51. Community Ecology

Under which of the following circumstances would interspecific competition be most obvious?

The niche of an animal is __________.

When goats were introduced to an island off the California coast, the goats inhabited the same areas and ate the same plants as the native deer. The deer population dwindled and finally disappeared. This is an example of __________.

Flounder is a type of fish that looks like the seafloor. This is an example of __________.

Fill in the blanks in the table below summarizing the interspecific interactions in a community.

What is niche differentiation?a. the evolution of traits that reduce niche overlap and competitionb. interactions that allow species to occupy their fundamental nichec. the degree to which the niches of two species overlapd. the claim that species with the same niche cannot coexist

Compare and contrast the species interactions of mutualism, predation, and competition.

The principle of competitive exclusion states thata. two species cannot coexist in the same habitat.b. competition between two species always causes extinction or emigration of one species.c. two species that have exactly the same niche cannot coexist in a community.d. two species will stop reproducing until one species leaves the habitat.