Question

Understanding the diversity of mieroorganisms is an essential part of mierobial ecology 23 (a) To properly investigate mierobial diversity, it is important to get the terminology correct. Explain the difference between a community and population a (2 marks) What is macroecology? (b) (2 marks) Describe the relationship between diversity and the degree of host specificity (3 marks) (c) (d) Research on animals and plants suggests that species diversity (richness) is often highest at intermediate levels of primary productivity. Explain a possible reason(s) for this pattern (3 marks)

Answer 1

a) A group of organisms of the same species, sharing a common gene pool, when live at the same time and in a common area is called as population.

The populations of plants and animals when live in a same environment and in a specific region, they are referred as community.

b) Macroecology is a branch of ecology which deals with the study of the relationship between environment and organisms to explain statistical patterns of distribution, abundance and diversity.

c) Within a population, the formation and maintenance of genome structure are dependent on the interplay of different factors, such as geographic distribution, environment, population history and life strategy. In parasites, whose life cycles are closely bound to their hosts, in those cases, the host represents parasite‐only environment. In those cases, parasites develop a typical strong narrow host specificity, and their diversity, speciation and population structure are strongly determined by their host.

d) It can be stated that at lower rate of nutrient supply, there will be a dominance by species which are superior competitors for nutrients in a communities. At a higher rate of nutrient supply, other different resources like light limit producers, so there will be a dominance by species which are most able to exploit the alternative resources in a community. Diversity is often highest at intermediate rates as trade-offs in species abilities to compete for various resources make sure that some organisms may decline with the increased amount of nutrient supply while others may increase.