Chapter 52 - Introduction

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To fully appreciate this tutorial, you should be familiar with the concepts of:
• Habitat
• Fundamental niche, realized niche
• Competitive exclusion

After this tutorial, you will be able to describe:
• Species richness and species evenness
• Community complexity
• Distance effect, latitude effect, edge effect

Why do some communities have more species than others?

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Species diversity
Ecological niches
The distance effect
Species richness and latitude
Biotic factors
Summary

Communities vary dramatically in species richness. Ecologists give different explanations for this variation, including the abundance of niches, geographical isolation, habitat stress, geological history, and interactions both among species and among communities.