Title: week 13 overview
Course: BIO-182 RTZ > Section: week 13 - Community Structure

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TO DO before [Date/Time selected here]:

- Read:  Chapter 57 (Community Structure)
- Complete:  LaunchPad Learning Curve Quiz
- Complete:  LaunchPad Learning Activities
- Optional: LaunchPad Summative Quiz
- Optional: read lecture notes provided
- Optional:  Exam #4d [Due date here]

CHAPTER OVERVIEW:

Chapter 57: Community Structure

An ecological community is a group of actually or potentially interacting species living in the same location. Communities are bound together by a shared environment and a network of influence each species has on the other. Community ecologists study the factors that influence biodiversity, community structure, and the distribution and abundance of species as well as changes in that structure. As we saw in the last chapters, species interact with each other  and it is these interactions along with the interaction of species with the abiotic environment that affect the structure of the a community. Food webs are a graphical depiction of the interconnections among species based on feeding relationships, and are a core concept of the field. The role of keystone species in communities is another important tenet, and one of the best-known ideas in community ecology. Keystone species are those whose presence or absence profoundly affects other species in the community, disproportionately to its abundance.

Chapter 57 (Community Structure) focuses, not so much on the mechanisms of communities but on the structure of communities.

- In section 57.1 focus your study on definition of a community, skim the information about primary productivity, but read the rest of the section carefully so that you understand about food webs, trophic levels, and the various schemata describing the ecological efficiency within a community.
- Read 57.2, which describes how interaction between species influence communities.
- Skim 57.3 – patterns of distribution and diversity of species and 57.4 - the effect of disturbance of ecological communities.
- Skip 57.5 altogether, unless you’re interested in the effect of modern agricultural practices on community structure.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:

none available at this time.