Chapter 5
Interactions play a huge role in ecosystems, There are 4 types of interactions. One is called Predation. Predation is when Predators feed on there prey. The second one is called Parasitism. Parasitism is when organisms live or on other organisms and feeds off all the nutrients. The third is called commensalism. Commensalism is when one species benefits and the other is neither helped or harmed. The final interaction is Mutalism. Mutalism is when species depend on another for survival. My species interaction is predation. My species is a predator hunting his/her's prey. Another organism that consist of predation is a snake and a whale. Snakes eat mice,while whales consume krills.
Competition is huge in ecosystems throught the world. There are two types, Interspecific and Intraspecific. Interspecific is when species or organisms never come into direct contact with each other. Florida Panther's are involved in Interspecific interactions with coyotes. The two of them have alot in common. They both depend on food from the whitetail deer. Limiting factors can be related to interspecific in many ways. One way is if a better adapted species is succeding faster than the other one than the resources they're fighting over can become limited. There niches can become overlaped as well.
Another competing factor is Intraspecific. Intraspecific is when species and organisms compete directly for limited resources. It can also be reffered to organisms competing for territory. The Florida Panther's most times compete with each other. Males and females compete to survive in their habitat. Many males win against females. Males fight with other males for territorial purposes since they overlap. This is considered a natural behavior for the panther(Flemming,Elizabeth,2008). Natural Selection can be compared to Intraspecific in alot of ways. One way is when organisms expend a large amount of time and enrgy competing with each other in the same community. For example when plants grow over each other to compete for sun light, each of the plant constintly reproduce at a fast rate(Science Book,2008)