READ: Communities
3. Introduction
Introduction
Biomes as different as deserts and wetlands share something very important. All biomes have populations of interacting species. Species also interact in the same basic ways in all biomes. For example, all biomes have some species that prey on others for food. The focus of study of species interactions is the community.
What Is a Community?
A community is the biotic part of an ecosystem. It consists of all the populations of all the species in the same area. It also includes their interactions. Species interactions in communities are important factors in natural selection. They help shape the evolution of the interacting species. There are three major types of community interactions: predation, competition, and symbiosis.
CK-12 Foundation, Biology. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/