Ok, fine, but what IS an ecological community??Ecological Communities

Dr. Fredrick Clements:

The Community as Superorganism

Dr. Henry Gleason:

The individualistic hypothesis of community organization

9.1 Change in the importance of various tree species along a moisture gradient in Wisconsin

John Curtis measured tree species composition across gradients and found maxima were not uniform…

9.2 Changes in plant species frequencies along an altitudinal gradient (Part 1)Robert Whittaker, working in the Smoky Mountains, found the same…

9.2 Changes in plant species frequencies along an altitudinal gradient (Part 2)

Margaret Davis...

Pollen (SEM)

Acer rubrum Juniperus sp. Ambrosia trifida

http://www.geo.arizona.edu/palynology

Margaret Davis: Roger’s Lake Ecology (50:409-422), 1969

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/pollen/viewer/webviewer.html

Modern Synthesis- Gleasonian theory remains the dominant view, however some aspects of the Clementian view has come back into favor. Mutualism, facilitation, root-root communication among co-occurring species.

Ok, fine, but what IS an ecological community??Ecological Communities