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How Species Coexist

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Topic

  • Genetics
  • Bioinformatics
  • Ecology
  • Ecosystems
  • Scientific Skills & Literacy
  • Experimental Design

Duration

27 minutes 25 seconds
Archived
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Description

In this talk, ecologist Robert Pringle discusses how large herbivores can coexist by partitioning ecological niches by time, space, and diet.

There are over 30 species of herbivores in the African savanna, yet these species coexist in the same habitat without one species outcompeting all the others. Pringle describes a method called metabarcoding, which uses plant DNA recovered from animal dung to identify exactly which plant species each animal eats. This technique has allowed scientists to obtain a more accurate picture of how herbivores partition ecological niches by diet.

This talk is from a 2015 Holiday Lecture Series, Patterns and Processes in Ecology.

Key Terms

biodiversity, browser, competition, competitive exclusion, DNA sequencing, fecal sample, Gorongosa National Park, grazer, niche partitioning

Terms of Use

Please see the Terms of Use for information on how this resource can be used.

Version History

Date Published 10.22.15
Date Updated 05.06.16

Materials

Video (MP4) 217 MB
Transcript (PDF) 67 KB
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