Community Ecology

In nature, different kinds of organisms grow in association with each other. A community is a group
of populations living in a particular area. It comprises many kinds of plants, animals and
microorganisms of a given area.

A community can be defines as a natural assemblage of plants, animals, and microorganisms

inhabiting in a given area. In a community, organisms share the same habitat growing in an uniform
environment. A forest, grassland, deserts ponds are natural communities. By definition, a
community must include only living entities of the area, thus it is also referred to a biotic
community.

Characteristics of a Community

Like a population, community too has itsown characteristics, which are not shown by its individual
components of the species. Some of these characteristics are as follows:

1. Species diversity : A community is a heterogeneous assemblage of plants, animals and

microorganisms which differ taxonomically from each other. They may be distantly related
or closely related. But they are interdependent and interacting in many ways.The number of
species and population abundance in a community also vary greatly.

Species diversity is one of the most important and basic characteristics of a community.
Species diversity is usually measured on the basis of three important aspects such as species
richness, relative abundance and species evenness.

A. Species richness(number of species): species richness is simply the number of species

found in an area/sample. This is the commonest method for rapid assessment of species
diversity. Richness tends to increase over area. In other words, larger area will harbour
more different species, probably because of variety of microhabitats and resources. In
general higher species richness indicates good community quality and integrity. The
disadvantage is that, it does not indicate how the diverse species are distributes and in
what proportion. For example, in a butterfly survey Zone 1 and Zone 2 reported 10
species each, hence the species richness of the two zones are equal. But it does not give
the proportion at which each species is present (relative abundance). The species
present in two zones also may be different. Hence, species richness alone would not be
a good descriptive value for comparing these two communities.

B. Relative Abundance : Abundance is an ecological concept, referring to the relative

representation of a species in a particular community/ecosystem. Abundance is defined
as total numbers of individuals of each species in an area/sample. It represents the
numerical strength of each species in a community. Biomass or percentage ground cover
(for terrestrial plants) may also appropriate measure of abundance.

How species abundances are distributes within a community/ecosystem is referred to

as relative abundance. Relative abundance refers to how common or rare a species is
relative to other species in a community. It is calculated by dividing the number of
species from one group by the total number of species from all groups.
 C. Species evenness : Species evenness is defines as the relative abundance with which
each species is represented in an area. When all species in a sample are equally
abundant, such as ecosystem has high species evenness. An ecosystem where some
populations are represented by large number of individuals, and other species are
represented by very few individuals, has low species evenness.

Over the past decades a large and rapidly growing number of experimental studies have addressed
how species richness affects ecosystem functioning. To date, few studies have investigated the
effects of species evenness, species abundance on ecosystem functioning.

2. Growth form and structure/Stratification : the community is described in terms of major

growth forms such as trees, shrubs, herbs, mosses etc. in each growth forms there are
different categories of organisms. For example in a forest community, there may be plants
such as broad leaved trees,needle leaved trees etc. These different growth forms determine
the structural pattern of a community such as horizontal layering (zonation) and vertical
layering (stratification).

Stratification refers to the arrangement of the living organisms in different layers in the
community. Stratification is of two types namely vertical (stratification) and horizontal
(zonation). Vertical stratification is the vertical arrangement of living organisms in different
layers in a community. Vertical stratification is found in forest community, grassland
community and aquatic communities.

Vertical stratification is clearly seen in forest community. A forest is formed of five layers.
They are 1. Trees (upper layer), 2. Shrubs 3. Herbs 4.forest floor and 5. The subterranean
(lower layer). Each layer has its own fauna. The upper layer of trees is formed of branches
and leaves. It prevents the light from reaching the forest floor. It is occupied by animals like
lizards, tree frogs, squirrels, monkeys , lories etc. The second and third layer consists of
shade tolerant shrubs and herbs. Shrubs and herbs are occupied by plant eating insects and
spiders. The forest floor is occupied by dead organic matter, litter, fungi, bacteria, snails etc.
the subterranean layer is formed of roots, tubers, earthworms, insects, bacteria etc.

In aquatic communities, such as large ponds ,lakes and oceans temperature causes thermal
stratification. It is formed of three layers namely, the upper epilimnion, a middle
thermocline and a lower hypolimnion.

Similarly, the penetration of light causes three layers, namely the euphotic zone, the
disphotic zone and the aphotic zone.

Horizontal stratification (zonnation) is the distribution of individuals on a horizontal plane in

a community. In a terrestrial community, the individuals may be distributed on the floor in
three ways namely uniform, clumped and random. In pond or lake three horizontal zones
are seen. They are littoral zone, limnetic zone and profundal zone. In marine habitat four
horizontal zones are recognized. They are 1. The neritic zone, 2. The oceanic zone 3. The
archibenthic zone and 4. The abyssal benthic zone.

3. Dominance: Among several species present in the community, a few exert major controlling
influence by virtue of their size, numbers or activities. These are called dominant species.
 Dominants are those species which are highly successful in a particular habitat. Cover and
population density are the chief qualities determining dominance. The dominants exercise
controlling influence in the habitat while modifying the microhabitats which permits the
growth of many different species which otherwise cannot survive in the absence of
dominants. The removal of community dominant from the community affects the
community drastically. In a forest community, trees form the dominant community. In
grasslands grasses form the dominant community.

4. Ecological Indicators : Environmental factors have a profound role in determining the

biological species inhabiting a particular habitat. Therefore the presence of certain species of
plants or animals in a habitat indicates the conditions prevailing in that habitat. This intimate
relationship between the organisms and their environment can effectively be utilized for
assessing the environmental conditions.

Some organisms are especially sensitive to the fluctuations in environmental factors. Such
organisms are often used as a measure of the environmental conditions. They are known as
indicator species. Indicator species are any biological species that defines /determines a trait
or characteristics of the environment.

Usually dominant species are utilized as the ecological indicators. Plants are especially useful
in this regard. The species of plants growing in certain areas and their morphology can
provide valuable information about the occurrence of minerals and mineral deposits
beneath the surface of the soil.

Indicator species can be among the most sensitive species in a region, and sometimes act as
an early warning to monitoring biologists. Many species of lichens are very sensitive to toxic
gases, such as sulphur dioxide and ozone. These species have been monitored in many
places to study air pollution.

5. Keystone species : In communities, ecologists have found that some species exert greater
influence than do others. A species that has particularly strong or far reaching impact is
often called a keystone species. In an ecosystem /community, removal of a keystone species
will have substantial ripple effect and will alter a large portion of the food web.

Often large bodied secondary or tertiary consumers near the top of the food chain are
considered as the keystone species. Top predators control populations of herbivores, which
would otherwise multiply and could through increased herbivory, greatly modify the plant
community. For instance tiger can be considered as a keystone species. They consume deers
and other herbivores. Herbivores depends on vegetation mainly grasses. If the population of
the tiger is depleted due to some reasons, the whole system will be burdened.

6. Succession: Each community has its own development history. It develops as a result of a
directional change with time. The process of development of a new community in an area is
called ecological succession. Succession starts with a pioneer community and ends with a
climax community. Ecological succession is directional and predictable. The gradual
conversion of a virgin pond into a fully stabilized ecosystem with climax community is a
good example for succession.
7. Ecotone and Edge effect : The boundaries of a community are often difficult to be
determined. Many communities, in fact mix with into each other with no sharp boundaries.
For example, it two forests, pine forests and spruce forests nearby, one cannot see
boundaries between them. But if we move from one end of the pine forest to the other end
of the spruce forest, one can observe difference in species composition between the two;
yet one cannot demarcate the sharp boundary between these two forests. There are
however, instances where sharp boundaries between the communities are seen for example
at the transition between aquatic and terrestrial habitats.

The place where two major communities meet and blend together is called an ecotone. It is
the intermediate zone lying between the two adjacent communities. It is also called
transition zone. The border between forest and grassland is an ecotone. Similarly, the bank
of stream running through a meadow is also an ecotone. An eustary is another ecotone lying
between river and sea.

Ecotone is a region where the influence of two different pattern of environment work
together and hence the vegetation of ecotones are highly specialised. An ecotone may be
narrow or wide. In the ecotone, the environmental conditions are intermediate between the
two adjacent communities.

A general characteristics of the ecotone is that it has more number of species than the
neighbouring communities. The density of the species is also higher than that in the adjacent
communities. This is called edge effect or principles of edge. The edge effect is due to wider
range of suitable environmental conditions. The ecotone area contains species from both
the adjacent communities. It also contains organisms unique to ecotone region. They are
called edge species.

Ecological Niche