Study Questions for Biological Communities

1.       Is there a "correct" view of biological communities – the association view or the continuum view?  How do the ecotones between communities differ in these views of communities? 

2.       What general characteristic of the environment is present wherever you find association-type landscapes?

3.       Distinguish between dominant and characteristic species.

4.       The Forest Service has asked you to characterize the niche of the lynx in order to provide information relevant to its conservation. 

A) Describe what measurements you would make to characterize its niche.

B) Would it be most useful to characterize the lynx’s potential niche, realized niche, or both?  Explain.

5.       Discuss the pros and cons of using indicator species to characterize an environment.

6.       Explain why density might bean easier parameter to measure for species within a community than productivity, but productivity might be a better reflection of the "importance" of a species in a community?  In what circumstances is productivity not a good measure of the "importance" of a species in a community?

7.       A recent fictional press release reported that “the loss of biological diversity was growing in the northern latitude forests, with a loss of dozens of species per year”.  Critically evaluate that statement given what you know about the components of diversity as it is defined in ecology.

8.       The response of species diversity to both disturbance and resource availability follow similar shaped curves.  Why? (Is there a fundamentally similar process creating the shape of these curves in both cases?)