1. Community Ecology
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2. Geography Resources Phylogeny Community
Community – collection of species that occur at the same place & time, circumscribed by natural (e.g., serpentine soil), arbitrary, or artificial (e.g.,
1-m2 quadrat) boundaries
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Fauth, John E., J. Bernardo, M. Camara, W. J. Resetarits, Jr., J. Van Buskirk & S. A. McCollum Simplifying the jargon of community ecology: A conceptual approach. The American Naturalist 147:
Redrawn from Fauth et al. (1996) Am. Nat.

3. Geography Resources Phylogeny Community
Community – “Any set of organisms currently living near each other and
about which it is interesting to talk” (MacArthur 1971)
Many prefer a more
restrictive definition
in which species must interact to be included, e.g., Whittaker (1975)
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I may be particularly biased in favor of MacArthur’s definition (found in MacArthur [1971] in Farner & King, eds., Avian Biology; see J. A. Wiens [1989] The Ecology of Bird Communities, pg. 3), since it most flexibly fits the types of “communities” on which my research focuses.
Fauth, John E., J. Bernardo, M. Camara, W. J. Resetarits, Jr., J. Van Buskirk & S. A. McCollum Simplifying the jargon of community ecology: A conceptual approach. The American Naturalist 147:
Whittaker, Robert H Communities and Ecosystems, 2nd ed. MacMillan, New York, NY.
Redrawn from Fauth et al. (1996) Am. Nat.

4. Geography Resources Phylogeny Community
Taxon – phylogenetically related group of species;
a clade
E.g., Mammalian Order Rodentia
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Fauth, John E., J. Bernardo, M. Camara, W. J. Resetarits, Jr., J. Van Buskirk & S. A. McCollum Simplifying the jargon of community ecology: A conceptual approach. The American Naturalist 147:
Taxon
Redrawn from Fauth et al. (1996) Am. Nat.

5. Geography Resources Phylogeny Community Guild
Guild – a group of species “without regard for taxonomic position” that “exploit the same class of environmental resources in a similar way” (Root 1967)
E.g., granivores
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Fauth, John E., J. Bernardo, M. Camara, W. J. Resetarits, Jr., J. Van Buskirk & S. A. McCollum Simplifying the jargon of community ecology: A conceptual approach. The American Naturalist 147:
Root, R. B The niche exploitation pattern of the blue-gray gnatcatcher. Ecological Monographs 37:
Taxon
Redrawn from Fauth et al. (1996) Am. Nat.

6. Geography Resources (or Function) Phylogeny Community Functional Group
Functional Group – a group of species that share similar functional attributes (this was not part of the original scheme)
E.g., nitrogen-fixers
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Fauth, John E., J. Bernardo, M. Camara, W. J. Resetarits, Jr., J. Van Buskirk & S. A. McCollum Simplifying the jargon of community ecology: A conceptual approach. The American Naturalist 147:
Taxon
Redrawn from Fauth et al. (1996) Am. Nat.

7. Geography Resources Phylogeny Local guild Community Guild
Local guild – a group of species that share a common resource and occur in the same community (Root 1967)
E.g., Sonoran Desert granivores
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Fauth, John E., J. Bernardo, M. Camara, W. J. Resetarits, Jr., J. Van Buskirk & S. A. McCollum Simplifying the jargon of community ecology: A conceptual approach. The American Naturalist 147:
Root, R. B The niche exploitation pattern of the blue-gray gnatcatcher. Ecological Monographs 37:
Taxon
Redrawn from Fauth et al. (1996) Am. Nat.

8. Geography Resources Phylogeny Local guild Community Guild Assemblage
Assemblage – a group of phylogenetically related species within a community
Please do not use the images in these PowerPoint slides without permission.
Fauth, John E., J. Bernardo, M. Camara, W. J. Resetarits, Jr., J. Van Buskirk & S. A. McCollum Simplifying the jargon of community ecology: A conceptual approach. The American Naturalist 147:
Taxon
Redrawn from Fauth et al. (1996) Am. Nat.

9. Geography Resources Phylogeny Local guild Community Guild Assemblage
Assemblage – a group of phylogenetically related species within a community
E.g., Sonoran Desert rodents
Please do not use the images in these PowerPoint slides without permission.
Fauth, John E., J. Bernardo, M. Camara, W. J. Resetarits, Jr., J. Van Buskirk & S. A. McCollum Simplifying the jargon of community ecology: A conceptual approach. The American Naturalist 147:
Taxon
Redrawn from Fauth et al. (1996) Am. Nat.

10. Geography Resources Phylogeny Local guild Community Guild Ensemble
Assemblage
Ensemble – a phylogenetically bounded group of species that use a similar set of resources within a community
E.g., Sonoran Desert granivorous rodents
Please do not use the images in these PowerPoint slides without permission.
Fauth, John E., J. Bernardo, M. Camara, W. J. Resetarits, Jr., J. Van Buskirk & S. A. McCollum Simplifying the jargon of community ecology: A conceptual approach. The American Naturalist 147:
Taxon
Redrawn from Fauth et al. (1996) Am. Nat.

11. pond-breeding salamanders…
Geography
Resources
Local
guild
Community
Guild
Phylogeny
Ensemble
Assemblage
E.g.,
granivorous rodents,
pond-breeding salamanders…
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Fauth, John E., J. Bernardo, M. Camara, W. J. Resetarits, Jr., J. Van Buskirk & S. A. McCollum Simplifying the jargon of community ecology: A conceptual approach. The American Naturalist 147:
Taxon
Redrawn from Fauth et al. (1996) Am. Nat.

12. Community Assembly
“Community membership depends on arriving at a site, coping with the site’s physical environment, and interacting with other species living there”
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Morin, Peter J Community Ecology. Blackwell Science, Inc., Oxford, U.K.
Quote from Cain, Bowman & Hacker (2014), pg. 357; figure redrawn from Morin (1999, pg. 27)

13. Parallels Between Community Ecology & Pop. Genetics
“Species are added to communities via speciation and dispersal,
and the relative abundances of these species are then shaped
by drift and selection, as well as
ongoing dispersal, to
drive community
dynamics”
Global community
Drift
Selection
Speciation
Dispersal
Dispersal
Regional community
Drift
Selection
Speciation
Dispersal
Dispersal
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From Vellend & Orrock (2010): “Both population genetics and community ecology are essentially concerned with variation over space and time in the relative abundance and diversity of discrete biological variants: alleles or species, respectively. Four logically distinct processes can change the abundances and diversity of biological variants (Vellend & Geber 2005).”
Pop. Genetics: Mutation, Drift, Selection, Gene Flow
Community Ecology: Speciation, Drift, Selection, Dispersal
Vellend, Mark Conceptual synthesis in community ecology. The Quarterly Review of Biology 85:
Vellend, Mark & John L. Orrock Ecological and genetic models of diversity: Lessons across disciplines. Pp in J. B. Losos & R. E. Ricklefs, eds. The Theory of Island Biogeography at 40: Impacts and Prospects. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Local
community A
Local
community B
Drift
Drift
Selection
Selection
Speciation
Speciation
Redrawn from Vellend & Orrock (2010)

14. Food Webs & Interaction Webs
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Cain, Bowman & Hacker (2014), Fig. 16.5

15. Food Webs & Interaction Webs
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Cain, Bowman & Hacker (2014), Fig. 16.5

16. Multi-Species Interactions
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One could think of the indirect positive link from otter to alga – from the alga’s perspective as: “the enemy (otter) of my enemy (urchin) is my friend.”
Note that your textbook does not include the direct positive link from alga to urchin, the direct positive link from urchin to otter, and the indirect positive link from alga to otter.
Cain, Bowman & Hacker (2014), Fig

17. Multi-Species Interactions
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Cain, Bowman & Hacker (2014), Fig

18. Species Richness & Diversity
Species Composition (the species present)
A has the same species as B
Species Richness
A = B
Species Evenness
A < B
Species Diversity
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Cain, Bowman & Hacker (2014), Fig. 16.6

19. Incorporates both Species Richness & Evenness
Species Diversity
Incorporates both Species Richness & Evenness
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Cain, Bowman & Hacker (2014), Table 16.1

20. Species Diversity – Rank Abundance Curve
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Cain, Bowman & Hacker (2014), Fig. 16.8

21. Species Diversity – Species Accumulation Curve
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Note that the y-axis would be better labeled: “Cumulative species richness”.
For future – Kyle should plot up species accumulation curves for Communities A & B from Fig
Cain, Bowman & Hacker (2014), Fig

22. Relative Influence of Species Dominant / Foundation Species
Single species that defines much of the structure of a community
(Dayton 1972)
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Photo from Wikimedia Commons

23. Relative Influence of Species
Ecosystem Engineers
Organism that changes the environment by transforming living or nonliving materials from one physical state to another, via mechanical or other means (Jones et al. 1994)
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Photo of beaver dam on Tierra del Fuego from Wikimedia Commons

24. Relative Influence of Species
Keystone Species
E.g., Keystone predator – a predator (e.g., Pisaster seastar) whose activities maintain species diversity at lower trophic levels by
disallowing competitive exclusion
(Paine 1966)
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Photo from Wikimedia Commons

25. Relative Influence of Species
Redundant Species
Like the multiple rivets in an airplane
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Wikipedia “Red-winged blackbird” page; accessed 28-X-2014
By Walter Siegmund (Own work) [GFDL ( or CC-BY-SA ( via Wikimedia Commons
Wikipedia “Yellow-headed blackbird” page; accessed 28-X-2014
By Alan Vernon (Flickr: Male Yellow-headed Blackbird) [CC-BY-2.0 ( via Wikimedia Commons
Photos of red-winged blackbird and yellow-headed blackbird from Wikimedia Commons

26. What if all individuals have the same per capita influence?
Neutral Theory
Steve Hubbell
What if all individuals have the same per capita influence?
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Ecological Drift
Photo of S. P. Hubbell from UCLA