : Where species live and why?

****limiting factors
put limits on species distributions
READ Chapter 3 pp 51-57

Adaptations to variable environmental conditions

 All Species Live Within Limits
• An organism’s physiology and behavior (adaptive
traits) allow it to survive only in certain environments.
• Generally some critical limiting factor keeps an
organism from expanding everywhere.
• Ecologist Victor Shelford stated that each
environmental factor has both minimum and
maximum levels, called tolerance limits, beyond which
a particular species cannot survive or is unable to
reproduce.

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Freezing Temps Limit the Northern Range
of the Saguaro Cactus- figure 3.3, p 54

© William P. Cunningham
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or
 coral reefs and water temps
what limits the distribution of reefs?
WHAT ARE TOLERANCE CURVES?
• Diagram of where a species can survive and
reproduce in relation to an abiotic (physical)
factor such as temperature or soil moisture

• Usually Based on a single limiting factor

= abiotic factor which limits the distribution
(where it can live).
Range of Tolerance Curve- figure 3.4

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Tolerance
Toleranceto to soil
soilmoisture
moisture Influences
Influences
the
thedistribution
distributionof ofTrees
TreesininNevada
Nevada
Ravines
Ravines
 change
changein
inplant
plantdistribution
distribution
along
alongaasoil
soilmoisture
moisturegradient?
gradient?
Juniperus Pinus Pinus
monosperma edulis ponderosa
Abundance

hot cool
dry wet
The Ecological Niche is a Species’ Role and
Environment- fig 3.6, p 55
Habitat describes the place
or set of environmental
conditions in which a
particular organism lives.
Ecological niche, describes
both the role played by a
species in a biological
community and the set of
environmental factors that
determine its distribution.
© Mary Ann Cunningham

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Niches: Generalists & Specialists
figure 3.5
Generalists like the
black bear tolerate a
wide range of
conditions.
Other species, such as
the giant panda, are
specialists and have a
narrow ecological
niche.

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Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or 3-11
The Competitive Exclusion Principle
(CEP)
The competitive exclusion principle states that no two
species can occupy the same ecological niche for long.

•The one that is more efficient in using available resources to traits

ts will exclude the other due to adaptations.
•The other species disappears (disperses or dies) or develops a
new niche by adaptation by natural selection, exploiting resources
differently, a process known as resource partitioning.
•Partitioning can allow several species to utilize different parts of
the same resource and coexist within a single habitat.

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Warblers Partition Their Resource to
Reduce Competition- figure 3.7, p56

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• The term niche partitioning refers to the process
by which natural selection drives competing
species into different patterns of resource use or
different niches (Hector and Hooper, 2002;
MacArthur, 1958).
 Study FIGURE on p 59

* Why do some species

win & others lose? Niche shifts by natural selection
 Cattail distribution in littoral zone
Do these 2 species compete or coexist in same subhabitat?

Latifolia: narrowleaf (in shallows)

Angustifolia: broadleaf

How would you do a study to compare the role of competition on the niche
of these 2 plants?
Competitive exclusion by latifolia by angustifolia?
Kellogg Biological Station - MSU

Distribution without competition

Distribution changes with competition

**Introduction of Invasive species &

•
niche displacement
Introduction of invasive species causes billions of dollars
of damage in USA yearly.

• Cause major ecosystem disruptions /why?

• Examples in MI: zebra mussel, round gobi,

purple loosestrife, earthworms, dandelion, spotted
knapweed, carp, house sparrow, starlings, gypsy moth,
emerald ash borer, Japanese beetle,
…………………………………

****See figure 5.27, pp117-118

 Purple loosestrife

Garlic mustard

Round goby

Invasive
species in MI
Why a problem?
Pp. 116-117
ReviewWhat species
Questions to Answerlives
and to where
Learn and why?
What are tolerance curves and how are they constructed?
What is a limiting factor?
What is the ecological niche and why is it different than a tolerance curve in
describing the function of a species in nature?
What are the 2 possible outcomes when 2 species compete within the same
niche? What is competitive exclusion
Do you understand the cattail example from lecture, MacArthurs warblers (birds in
the trees). Have you read the relavent reading and studies the figures and
understand them?
What is a biome and what determines its type and distribution?
What biomes occur in in Michigan? In Canada? In the USA.
What are the two major factor which determine the distribution of a biome?
What is the tiaga or boreal forest? How do the physical conditions of a grassland
(prairie) differ from those of a temperate forest?
Why do invasive exotic species cause so many ecological problems & what does
niche and competitive exclusion have to do with it?