Herp Communities

community

all plant and animal populations that live in a particular area or habitat

all species in a given area

assemblage

all species in a community belonging to a taxaonimic subset

community ecology

goal of a community ecologist is to:

• create

• maintain

• determine

the fate of biological communities

history of the ecological niche

multidimensional space an organism persists in

findamental and realized niche

fundamental vs realized niche

fundamental: physiological adaptation, range of resources under which an organism can exist

realized: actual distribution, actual niche occupied

where they beloing/ could live vs where they are

realized is smaller or = to fundamental

the niche

= abiotic and biotic components

no two herps are likely to occupt precisely the same ecological niche

community structure

studied with cattle tanks

• larvae survival, body size, and time to metamorphosis affected by

  • competition

  • predation

  • pond drying

• mesocosms (self contained ecosystem for research)

species interactions

mutualism + + not very common

commensalism + o not very common

exploitation

• parisitism + -

• predation + -

competition - - very common

niche partitionaing reduces direct competition

(competition)

divide resource through behavioral or morphological variation

character displacement: morphological differentiation within species that reduce competition

temporal partitioning & spatial partitioning = resource partitioning

food webs

(predation)

herps as adults are usually primary and secondary predators

middle region of food web

covered predation (foraging and defense)

parasites

(parisitism)

macroparasites

• mites

• leeches

microparasites

• fungus

• chytrid

• SFD

• trematodes

• malaria

ecosystem engineers

create or modify habitat used by other organisms

indirect interaction

gopher tortoise burrows / gopher frogs

herps more oftet

habitat and species diversity

different habitats support different communities

• marsh vs woodland

• conifer vs deciduous

herp diversity increases with structural complexity

• trees vs grass

anole ecomorphs

structural diversity could also be colonized by diverse taxa

• convergent evolution

Herp species richness varies by

latitude

• more species in the tropics than temperate, greater diversity

altitude

• fewer at higher elevations (cold, less structure)

Island biogeography

small islands have fewer species

islands farther from the mainland have fewer species

some lizards can float but amphibians cannot

• salt intolerance