COMMUNITY

AND
ECOSYSTEM
DYNAMICS
WHAT IS COMMUNITY?
Community Structure

*Is the ecologist’s term for indicating

what organisms are present in a given
environment, in what numbers and
how they relate to each other.

Two of the most important patters:

*Open Community
*Close Community
Open Community
Each species is distributed independently: Community limits are
arbitrary. Ecotone: region of rapid replacement of species along an
environmental gradient.
It has population without ecotones and distributed more or less
randomly.

Close Community
Where distributions of several species coincide closely, but
are largely separated from those of other sets of species.
The boundaries of those communities are known as
ecotones. Example is serpentine soils.
 Classification of Communities

Two basic categories of communities:

• Terrestrial (Land)
• Aquatic (Water)

Biomes
Is a large-scale category containing
many communities of a similar nature
whose distribution is largely controlled
by climate.
 Examples of Biomes in Terrestrial
(Land) are:
Rain Forest
Desert
Grassland
Temperate deciduous for
forest
other
Examples of Biomes in Aquatic
(Water) are:
Pound
Rivers
Lakes
Ocean
Others
Terrestrial (Land) Biomes
 Tundra and Desert
 Tundra is an Extremely cold
biomes consisting of snow-
covered land.

 Desert is an Extremely dry

and hot biome consisting of
sand lands.
Tropical Rain Forests
o The climate is always warm between 20°C
and 25°C
o The rain forest is probably the richest
biomes, with many levels of life.
o More than half of all terrestrial species live in
this biomes, while diversity is high,
dominance by a particular species is low.
Shrubland
*The shrubland biomes is dominated by shrubs with small but
thick evergreen leaves that are often coated with a thick, waxy
cuticle, and thick underground stems that survive the dry
summers and frequent fires.
Grasslands
 Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by
grasses. However sedge and rush can also be found along
with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other
herbs.
 Soil in this region are deep and rich and are excellent for
agriculture.
 Grassland are open land dominated
by grasses, sedges, and broadleaf
herbs, with little or no woody
vegetation.

 Shrublands are areas areas

dominated by low, dense shrub
vegetation such as dogwood,
willow, tall grasses, and sedges.
 Desert are characterized
Deserts
by dry conditions and a
wide temperature range.
The dry air leads to wide
daily temperature
fluctuations from freezing
at night to over 120
degrees during the day.
Most deserts occur at
latitudes of 30°C N or S
where descending air
masses are dry.
Aquatic Biome
AQUATIC BIOME
Life zone

water
 Two Classifications

Marine Biome Freshwater

 THE MARINE
BIOME
• The largest biome in the world
• 96. 5% pure water and 3.5%
dissolved compounds
 Two Basic Categories

Benthic

Pelagic
Benthic
is the ecological region
at the lowest level
Pelagic
all of the sea other than
the ocean floor
-> the main source of
energy is the
phytoplankton
COASTAL
COMMUNITI
ES
Estuary/Estuaries

• River meets the sea

• Nurseries of the sea
 Seashores

Rocky Sandy
 Coral Reefs

Coral is composed of thin plates, or

layers of calcium carbonate secreted
overtime by hundreds of soft bodied
animals.
Coral reef on the otherhand is
composed of corals and the
organisms within its ecosystem such
as fishes and algae.
 Oceans

is made up of several zones:

• Epiplagic Zone
• Mesopelagic Zone
• Bathypelagic Zone
• Benthic Zone
 Oceanic Zones

Epipelagic Zone is brightly lit, has

01 much photosynthetic plankton that
supports zooplanktons

Mesopelagic Zone is semi dark and contains

02 carnivores
The Bathypelagic Zone is completely dark
03 and largest in sizs. It has strange-looking
fishes
Benthic Zone is at the bottom of them
04 all.
 FRESH WATER BIOME

TWO ZONES:

RUNNING WATERS STANDING WATERS

CHANGE IN communities
j
OVER TIME
BIOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES

Like the organism that comprise them, can do and

change overtime. Ecological time focuses on
community events that occur over decades or
centuries. Geological time focuses on event lasting
thousand of years or more.
Community secession
Is the sequential replacement of species by
immigration of new species and local extinction
of older ones following a disturbance that creates
unoccupied habitats for colonization. The initial
rapid colonizer species are the pioneer
community. Eventually a climax community of
more or less stable but slower growing species
eventually develops.
Primary succession
Begins with bare rocks and takes very time to occurs.
Weathering by wind and rains plus the action of pioneer
species such as lichens and mosses begin the build up of
the soil. Herbaceous plant, including the grasses , grow
on deeper soil and shade out shorter pioneer species.
Pine tree or deciduous trees eventually takes and in
most biomes will form a climax community of plant that
are stabile in the environment.
Secondary succession

Occurs when an environment has been disturbed, such as

by fire, geological activity, or human intervention (farming
or deforestation in most cases.)
This form of succession often begins in an abandoned field
with soil layers already in place. Compared to primary
succession, Which must take long period of time to build
or accumulate soil, secondary succession occurs rapidly.
 Climax communities
Tend to be more stable than successional
communities. Early stages of succession show the
most growth and are most productive. Pioneer
communities lack diversity, make poor use of
inputs, and lose heat and nutrients. As succession
proceeds, species variety increases and nutrients
are recycled more. Climax communities make fuller
use of inputs and maintain themselves , thus, they
are more stable. Human activity such as clearing a
climax forest community to establish a farm field
consisting of cultivated pioneering species say
corn or wheat replaces climax communities with
simpler communities.