Positive interactions in communities

Current concepts of the role of interspecific interactions in communities have been shaped by a profusion of experimental studies of interspecific competition over the past few decades. Evidence for the importance of positive interactions — facilitations — in community organization and dynamics has accrued to the point where it warrants formal inclusion into community ecology theory, as it has been in evolutionary biology.

捕食风险与动物行为及其决策的关系

The research progress of the effect of predation risk on animals’behavior and their decision was introduced in the paper. In recent decade , a lots of researches dealt with effects of predation on prey foraging behavior (including when to feed , where to feed , what to eat , how to consume) , habitat selection and defensive behavior in the various types of ecological systems. The results showed that animals had the ability to assess and control their risk of being pred in ecological time and they could incorporate this information with their making of decision during the lifetime. Some researches suggested that the decision reflected apparent trade-offs between the risk of predation and the benefits to be gained from enaging in a given activity. It was stressed that predation risk was an important and necessary trade-off factor for animals’decision making. In addition , the effect of indirect predation at community level was one of the forces of shaping community structure and become an important way for studing mechanism of community organization. At the population level , it also may be significant advers effecting on population distribution , density and reproduction.