Biology (Mader), 10th Edition

Chapter 45: Community and Ecosystem Ecology

Learning Outcomes

After studying this chapter, you should be able to accomplish the following outcomes.

Ecology of Communities

1. Characterize a biological community and species richness.
2. Describe the factors that define an organism's ecological niche within its community.
3. Understand how the interactions among species such as competition, predation, parasitism, and mutualism organize a community.

4. Explain how ecological succession changes community structure and organization over time.

5. Discuss the interactions of organisms with their environment that comprise an ecosystem.
6. Identify the ways autotrophs, photoautotrophs, and heterotrophs obtain nutrients.
7. Contrast the energy flow and chemical cycling within and among ecosystems.
8. Describe the energy flow among populations through food webs and ecological pyramids.
9. Diagram the water, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus biogeochemical cycles.