COMMUNITY COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE

 Community represents the population of all species living and interacting in an area at a particular time.
Population can, within limits, adapt to changes in environmental conditions. The major driving force of
adaptation to environmental changes is evolution.
 A community's structure can be described by its species richness, which is the number of species present,
and species diversity, which is a measure of both species richness and species evenness (relative numbers).
 Community structure is influenced by many factors, including abiotic factors, species interactions, level of
disturbance, and chance events.
 Some species, such as foundation species and keystone species, play particularly important roles in
determining their communities' structure.
Concept of Community:
A group of organisms constitute population. Each population has characteristics like natality, mortality,
age structure, growth dynamics and so on. But when several populations share a common habitat and its
resources, they interact among themselves and develop into a biotic community or simply, a community.
Microorganisms, plants and animals populations sharing a common habitat and interacting among
themselves develop into biotic communities. The composition of a biotic community in any habitat is
dependent upon the prevalence of environmental conditions in that habitat and the ecological amplitude of
species populations.
Thus the climate and other abiotic as well as biotic conditions of a habitat determine the type of community
which survives and develops. The organisms of a community usually exhibit trophic (feeding) relationships
among themselves. They also interact in sharing the space and there may be interactions at a reproductive
and behavioural level.
Each biotic community exhibits a number of characteristics, such as diversity, density, dominance,
composition and stratification. Each community has its special limit. Sometimes the boundary between two
communities may be very sharp or gradual.
The transitional zone or junction between two or more diverse communities is called “eco-tone”. The eco-
tone harbours a community termed eco-tonal community with organisms of overlapping communities and
some of unique types.
Structure of Community:
Communities may be small, consisting of few species populations in a small space, or large, comprising
several species populations in a large area. The community structures, composition and other characteristics
can be readily described by visual observation without actual measurement.
This is a qualitative approach which is easier than the quantitative population analysis where measurements
are actually made. Communities usually categories by the ecologists in various ways primarily based of
habitat features like water availability, high exposure, or other habitat features.
For instance, depending on the amount of water availability, plant communities may be hydrophytic
(aquatic habitats), mesophytic (moderately moist soil habitat) and xerophytic (dry or arid habitat).
Similarly communities growing on conditions of abundant light are called heliophytic and those growing
in shade sciophytic. Identically communities growing on various habitats designated as desert com-
munities, mountain communities and estuarine communities and so on.
In general, a community is dynamic since it changes over time. This dynamic nature is reflected in the
succession of organisms in a habitat. A series of changes results in the development of a relatively stable
community, which maintains its structure and influences the climate of the area.
 Such a stable and mature community is called a climax community, while communities of successional
stages are called seral communities. The plant community structures, composition and other characterizes
can be described in both qualitative or quantitative means.
Community Dynamics:
Communities are dynamic systems constantly interacting with another system, the environment, which is
equally dynamic. The community charges are gradual and imperceptible at any time but easily recognisable
if observed at regular intervals over a long period of time. Seasonal changes in plant communities always
occur at every place, particularly in areas where temperature variation is significant.
However, in course of very long period of time at many places the communities have reached a peak stage
and attained a dynamic balance with the environmental changes. The process of change in communities
and their environment at one place in the course of time is called “ecological succession”.
How do we measure community structure?
Two important measures to describe the composition of a community are species richness and species
diversity
Species richness
Species richness is the number of different species in a particular community. If we found 303,030 species
in one community, and 300,300,300 species in another, the second community would have much higher
species richness than the first.
Communities with the highest species richness tend to be found in areas near the equator, which have lots
of solar energy (supporting high primary productivity), warm temperatures, large amounts of rainfall, and
little seasonal change. Communities with the lowest species richness lie near the poles, which get less solar
energy and are colder, drier, and less amenable to life. Many other factors in addition to latitude can also
affect a community's species-richness.
Species diversity
Species diversity is a measure of community complexity. It is a function of both the number of different
species in the community (species richness) and their relative abundances (species evenness). Larger
numbers of species and more even abundances of species lead to higher species diversity. For example:
1. A forest community with 202,020 different kinds of trees would have greater species diversity than
a forest community with only 555 kinds of trees (assuming that the tree species were even in
abundance in both cases).
2. A forest community with 202,020 different kinds of trees in even abundances would have greater
species diversity than a forest community with the same number of species in very uneven
abundances (for instance, with 90% of the trees belonging to a single species).
In general, more diverse ecological communities are more stable (that is, abler to recover after a
disturbance) than less diverse communities.
What factors shape community structure?
The structure of a community is the result of many interacting factors, both abiotic (non-living) and biotic
(living organism-related). Here are some important factors that influence community structure:
 The climate patterns of the community's location.
 The geography of the community's location.
 The heterogeneity (patchiness) of the environment
 The frequency of disturbances, or disruptive events.
 Interactions between organisms
A community's structure can also be shaped by the chance events that happened during its history. For
instance, suppose that a single seed blows into the soil of a particular area. If it happens to take root, the
 species may establish itself and, after some period of time, become dominant (excluding similar species).
If the seed fails to germinate, another similar species may instead be the lucky one to establish itself and
become dominant.
Foundation and keystone species
Some species have unusually strong impacts on community structure, preserving the balance of the
community or even making its existence possible. These "special" species include foundation and keystone
species.
Foundation species
A foundation species plays a unique, essential role in creating and defining a community. Often,
foundation species act by modifying the environment so that it can support the other organisms that form
the community.
Keystone species
A keystone species is a species that has a disproportionately large effect on community structure relative
to its biomass or abundance. Keystone species differ from foundation species in two main ways: they are
more likely to belong to higher trophic levels (to be top predators), and they act in more diverse ways than
foundation species, which tend to modify their environment
Summary of interspecific interactions
Name Description Effect
Competition Organisms of two species use the same limited resource and have a negative - / -
impact on each other.
Predation A member of one species, predator, eats all or part of the body of a member of + / -
another species, prey.
Herbivory A special case of predation in which the prey species is a plant +/-
Mutualism A long-term, close association between two species in which both partners benefit + / +
Commensalism A long-term, close association between two species in which one benefits and the + / 0
other is unaffected
Parasitism A long-term, close association between two species in which one benefits and the + / -
other is harmed

1. What are the key components of the community concept?