Habitat and Ecological Niche

1. Habitat and Ecological Niche The manatee's lament and ancient Amazon farmers

2. Objectives • To be able to differentiate between the concepts of habitat and niche • To be able to describe symbiosis and identify a symbiotic relationship. • To be able to synthesize the concepts of habitat and niche with coevolution and evolutionary arms race.

3. When your habitat changes and your ecological niche is threatened • http://iowapublicradio.org/post/algae-bloom-kills-record-number-florida-manatees

4. Concepts • Habitat – all of the biotic and abiotic factors in the area where the organism lives. • You can think of habitat as the organism’s address (a bison’s address is the prairie ecosystem). • Ecological Niche – this is the organisms job. A wolf’s job is to be the apex (top) predator (hunting large mammals), the turkey vulture’s job is to clean up after the wolf’s kills (or the death of any medium size or large mammal).

5. Concepts Continued • Symbiosis – a close ecological relationship between two or more organisms of different species that live in direct contact with one another. • Ex. Sea grass and the sea otter. • Ex. The leaf cutter ants and the fungus they cultivate and harvest (we will see a video on this). They depend completely on one another.

6. Symbiosis between lesser long-nosed bat and saguaro cactus • The cactus blooms just one evening in spring to attract the lesser long-nosed bat. http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/pollinator-of-the-month/lesser_long-nosed_bat.shtml

7. Quick Question • What is the lesser long-nose bat’s habitat and niche?

8. Leaf Cutter Ants • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOV0E5FaKoQ. Ancient Amazonian Farmers.

9. Concepts Continued • Coevolution – the process in which two or more species evolve in response to changes in each other. • Evolutionary arms race – a type of coevolution in which each species responds to pressure (often a predator/prey relationship) from the other through better adaptations over many generations. • Greatly speeds up evolution – newts and garter snakes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CuhqQzBACQ)

10. Challenge: Use what you know • Analyze what is happening in the manatee’s ecosystem. Explain what the changes are. • Please Answer: What do biologist think is responsible for the changes, and how are the changes affecting the manatees (and other marine mammals)? • What is one factor (one species) that this story on the manatees has in common with the story about the recovery of the sea otters?

11. Fun Question • What do sea otters and striped skunks have in common?