Summary: Ecology Of Communities

Read the summary and the most important questions on Ecology of Communities

• 1 Lectures

• 1.1 Biodiversity

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• What are the ways one might interpret biodiversity?

  1. Genetic diversity within species
  2. Taxonomic diversity within ecosystems
  3. Functional diversity within ecosystems
  4. Phylogenetic diversity within ecosystems
  5. Ecosystem diversity from landscape to global scales

• Why does biodiversity promote biomass production?

  1. Resource or niche partitioning
  2. Pathogens
  3. Negative soil feedbacks

• 1.2 Interactions

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• What is the criticisms against the green world hypothesis?

  1. Not all plants are edible
  2. Plants develo pdefense in proportion to herbivore risk
  3. Traits that confer competitive ability for limited resources also reduce herbivore consumption and assimilation   
  4. Herbivores are irrelevant in forests, deserts and many other terrestrial habitats

• 1.3 Long term dynamics of ecosystems

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• How do you study long-term dynamisc of ecosystems?

  1. Reconstruction of changes
  

  • palynological profile analysis
  • chronosequence analysis
  • dendrological analysis 

  2. Observation of changes in permanent plots
  

  • with(out) experimental manipulation

  3. Modelling
  

  • data is necessary

• What happens when the amount of organic matter increases?

  1. Amount of N increases 
  2. N mineralization increases

• What happens when the amount of organic matter increases?

  1. Amount of N increases 
  2. N mineralization increases 
  3. P availability may decrease in the long term 
  4. pH lowers

• What makes the pH drop?

  1. Organic acids
     
  2. Leaching

  
  
  As a consequence, aluminium availability can increase

• What determines the spatial variation in (natural) landscapes?

  1. Substrate heterogeneity: variation in height, parent material, distance to sea, hydrology
  2. The balance between disturbance and succession: shifting mosaics

• What is the traditional view of succession?

  Largest biodiversity in the semi-natural landscape of mid 19th century; previously uniform closed forest.

• What is Frans Vera's view of succesion?

  Largest biodiversity in the natural landscape before strong human influence (B.C.); large herbivores maintained a park landscape.