The application process is quite lengthy.

The application process is quite lengthy and time consuming. y community although that would be a great name for a punk band no these are interactions between species that happen regularly and often over long periods of time

If you ask your neighbor to describe their community, they might talk about the other folks on the street or at their church, or a group of lovable misfits they call friends. But if you ask an ecologist to describe their community, they might tell you about the birds that build a nest in their gutters, the gophers swiping carrots from their garden, or even the fleas that their dog is always scratching. That’s because in ecology, a group of different species living in the same area is called a community.

Studying community ecology helps us to better understand the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to interactions between species in an ecosystem. For example, following a couple months of tremors, Mount St. Helens in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States erupted in May of 1980, blasting the top clean off the volcano, killing trees in a 42 square mile scorch zone and spreading ash for hundreds of miles. But not everything died - bigger animals like elk perished, but mice survived; large trees were blasted, but seedlings of the same species managed to make it.

In a phenomenon called ecological succession, the organisms that survived and grew back fastest repopulated the area, paving the way for slower growing species to eventually move in and out-populate them. The community continued to shift until it became stable in what is known as a climax community.

On an ordinary day in a community, members of different species are frequently connecting through what’s called inter-specific interactions. These aren’t just one-off random encounters, but interactions between species that happen regularly and often over long periods of time.