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A generalist species is able to thrive in a wide variety of environmental conditions and can make use of a variety of different resources (for example, a heterotroph with a varied diet). A specialist species can thrive only in a narrow range of environmental conditions or has a limited diet.
Polyphagy is the habit in an animal species, of eating and tolerating a relatively wide variety of foods, whereas monophagy is the intolerance of every food except for one specific type (see generalist and specialist species).
Animals that have S 1 s that reach the threshold are defined as generalists. In nature, generalists include a wide range of prey items in their diet. [11] An example of a generalist is a mouse, which consumes a large variety of seeds, grains, and nuts. [12] In contrast, predators with relatively short S 1 s are still better off choosing to eat ...
Consumer–resource interactions are the core motif of ecological food chains or food webs, [1] and are an umbrella term for a variety of more specialized types of biological species interactions including prey-predator (see predation), host-parasite (see parasitism), plant-herbivore and victim-exploiter systems.
Predation can be specialist, for example the least weasel predates solely on the field vole. Or generalist, e.g. polar bear primarily eats seals but can switch diet to birds when seal population is low. [38] [39] Species can be solitary or group predators.
The best-known example is the so-called "paradox of the plankton". [6] All plankton species live on a very limited number of resources, primarily solar energy and minerals dissolved in the water. According to the competitive exclusion principle, only a small number of plankton species should be able to coexist on these resources.
This term is used for organisms that "directly or indirectly modulate availability of resources (other than themselves) to other species, by causing physical state changes in biotic or abiotic materials". Beavers are an example of such engineers. Other examples include earthworms, trees, coral reefs, and planktonic organisms.
Many species fall somewhere between generalist and specialist on the generalist-specialist range. Such species generally exhibit moderate environmental specialization, being neither pure generalists nor pure specialists, resulting in fluid changes that must be evaluated when categorizing species.