1. Patterns in communities

2. Community

Set of interacting populations at a particular time in a particular place

3. Characteristics

Stable communities have high diversity

A few species are dominant

Always more producers than consumers

4. Patterns

Succession

Stratification

Zonation

5. Succession

Change in species composition over time

Seres

• Sequence of stages of a community during succession

Climax community

• Stable community where succession is no longer occuring

6. Primary Succession

On an area that has had no previous life

First colonisers usually lichen

Dead lichen forms humus allowing mosses, then ferns and bracken to grow

7.

Manuka grows

Larger trees grow in shelter of manuka

Climax community finally reached

8. Rangitoto an example of primary succession 9. Secondary Succession

When an existing community has been cleared

Soil is intact

Eventually returns to original state by gradual replacement

First colonisers short living weeds

Longer living species in later stages

10. Plants growing again after a fire has killed off existing bush 11. Stratification

Vertical layering

• Canopy

• Sub-canopy

• Tree fern layer

• Shrub layer

• Forest floor

• Litter layer

• Topsoil layer

• Sub-soil layer

• Soil parent material

12. The Canopy 13. Tree Fern Layer 14. Shrub Layer 15. Emergents 16. Vines 17. Vines and Saprophytes 18. Zonation

Bands of organisms form in relation to a gradient in a major environmental factor

• Temperature

• Water

• Tide

19. Zonation on Mountains 20. Zonation on a Rocky Shore 21. 22. 23. Zonation in Rock Pools 24. Hormosira (Neptunes Necklace) 25. 26. Crabs 27. 28. 29. 30. Sea Anemones