B4.2 Ecological Niches

B4.2.1 Ecological niche

Role of species in its organism, dependent on how get food, zone tolerance, other specie

B4.2.2 Niches examples

Obligate aerob: need oxygen (animal+plants)

Obligate anaerob: only in no oxygen env (some bacteria)

Facultative anaerob: can do either: yeast, E. coli

B4.2.3 Autotrophs

Make their own carbon compounds; plants, algae, etc

B4.2.4 Holozoic nutrition

Heterotroph = eat food, consumers (all animals)

Holozoic: whole pieces of food eaten → internally: ingest/digest/absorb/assimilated/egest

B4.2.5 Mixotroph

Gather nutrients/energy in auto + heterotrophic ways:

obligate mixotroph: must use both
facultative: can use either

Euglena: facultative mixotroph.

B4.2.6 Saphrotrphic nutrition

Saphro: decomposers that digest matter externally: fungi+bacteria; spray digestive enzymes and decompose

Detrivores: decomposers that digest internally

B4.2.7 Archaea

3 ways to get energy:
Heterothrophic: from other organisms
Phototrophic: absorb light energy
Chemotrophic: oxidising inorganic compounds

B4.2.8 Dentition bc of diet

Carnivore(animal): sharp for tearing fibres
Herbivores (plant): large, flat teeht for grinding
Omni (plant+animal): mixture: flat grinders + sharp for tearing

Find out diets of extinct species

B4.2.9 Herbivore insect mouth adaptations

Jaw-like: chewing leaves

Tube: suck sap

B4.2.9 Adaptations for plants to resist being eaten

Toxins, stinging parts, spikes to resist being eaten

some animals have anti-poison stuff

B4.2.10 Animals eating prey

Predators: to eat prey easily
Chemical: (cobra) toxin: kill prey easily
Physical: (lion) teeth/claws
Behavioral: (eel) ambush(attack)

Prey: to avoid predators
Chemical: (butterfly) toxins
Physical: (walk stick) camouflage
Behavioral: (fish) school tg.

Some adaptation evolve quickly, some slow (chem=slow, behav=quick) - due to mutation

B4.2.11 Plants harvesting light

Trees tall, grow through other trees use as support, outcompete host tree, shade tolerant plants

B4.2.12 Fundamental/Realized niche

Fundamental: range of tolerance of all abiotic factors for species; competition from other stuff make it less than the hypothetical

Realized: fundamental - the outcompeted stuff; what it actually lives under

B4.2.13 Competitive exclusion

One species outcompeting another → exclusion in parts of tolerance

If species outcompeted in all parts of all fundamental niche → excluded from fecosystem

Need some realized niche in order to exist in an ecosystem