1. Fig - Fig Wasp Natural History http://129.31.3.171/index.html 750 spp. of fig, most with a single sp. of pollinator!!

2. Fig - Fig Wasp Model MVP: ~ 170 fig trees are required to eliminate a gap in flowering among trees - i.e., 99% probability of persistence for 1000 years.

3. Big-Blue Butterfly An obligate parasite of ant colonies Butterfly oviposits on thyme Caterpillar feeds on thyme Caterpillar enters Myrmica ant nest Caterpillar is fed by / feeds on ants Caterpillar becomes a beautiful butterfly http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/thomas.wolosz/metapop.htm

4. Big-Blue Butterfly First started disappearing in the 19th century Hypotheses –Over-collecting by insect collectors –Insecticides –Fragmentation –Climate change –Air pollution Rapid decline in the 1950’s, extinct by 1979.

5. Big-Blue Butterfly BUTTERFLY THYME ANT COLONY (Myrmica sabuleti) SHORT GRASSY FIELDS GRAZING RABBITSMYXOMATOSIS

6. Migratory Birds Studies have identified a decrease in U.S. neotropical migrants –Decreasing at the rate of 0.5 to 1.0% per year Hypotheses –Deforestation in tropics or breeding ground –Susceptibility to predation or cowbird parasitism on breeding grounds

7. Brown-headed cowbird

8. The Evidence Based on taxonomically diverse community in eastern U.S. –Decline of migrants equal to ~ 1% / year. Based on wood warblers, vireos, gnatcatchers, kinglets, titmice, chickadees, nuthatches, brown creeper, wrens, bluebirds across U.S. –No decline for migrants –Recent declines in birds with high susceptibility to predation / cowbird parasitism

9. Black-Footed Ferret The most endangered mammal in N. America http://www.ngpc.state.ne.us/wildlife/ferret.html

10. Inter-relationship of species “The number of bumblebees in any district depends in a great measure upon the number of field-mice, which destroy their combs and nests”. “[Because] the number of mice is largely dependent, as everyone knows, on the number of cats... It is quite credible that the presence of a feline animal in large numbers in a district might determine, through the intervention first of mice and then of bees, the frequency of certain flowers in that district!” - Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species

11. Keystone Species Photo by James M. Cook

12. Keystone Species strong interactors weak interactors KeystonesDominants Common Cold Abundance Total Effect From: Meffe and Carroll Species with a disproportionate effect on community structure.

13. Problems with the Keystone Species Concept Loosely applied Difficult to test Questionable application Conclusion: Focus on interaction strengths

14. Grinnell (1917): where a species lives (habitat) Elton (1927): what a species does Hutchinson (1950s): combination of all biotic and abiotic requirements of a species: n-dimensional “hyper-volume” temperature seed sizepredator density abundance Ecological Niche

15. Competitive Exclusion If the niches of two competing species overlap by “too much”, then one tends to replace the other. Corollary: Competition drives the evolution of divergent niches or life-history strategies (i.e., respond or perish) niche abundance

16. Darwin’s Finches: Character Displacement

17. “The Ghost of Competition / Predation Past” What we see today may be the result of competition / predation in the past (i.e., implies evolutionary history). –Consider Pleistocene extinctions Conservation Implication: Exotic species may have their most negative effects after invading communities that lack an analogous evolutionary partner