Interspecific interactions: ecology of competition and predation 1400-215FWOR.KiP

Classification of resource types, variation in resource availability in time and space. Ecological niche: fundamental niche, realized niche, niche breadth and overlap.
A definition of competition. Mechanism of interaction, exploitation and interference, scramble and contest competition. Intensity of interspecific competition, competitive exclusion, co-existence of competing species, limiting similarity. Asymmetry and competitive dominance. Methods of studying competition in plants and animals, competitive release. Mechanism and effects of interactions among plants and animals: population dynamics, resource partitioning, spatial distribution, interspecific territoriality, checkerboard distributions, character displacement, differentiation of fundamental niches, speciation, "the ghost of competition past". Competition in multi-specific communities, diffuse competition, guilds. Classifying consumers (herbivores and predators) and their feeding modes. Sequence of events throughout consumpt