Community Ecology

Symbiotic Relationship

A relationship where two species live in close association with each other.

Competition

The struggle of individuals to obtain a shared but limited resource.

Competitive Exclusion Principle

States that two species competing for the same limited resource cannot co-exist.

Resource Partioning

Two species divide a resource based on differences in their behavior or morphology.

Predation

An interaction in which one animal typically kills and consumes another animal.

Parasitoids

Animals that lay eggs inside other organisms referred to as their host.

Parasitism

An interaction where one organism lives in or on another organism referred to as their host.

Pathogens

Viruses, bacteria, fungi protists and wormlike organisms called helminths.

Herbivory

An interaction in which an animal consumes a producer.

Mutualism

When two interacting species benefit each other by increasing both species chance of survival or reproduction.

Commensalism

Species interactions in which one species benefits but the other is neither harmed nor helped.

Keystone Species

A species that is not very abundant but has large effects on an ecological community.

Ecosystem Engineer

A keystone species that creates or maintains a habitat for other species