Community Ecology
An ecological community is a group of trophically similar, sympatric species that actually or potentially compete in a local area for the same or similar resources. Interactions between these species form the first steps in analyzing more complex dynamics of ecosystems. These interactions shape the distribution and dynamics of species. Of these interactions, predation is one of the most widespread population activities. Taken in its most general sense, predation comprises predator-prey, host-pathogen, and host parasitoid interactions.
Read more about this topic: Ecological Theories
Famous quotes containing the words community and/or ecology:
“The most perfect political community must be amongst those who are in the middle rank, and those states are best instituted wherein these are a larger and more respectable part, if possible, than both the other; or, if that cannot be, at least than either of them separate, so that being thrown into the balance it may prevent either scale from preponderating.”
—Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)
“... the fundamental principles of ecology govern our lives wherever we live, and ... we must wake up to this fact or be lost.”
—Karin Sheldon (b. c. 1945)