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Competition is one of many interacting biotic and abiotic factors that affect community structure, species diversity, and population dynamics (shifts in a population over time). [ 3 ] There are three major mechanisms of competition: interference, exploitation, and apparent competition (in order from most direct to least direct).
Competition within, between, and among species is one of the most important forces in biology, especially in the field of ecology. [5]Competition between members of a species ("intraspecific") for resources such as food, water, territory, and sunlight may result in an increase in the frequency of a variant of the species best suited for survival and reproduction until its fixation within a ...
Humans can make or change abiotic factors in a species' environment. For instance, fertilizers can affect a snail's habitat, or the greenhouse gases which humans utilize can change marine pH levels. Abiotic components include physical conditions and non-living resources that affect living organisms in terms of growth, maintenance, and ...
Metabolic rate scales with the mass of an organism of a given species according to Kleiber's law where B is whole organism metabolic rate (in watts or other unit of power), M is organism mass (in kg), and B o is a mass-independent normalization constant (given in a unit of power divided by a unit of mass. In this case, watts per kilogram):
Ecosystem services are ecologically mediated functional processes essential to sustaining healthy human societies. [6] Water provision and filtration, production of biomass in forestry, agriculture, and fisheries, and removal of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO 2) from the atmosphere are examples of ecosystem services essential to public health and economic opportunity.
As with most abiotic factors, light intensity (irradiance) can be both suboptimal and excessive. Suboptimal light (shade) typically occurs at the base of a plant canopy or in an understory environment. Shade tolerant plants have a range of adaptations to help them survive the altered quantity and quality of light typical of shade environments.
[1] [2] It describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors (for example, by growing when resources are abundant, and when predators, parasites and pathogens are scarce) and how it in turn alters those same factors (for example, limiting access to resources by other organisms, acting as a food ...
[citation needed] Studies indicate that both abiotic (e.g., resource availability) and biotic (e.g., predation) factors can affect the strength of priority effects. [ citation needed ] . Priority effects are a central and pervasive element of ecological community development that have significant implications for natural systems and ecological ...