Modified from:

LIVING IN THE ENVIRONMENT, 18e

G. TYLER MILLER • SCOTT E. SPOOLMAN

Species Interactions, Limiting

Resources and Other Population
Parameters
© Cengage
© Cengage Learning
Learning 2015
2015
Core Case Study: Southern Sea Otters - A
Species in Recovery
• Live in giant kelp forests – marine algae
• By the early 1900s the otters had been hunted
almost to extinction
• Partial recovery since 1977
• Why care about sea otters?
– Ethics
– Tourism dollars
– Keystone species
– Indicator species – very sensitive to environmental
change
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Sea Otters, Kelp Forests, Sea Urchins

• Kelp is a giant alga which is anchored to the sea floor

and can grow 0.5m a day
• Kelp forests are
– vital for the protection of coasts
– one of the world’s most biodiverse marine ecosystems
– vital for absorbing CO2 from sea water
• Sea otters eat sea urchins – as many as 1,500 a day!!!!
Sea urchins eat kelp.
• Take away the otters and the urchins devastate the kelp
• In addition, kelp forests are destroyed by polluted water,
containing excess fertilisers and herbicides.
© Cengage Learning 2015
 Southern Sea Otter
INTERESTING LINKS
Algal blooms and the death of Sea Otters in 2015:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNkaK8JFTfY
Sea otters, kelp forests and the extinction of Steller’s Sea Cow:
https://www.pnas.org/content/113/4/880

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How Do Species Interact?

Population sizes are affected by five types of

species interactions:
1. Competition
2. Predation
3. Parasitism
4. Mutualism
5. Commensalism
These affect the way in which resources are used
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Most Species Compete with One Another
for Certain Resources

• Inter-specific v intra-specific interactions

• Think of species interactions in terms of:
 POSITIVE + the species or organisms benefit
from the interaction
 NEGATIVE – the species or organisms lose out
 NEUTRAL 0 there is neither benefit nor loss

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Some Species Evolve Ways to Share
Resources

• Interspecific competition
– Compete to use the same limited resources
• Resource partitioning
• Species may use only parts of resource
– At different times
– In different ways

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 Resource Partitioning: Sharing the Wealth

Blackburnian Black-throated Cape May Bay-breasted Yellow-rumped

Warbler Green Warbler Warbler Warbler Warbler

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Specialist Species
of Honeycreepers

Specialist species of
honeycreepers: Through
natural selection,
different species of
honeycreepers developed
specialized ecological
niches that reduced
competition between
these species. Each
species has evolved a
specialized beak to take
advantage of certain
types of food resources.

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Ecological Niches
Think – the predatory carnivores of the African Savanna:
• Lions
• Cheetahs
• Leopards
• Spotted Hyaenas
• Hunting Dogs
• Crocodiles
And answer these questions:
• What time of day do they hunt?
• What prey is preferred?
• How does each predator hunt?
• Where do they hunt?
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Consumer Species Feed on Other Species

• Predator – feeds directly on all or part of a

living organism
• Carnivores
– Pursuit and ambush
– Camouflage
– Chemical warfare

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Consumer Species Feed on Other Species
(cont’d.)

• Prey can avoid predation

– Camouflage
– Chemical warfare
– Warning coloration
– Mimicry
– Behavioral strategies

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Predator-Prey Relationships
Predator-Prey
Relationships

These prey species have

developed specialized
ways to avoid their
predators: (a, b)
camouflage, (c–e)
chemical warfare, (d, e)
warning coloration, (f)
mimicry, (g) deceptive
looks, and (h) deceptive
behavior.
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Interactions between Predator and Prey
Species

• Intense natural selection pressures

between predator and prey populations
• Coevolution
– Interact over a long period of time
– Changes in the gene pool of one species can
cause changes in the gene pool of the other
– Bats and moths
• Echolocation of bats and sensitive hearing of
moths
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 Coevolution
Bats hunt moths using echo-location at
such high frequencies that we humans
cannot hear. In the evolutionary ‘arms
race’, moths developed ears able to listen
to bat frequencies. Natural selection then
favoured bats who could use ‘stealth
location’ – frequencies so high even the
moths couldn’t hear. Some moths then
evolved to be able to emit ultrasonic
clicks, which served as a defence
mechanism. Brilliant co-evolution which
is probably still going on.
Predator-prey coevolution is illustrated by rough-
skinned newts and common garter snakes.
Through natural selection, newts evolved the
ability to produce a strong toxin. In response,
garter snakes evolved the ability to resist the
toxin, so they could still safely prey upon newts.
Then, newts evolved the ability to produce
higher levels of toxin. This was followed by
garter snakes evolving resistance to the higher
levels. In short, the predator-prey relationship led
to an evolutionary “arms race,” resulting in
extremely high levels of toxin in newts.
Symbiosis

• Symbiosis is any type of a close and

long-term biological interaction between
two different biological organisms. The
interaction may be to the benefit of both
species or to the benefit of one only.
– PARASITISM
– COMENSALISM
– MUTUALISM
– AMENSALISM
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Parasitism (+ -)

Some species feed off other species by

living on or inside them
Parasitism
– Parasite is usually much smaller than the host
– Parasite rarely kills the host. Why not?
– Parasite-host interaction may lead to
coevolution
– Ecto- and endo-parasites

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Parasitism (+ -)
Mutualism (+ +)

In some interactions, both species benefit

• Mutualism
– Nutrition and protective relationship
– Gut inhabitant mutualism
– Not cooperation – mutual exploitation

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Mutualism (+ +)
Comensalism (+ 0)

In some interactions, one species benefits

and the other is not harmed
Commensalism
– Benefits one species and has little affect on
the other
– Epiphytes
– Birds nesting in trees

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Commensalism (+ 0)
Amensalism ( - 0)

Amensalism is an association between organisms of two

different species in which one is inhibited or destroyed and the
other is unaffected. There are two basic modes:
1. competition, in which a larger or stronger organism
excludes a smaller or weaker one from living space or
deprives it of food
2. antibiosis, in which one organism is unaffected but the
other is damaged or killed by a chemical secretion.
Examples:
1. the secretion of penicillin by bread mould, which kills
bacteria
2. black walnut (Juglans nigra), which secretes juglone, a
substance that destroys many herbaceous plants within
its root zone.
What Limits the Growth of Populations?

• No population can grow indefinitely

because of limitations on resources and
because of competition among species for
those resources

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Most Populations Live in Clumps

• Population
– Group of interbreeding individuals of the same
species
• Population distribution
– Most populations live together - Clumping
• Species cluster for resources
• Protection from predators
• Ability to hunt in packs

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Population Distribution
Populations Can Grow, Shrink, or Remain
Stable

• Population size governed by:

– Births and deaths; immigration and emigration
• Population change = (births + immigration)
– (deaths + emigration)
• Age structure
– Pre-reproductive age
– Reproductive age
– Post-reproductive age
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Some Factors Can Limit Population Size

• Range of tolerance
– Variations in physical and chemical
environment
– Individuals may have different tolerance
ranges

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Some Factors Can Limit Population Size

• Limiting factor principle

– Too much or too little of any physical or
chemical factor can limit or prevent growth of
a population, even if all other factors are at or
near the optimal range of tolerance
– Precipitation, nutrients, sunlight
• Populations density
– Number of individuals in a given area

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 Trout Tolerance of Temperature
Lower limit Higher limit
of tolerance of tolerance

No Few Few No
organisms rganisms Abundance of organisms organisms organisms
Population size

Zone of Zone of Zone of Zone of

Optimum range
intolerance physiological physiological intolerance
stress stress

Low Temperature High

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Different Species Have Different
Reproductive Patterns

• Some species are r strategists:

– Have many small offspring
– Little parental involvement
• Other species are k strategists:
– Reproduce later in life
– Have small number of offspring
– Parental care

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No Population Can Grow Indefinitely:
J-Curves and S-Curves

• There are always limits to population

growth in nature
• Environmental resistance – factors that
limit population growth
• Carrying capacity
– Maximum population of a given species that a
particular habitat can sustain indefinitely

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No Population Can Grow Indefinitely:
J-Curves and S-Curves (cont’d.)

• Exponential growth
– At a fixed percentage per year
• Logistic growth
– Population faces environmental resistance

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Growth Population
of a Sheep overshootsPopulation
carrying capacity Environmental resistance
2.0

Carrying capacity
Number of sheep (millions)

1.5
Population recovers
and stabilizes

1.0 Population runs out of

Exponential resources and crashes
growth

.5

1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925

Year
Case Study: Exploding White-Tailed Deer
Population in the U.S.

• 1900 – deer habitat destruction and

uncontrolled hunting
• 1920s–1930s – laws to protect the deer
• Current deer population explosion
– Spread Lyme disease
– Deer-vehicle accidents
– Eating garden plants and shrubs
• How can we control the deer population?
© Cengage Learning 2015
White-Tailed Deer Populations
When a Population Exceeds Its Carrying
Capacity It Can Crash

• A population exceeds the area’s carrying

capacity
• Reproductive time lag may lead to
overshoot
– Subsequent population crash
• Damage may reduce area’s carrying
capacity

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 Population Crash
2,000 Population
overshoots
carrying
capacity
Number of reindeer

1,500
Population
crashes

1,000

500 Carrying
capacity

0
1910 1920 1930 1940 1950

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Humans Are Not Exempt from Nature’s
Population Controls

• Ireland
– Potato crop in 1845
• Bubonic plague
– Fourteenth century
• AIDS
– Current global
epidemic

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