Interplay of competition and facilitation in grazing succession
This striped herbivore often grazes first in the Serengeti’s seasonal migration.
What is a Zebra?
The article was based in this famous East African ecosystem.
What is the Serengeti?
Migration differs from daily movement because it involves relocating to track resources that do this over time.
What is fluctuate?
When some individuals in a population migrate and others stay behind, this is called ___ migration.
What is partial migration?
Large herbivores migrate to follow this essential resource.
What is fresh grass?
The primary grazers graze early, removing tough grass stems and paving the way for this second grazer.
What is a wildebeest?
Migratory wildebeest grazing helped stimulate this process in grasses, which increased energy flow.
What is net primary productivity?
According to the article, migration is usually preemptive meaning animals move before this happens.
What is resource depletion?
This ecological pressure, besides competition and facilitation, can influence when animals migrate.
What is predation?
Birds, mammals, and even insects use migration to avoid these seasonal changes.
What are harsh conditions?
This smaller herbivore often benefits the most from the improved forage left behind after the primary and secondary grazers.
What is a gazelle?
The grazing by wildebeest reduced plant biomass by about this many grams per square meter in 1974.
What is 400 g/m²?
Migration occurs across space and time, also known as this scientific term.
What is spatiotemporal variation?
Migration can change this.
What is ecosystem function?
Migration is considered an adaptive strategy because it improves survival and this biological success measure.
What is reproduction?
The study found that competition pushes the primary grazers forward, while this process pulls smaller grazers to follow.
What is facilitation?
Smaller gazelles often feed in areas previously grazed by wildebeest, benefitting from this ecological effect.
What is improved forage quality (also called facilitation)?
Migration is distinct from this type of movement which occurs after birth but doesn’t involve return journeys.
What is dispersal?
Events like wildfires, droughts, and heavy rainfall act as these kinds of environmental triggers for migration shifts.
What are disturbances?
In the Serengeti, the concept of a primary and secondary grazer show that movement can be structured by this kind of grazing order.
What is a succession?
Environmental events like heavy rain or wildfire can disrupt or strengthen this ecological process, changing how grazers use the landscape.
What is grazing succession?
Wildebeest migration redistributes this essential nutrient, which boosts ecosystem productivity.
What is nitrogen?
Dingle and Drake proposed a general scheme linking environment, pathways, traits, and these heritable factors.
What are genes?
Migration affects not only individual species but also this broader ecological level.
What is ecosystem structure?
These two forces, one competitive and one cooperative, are central to understanding migratory grazing patterns.
What are competition and facilitation?