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Population Interactions. Competition for Resources: Exploitative competition: Both organisms competing for the same resource(s). Interference competition (amensalism): Organism exert direct, negative effects on another (allelochemical and allelopathy)
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Population Interactions • Competition for Resources: • Exploitative competition: Both organisms competing for the same resource(s). • Interference competition (amensalism): Organism exert direct, negative effects on another (allelochemical and allelopathy) • Competitive interactions can get interesting when two species compete for more than one resource with differing capabilities. • Predation (mortality): • Prey population declines when growth rates slows below predation rate (and other mortality terms) • Predator Avoidance: • Mechanical defenses: spines, filaments, gelatinous aggregates. • Chemical defenses: allelochemical and allelopathy (taste nasty) • Life history defenses: growth rate / reproduction tradeoff • Behavioral defenses: diel vertical migrations (e.g. zooplankton) • Predator-Prey (Functional Response) Models.
Two species competing for Si and P resources. Curves represent growth rate under given nutrient concentrations. Note that the two species differ in their abilities to compete for different resources. Species 1 needs higher [Si] to survive competition. Species 2 needs higher [P] to survive competition.
Predator-Prey Models • Type I: e.g. Lotka-Volterra. For a given predator density, prey consumption increases linearly with prey density. • Type II: e.g. Holling disc equation. Includes search and handling time of prey, following structure of Michaelis-Menton equation. (e.g. microbes, zooplankton) • Type III: Introduces concept of “learning” and increase in predator efficiency with increase in prey density. (e.g. fish)
Trophic Cascades • Interactions at higher levels of the food chain have a cascading influence down through lower levels. • Bottom-up control: Primary production is controlled by limitations of abiotic factors (light, nutrients, etc.) • Top-down control: Primary production is controlled by predation on herbivores. • Trophic cascades in aquatic systems; e.g. piscivores and phytoplankton biomass. • With piscivore, larger population of zooplankton crustaceans, graze down phytoplankton. • Removal shifts dominance to planktivorous fish and loss of large zooplankton and switch to rotifers; phytoplankton bloom that are resistant to rotifer grazing.
3. Spring Circulation • Low but increasing temperature • Mixing water column with low stability • Low (but variable and increasing) light availability • high nutrient availability (why?) Rapid growth and increases in phytoplankton biomass, particularly diatoms. Often represents period of highest annual biomass. Increasing light is dominant contributing factor; zooplankton grazing remains low for now.