After studying this chapter, you should be able to accomplish the following outcomes.
Ecology of Communities - Characterize a biological community and species richness.
- Describe the factors that define an organism's ecological niche within its community.
- Understand how the interactions among species such as competition, predation, parasitism, and mutualism organize a community.
Community Development
- Explain how ecological succession changes community structure and organization over time.
Dynamics of an Ecosystem
- Discuss the interactions of organisms with their environment that comprise an ecosystem.
- Identify the ways autotrophs, photoautotrophs, and heterotrophs obtain nutrients.
- Contrast the energy flow and chemical cycling within and among ecosystems.
- Describe the energy flow among populations through food webs and ecological pyramids.
- Diagram the water, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus biogeochemical cycles.
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