Ecology B/C

[amerikestrel]

I think in this case, if you ask 100 different people, you'll get 100 different answers. In my opinion, abiotic factors aren't included, but some people do consider them part of the niche.

Hmm... but what if we don't agree with the opinion that the test maker has? That could be a tricky situation.

[Nerd95]

Well, it can be interpreted many ways. The way I remember niche is to think of it like an organism's "job" in the ecosystem. If the organism is a panda, its "job" is to eat bamboo all day. Get my point? My niche is being a student.
A niche is a job, just for the ecology world.

[Paradox21]

When I think of a niche, I think of the competitive exclusion principle, which is that no two organisms can occupy the same niche. This basically says that if two species are competing for the exact same resources, one of them will have an advantage and cause local extinction. So by that definition temperature range would be included in a niche. For example if 2 species both only eat mosquitoes, but one only lives in temperatures from 55 to 60 degrees and the other only lives in 85 to 90 degrees, they can both survive because they are in separate climate ranges. That is an overly simplified hypothetical situation, in real life it is a lot more complicated and you get some species partially overlapping and other things and that brings in terms like fundamental niche and realized niche. Any AP biology book should tell you just about everything you need to know about niches.

[amerikestrel]

Well, it can be interpreted many ways. The way I remember niche is to think of it like an organism's "job" in the ecosystem. If the organism is a panda, its "job" is to eat bamboo all day. Get my point? My niche is being a student.
A niche is a job, just for the ecology world.

Hmm... that's an interesting way to put it, but I think it's very over-simplified. You could interpret the word "job" in different ways, so it would definitely be too general.

When I think of a niche, I think of the competitive exclusion principle, which is that no two organisms can occupy the same niche.

But doesn't the competitive exclusion principle say that two organisms that are competing for the same resources cannot coexist?

[gneissisnice]

Well, it can be interpreted many ways. The way I remember niche is to think of it like an organism's "job" in the ecosystem. If the organism is a panda, its "job" is to eat bamboo all day. Get my point? My niche is being a student.
A niche is a job, just for the ecology world.

Hmm... that's an interesting way to put it, but I think it's very over-simplified. You could interpret the word "job" in different ways, so it would definitely be too general.

When I think of a niche, I think of the competitive exclusion principle, which is that no two organisms can occupy the same niche.

But doesn't the competitive exclusion principle say that two organisms that are competing for the same resources cannot coexist?

Well, it's basically the same thing, except that two organisms CAN compete for the same resource, but not at the same time (i.e. one is active at night and the other is active during the day). So two organisms cannot occupy the niche, because they'd be competing for resources in the same area at the same time. I dont know if that's a good explanation, but it's the best I got before I need to leave for class.

[Sunshine]

I'm kinda confused on something... Yesterday, I went to an invitationals, and took the eco test, got the results back, and started flipping through the questions i missed. There's a question asking what kind of diagram shows the movement of energy through an ecosystem. I picked food web, but the answer key said food chain, but a food chain can't possibly cover a whole ecosystem. Normally, I would just assume it's just a mistake in the answer key, but I have seen this question twice, and both times, the answer key said the correct answer was food chain.

[amerikestrel]

I'm kinda confused on something... Yesterday, I went to an invitationals, and took the eco test, got the results back, and started flipping through the questions i missed. There's a question asking what kind of diagram shows the movement of energy through an ecosystem. I picked food web, but the answer key said food chain, but a food chain can't possibly cover a whole ecosystem. Normally, I would just assume it's just a mistake in the answer key, but I have seen this question twice, and both times, the answer key said the correct answer was food chain.

Hmm... I would think that it would be food web also. When you say you saw the question twice, do you mean on the same test? If that's the case, then the test maker may have had the wrong information. If that isn't the case, then could it be possible that you didn't read the question carefully enough and you missed an important detail in the question? I don't know.

[Sunshine]

as in i saw it on 2 different tests, same wording, and i'm pretty sure i didn't read it wrong because i went through it several times looking for details.

Actually, now that i think about it, could it be because the proctors just pulled the questions off the internet and didn't check to make sure the given answers were right themselves?

[cypressfalls Robert]

are you talking about the B test from cyfalls invitational ? if you are than I can check the question for you

[Sunshine]

it's the greenhill test actually. I'll try to get the test when i go to practice again and post the exact question