Community (ecology)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from Community ecology)
Jump to: navigation, search

In ecology, a community or biocoenosis is an assemblage or associations of populations of two or more different species occupying the same geographical area and in a particular time. The term community has a variety of uses. In its simplest form it refers to groups of organisms in a specific place or time, for example, "the fish community of Lake Ontario before industrialization".




Holistic theory[edit]

Clements developed a holistic (or organismic) concept of community, as it was a superorganism or discrete unit, with sharp boundaries.

Individualistic theory[edit]

Gleason developed the individualistic (also kwown as open or continuum) concept of community, with the abundance of a population of a species changing gradually along complex environmental gradients, but individually, not equally to other populations. In that view, it is possible that individualistic distribution of species gives rise to discrete communities as well as to continuum. Niches would not overlap.[4][5]

Neutral theory[edit]

In the neutral theory view of the community (or metacommunity), popularized by Hubbell, the abundace of a population of a species changes not because of the environmental conditions and its niche, which could overlap with others. Each population would have the same adaptive value (competitive and dispersal abilities), and local and regional composition and abundance would be determined primarily by stochastic demographic processes and dispersal limitation.

Interspecific interactions[edit]




  1. Interference competition: occurs when an individual of one species directly interferes with an individual of another species. Examples include a lion chasing a hyena from a kill, or a plant releasing allelopathic chemicals to impede the growth of a competing species.




Mutualism is a symbiotic interaction between species in which both benefit. Examples include Rhizobium bacteria growing in nodules on the roots of legumes and insects pollinating the flowers of angiosperms.


Commensalism is a type of relationship among organisms in which one organism benefits while the other organism is neither benefited nor harmed. The organism that benefited is called the commensal while the other organism that is neither benefited nor harmed is called the host. For example, an epiphytic orchid attached to the tree for support benefits the orchid but neither harms nor benefits the tree. The opposite of commensalism is amensalism, an interspecific relationship in which a product of one organism has a negative effect on another organism. [8]

Community structure[edit]


See also[edit]


  2. ^ Grime J. P. et al. (2008). "Long-term resistance to simulated climate change in an infertile grassland". PNAS 105 (29): 10028–10032. 
  3. ^ Ricklefs R.E. (2008). "Disintegration of the Ecological Community". American Naturalist 172: 741–750. doi:10.1086/593002. PMID 18954264. 
  4. ^
  5. ^
  7. ^ Holt R.D. (1977). "Predation, apparent competition, and the structure of prey communities". Theoretical Population Biology 12 (2): 197–229. PMID 929457. 
  8. ^ Willey, Joanne M.; Sherwood, Linda M. and Woolverton Cristopher J. (2011). Microbiology. Prescott's. p. 713-738. 
  9. ^ Poulin, R. (2006) Evolutionary Ecology of Parasites Princeton University Press

Further reading[edit]


External links[edit]