Community Ecology- The Portal Experiment

Lecture Video- http://mediacast.ttu.edu/Mediasite/Play/7feddd71db3e46eaa48d3bd62f4b50e71d?catalog=4dc7289a-d3e0-4ae5-8fdc-5b86c027a06b


Here are some photos from the research site in Portal, Arizona. For more information about the research project at Portal you can look at their website at
http://portal.weecology.org/

Expected Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course a fully engaged student should be able to

- distinguish between direct and indirect, positive and negative effects
- describe the experimental design that Dr. Brown and his colleagues used to study exploitative competition between desert rats and rodents
-discuss why and how the outcome of studies of interactions between organisms can vary over time
- discuss the way that the ecological community responded when they learned the importance of long term studies
- discuss how indirect interactions lead to one of my favorite phrases "the world is complicated"

Community Ecology

Required Readings

Community Ecology- http://www.eoearth.org/article/Community_ecology

Competition- http://www.eoearth.org/article/Competition

Interspecific Competition- http://www.eoearth.org/article/Interspecific_competition

Exploitative Competition- http://www.eoearth.org/article/Exploitative_competition

Predation- http://www.eoearth.org/article/Predation

Mutualism- http://www.eoearth.org/article/Mutualism

Expected Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course a fully engaged student should be able to

- define competition, exploitative competition and interference competition

- identify and explain examples of exploitative and interference competition from a variety of environments

- define predation (narrow and broad sense), herbivory, and parasitms

- identify and explain examples of predation, herbivory, and parasitism from a variety of environments

- identify examples of morphological and behavioral adaptations that animals have to help capture their food

- identify examples of morphological, biochemical, or behavioral adaptations that animals have to protect them from predators

- identify and explain examples of mutualisms from a variety of habitats


Past Test Questions (answers at bottom of post)

In the southeastern United States, a weedy plant called Kudzu has caused a great deal of problems. Because Kudzu has such high growth rates it is able to rapidly overgrow buildings and other plants.

1. Which of the following would best describe the ecological relationship between Kudzu and a species of pine tree that is commonly overgrown by Kudzu?
(a) mutualism
(b) parasitism
(c) exploitative competition
(d) herbivory
(e) none of the above

Answer- 1. c