Last class we learned about food webs and the different roles that species play in the ecosystem. Today, we are going to dive deeper into organisms in the ecosystem. Like the giraffe and the oxpecker, there are a lot of different organisms that develop relationships with each other. Today we will look at different
relationships that organisms of different species develop with each other. The 4 different relationships are listed below:
1. Mutualism
2. Commensalism
3. Parasitism
4. Predation

How is an environment able to support different varieties of organisms?

To answer this question, researchers studied populations of the dusky salamander (desmognathus ochrophaeus) living on different mountain ranges in the southern appalachian mountains. the researchers tested the reproductive isolation of pairs of salamander populations by leaving one male and one female together and later checking the females for the presence of sperm. four mating combinations were tested for each pair of populations (a and b)—two within the same population (female a with male a and female b with male b) and two between populations (female a with male b and female b with male a). the proportion of successful matings for each mating combination was measured. for example, when all the matings of a particular combination were successful, the researchers gave it a value of 1; when none of the matings were successful, they gave it a value of 0. then the researchers calculated an index of reproductive isolation that ranged from 0 (no isolation) to 2 (full isolation). the reproductive isolation value for two populations is the sum of the proportion of successful matings of each type within populations (aa + bb) minus the sum of the proportion of successful matings of each type between populations (ab + ba). the table provides data for the geographic distances and reproductive isolation values for 27 pairs of dusky salamander populations.

If animal agriculture was eliminated, how much grain would become available for human consumption?