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In ecology, the competitive exclusion principle, sometimes referred to as Gause's law, is a proposition that two species which compete for the same limited resource cannot coexist at constant population values. When one species has even the slightest advantage over another, the one with the advantage will dominate in the long term. This leads either to the extinction of the weaker competitor or to an evolutionary or behavioral shift toward a different ecological niche. The principle has been paraphrased in the maxim "complete competitors cannot coexist".
Ecological restoration, or ecosystem restoration, is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, destroyed or transformed. It is distinct from conservation in that it attempts to retroactively repair already damaged ecosystems rather than take preventative measures. Ecological restoration can reverse biodiversity loss, combat climate change, support the provision of ecosystem services and support local economies. The United Nations has named 2021-2030 the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
The intermediate disturbance hypothesis (IDH) suggests that local species diversity is maximized when ecological disturbance is neither too rare nor too frequent. At low levels of disturbance, more competitive organisms will push subordinate species to extinction and dominate the ecosystem. At high levels of disturbance, due to frequent forest fires or human impacts like deforestation, all species are at risk of going extinct. According to IDH theory, at intermediate levels of disturbance, diversity is thus maximized because species that thrive at both early and late successional stages can coexist. IDH is a nonequilibrium model used to describe the relationship between disturbance and species diversity. IDH is based on the following premises: First, ecological disturbances have major effects on species richness within the area of disturbance. Second, interspecific competition results in one species driving a competitor to extinction and becoming dominant in the ecosystem. Third, moderate ecological scale disturbances prevent interspecific competition.
A functional group is a collection of organisms that share characteristics within a community. Ideally, these would perform equivalent tasks based on domain forces, rather than a common ancestor or evolutionary relationship. This could potentially lead to analogous structures that overrule the possibility of homology. More specifically, these beings produce resembling effects to external factors of an inhabiting system. Due to the fact that a majority of these creatures share an ecological niche, it is practical to assume they require similar structures in order to achieve the greatest amount of fitness. This refers to such as the ability to successfully reproduce to create offspring, and furthermore sustain life by avoiding predators and sharing meals.
An ecological network is a representation of the biotic interactions in an ecosystem, in which species (nodes) are connected by pairwise interactions (links). These interactions can be trophic or symbiotic. Ecological networks are used to describe and compare the structures of real ecosystems, while network models are used to investigate the effects of network structure on properties such as ecosystem stability.
Ecological dominance is the degree to which one or several species have a major influence controlling the other species in their ecological community or make up more of the biomass. Both the composition and abundance of species within an ecosystem can be affected by the dominant species present.
In ecology, a priority effect refers to the impact that a particular species can have on community development as a result of its prior arrival at a site. There are two basic types of priority effects: inhibitory and facilitative. An inhibitory priority effect occurs when a species that arrives first at a site negatively affects a species that arrives later by reducing the availability of space or resources. In contrast, a facilitative priority effect occurs when a species that arrives first at a site alters abiotic or biotic conditions in ways that positively affect a species that arrives later. Inhibitory priority effects have been documented more frequently than facilitative priority effects. Studies indicate that both abiotic and biotic factors can affect the strength of priority effects.. Priority effects are a central and pervasive element of ecological community development that have significant implications for natural systems and ecological restoration efforts.
The term phylogenetic niche conservatism has seen increasing use in recent years in the scientific literature, though the exact definition has been a matter of some contention. Fundamentally, phylogenetic niche conservatism refers to the tendency of species to retain their ancestral traits. When defined as such, phylogenetic niche conservatism is therefore nearly synonymous with phylogenetic signal. The point of contention is whether or not "conservatism" refers simply to the tendency of species to resemble their ancestors, or implies that "closely related species are more similar than expected based on phylogenetic relationships". If the latter interpretation is employed, then phylogenetic niche conservatism can be seen as an extreme case of phylogenetic signal, and implies that the processes which prevent divergence are in operation in the lineage under consideration. Despite efforts by Jonathan Losos to end this habit, however, the former interpretation appears to frequently motivate scientific research. In this case, phylogenetic niche conservatism might best be considered a form of phylogenetic signal reserved for traits with broad-scale ecological ramifications. Thus, phylogenetic niche conservatism is usually invoked with regards to closely related species occurring in similar environments.
A mesopredator is a predator that occupies a mid-ranking trophic level in a food web. There is no standard definition of a mesopredator, but mesopredators are usually medium-sized carnivorous or omnivorous animals, such as raccoons, foxes, or coyotes. They are often defined by contrast from apex predators or prey in a particular food web. Mesopredators typically prey on smaller animals.
Nicole Dubilier is a marine microbiologist and director of the Symbiosis Department at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology since 2013 and a Professor of Microbial Symbioses at the University of Bremen. She is a pioneer in ecological and evolutionary symbiotic relationships between sea animals and their microbial partners inhabiting environments that harbour low nutrient concentrations. She was responsible for the discovery of a new form of symbiosis between two kinds of bacteria and the marine oligochaete Olavius algarvensis.
Erika S. Zavaleta is an American professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Zavaleta is recognized for her research focusing on topics including plant community ecology, conservation practices for terrestrial ecosystems, and impacts of community dynamics on ecosystem functions.
Jeannine Cavender-Bares is Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and Director of the Harvard University Herbaria. She is also adjunct professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution & Behavior at the University of Minnesota, where she served on the faculty for over two decades. Her research integrates evolutionary biology, ecology, and physiology by studying the functional traits of plants, with a particular focus on oaks.
James Elser is an American ecologist and limnologist. He is Director & Bierman Professor of Ecology, Flathead Lake Biological Station, University of Montana and research professor, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University. He is known for his work in ecological stoichiometry. In 2019, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
James A. Drake is an American ecologist.
Nancy Collins Johnson is an American earth scientist who is the Regents’ Professor and Director of the School of Earth Sciences & Environmental Sustainability at Northern Arizona University. Her work considers soil microbial ecology and the study of mycorrhizal fungi. She was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2020.
Priyanga Amarasekare is an American zoologist. She is a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and distinguished fellow of the Ecological Society of America (ESA). Her research is in the fields of mathematical biology and trophic ecology, with a focus on understanding patterns of biodiversity, species dispersal and the impacts of climate change. She received a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship and received ESA's Robert H. MacArthur Award in 2022.
Elena Litchman is a professor of aquatic ecology at Michigan State University known for her research on the consequences of global environmental change on phytoplankton.
The holobiont concept is a renewed paradigm in biology that can help to describe and understand complex systems, like the host-microbe interactions that play crucial roles in marine ecosystems. However, there is still little understanding of the mechanisms that govern these relationships, the evolutionary processes that shape them and their ecological consequences. The holobiont concept posits that a host and its associated microbiota with which it interacts, form a holobiont, and have to be studied together as a coherent biological and functional unit to understand its biology, ecology, and evolution.
Serita D. Frey is an American academic and ecologist, who serves as Professor of Environmental Science at the University of New Hampshire. Her research considers how human activities impact terrestrial ecosystems.
John Klironomos is a plant and microbial ecologist and academic who is a Professor of Biology at the American University of Sharjah (AUS).
References
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- ↑ "Research interests". web.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
- 1 2 3 "ESA Fellows – The Ecological Society of America" . Retrieved 2020-12-18.
- 1 2 3 "Welcome Tadashi Fukami, new SE". www.oikosjournal.org. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
- ↑ "Bug Squad - Agriculture and Natural Resources Blogs". ANR Blogs. Retrieved 2021-01-09.
- ↑ Tanentzap, AJ (2016-10-17). "Editor's Choice 104:6 – New Zealand's plant priorities". Journal of Ecology Blog. Retrieved 2021-01-09.
- ↑ "The unseen power of tiny ecosystems". Scienceline. 2019-02-13. Retrieved 2021-01-09.
- ↑ "Tadashi Fukami's Profile | Stanford Profiles". profiles.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
- ↑ McFall-Ngai, Margaret; Hadfield, Michael G.; Bosch, Thomas C. G.; Carey, Hannah V.; Domazet-Lošo, Tomislav; Douglas, Angela E.; Dubilier, Nicole; Eberl, Gerard; Fukami, Tadashi; Gilbert, Scott F.; Hentschel, Ute (2013-02-26). "Animals in a bacterial world, a new imperative for the life sciences". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 110 (9): 3229–3236. Bibcode:2013PNAS..110.3229M. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1218525110 . ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 3587249 . PMID 23391737.
- ↑ Nemergut, Diana R.; Schmidt, Steven K.; Fukami, Tadashi; O'Neill, Sean P.; Bilinski, Teresa M.; Stanish, Lee F.; Knelman, Joseph E.; Darcy, John L.; Lynch, Ryan C.; Wickey, Phillip; Ferrenberg, Scott (2013-09-01). "Patterns and Processes of Microbial Community Assembly". Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews. 77 (3): 342–356. doi:10.1128/MMBR.00051-12. ISSN 1092-2172. PMC 3811611 . PMID 24006468.
- ↑ Fukami, Tadashi (2015-12-04). "Historical Contingency in Community Assembly: Integrating Niches, Species Pools, and Priority Effects". Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. 46 (1): 1–23. doi: 10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110411-160340 . ISSN 1543-592X.
- ↑ Fukami, Tadashi; Bezemer, T. Martijn; Mortimer, Simon R.; Putten, Wim H. van der (2005). "Species divergence and trait convergence in experimental plant community assembly". Ecology Letters. 8 (12): 1283–1290. Bibcode:2005EcolL...8.1283F. doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2005.00829.x . ISSN 1461-0248.
- ↑ Fukami, Tadashi; Dickie, Ian A.; Wilkie, J. Paula; Paulus, Barbara C.; Park, Duckchul; Roberts, Andrea; Buchanan, Peter K.; Allen, Robert B. (2010). "Assembly history dictates ecosystem functioning: evidence from wood decomposer communities". Ecology Letters. 13 (6): 675–684. Bibcode:2010EcolL..13..675F. doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2010.01465.x. ISSN 1461-0248. PMID 20412280.
- ↑ Fukami, Tadashi; Wardle, David A (2005-10-22). "Long-term ecological dynamics: reciprocal insights from natural and anthropogenic gradients". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 272 (1577): 2105–2115. doi:10.1098/rspb.2005.3277. PMC 1559953 . PMID 16191623.
- ↑ "Awards". www.amnat.org. Retrieved 2020-12-18.