The tundra, a vast frozen climate consisting of little life, yet life finds a way to exist and even form complex relationships between each other. The Artic Fox, a K-selected species, has a very dependent relationship based on the r-selected Lemming species. Ranging in the several hundred thousands (best estimate 200,000) the Arctic Fox population will fluctuate based on the rapidly changing Lemming population (which is at 300,000 with low fox populations and 150,000 with high fox populations).
With gestation periods of 52 days, foxes will form monogamous pairs in the breeding season to increase successful birth rates. Even the young from the previous generation will stay and help the female foxes to receive adequate conditions for birth. Only having on average three kits per litter, these foxes have trouble living through abnormal conditions in the tundra due to low genetic diversity. Distributed along most of the interior and coast line of the tundra, the arctic fox has been pushed up north in search of more food.
With no hibernation period over the winter, the Lemmings remain active in their communities at all time whether it is finding food by burrowing through the snow or gathering grass clippings to be stored. Although they are generally solitary, they will meet during the spring season to reproduce and then go there separate ways (which is highly common among many rodent species). High reproductive rates while food is plentiful also connect this tundra rodent with rodents around the world. Lemmings live in almost all of the tundra area except the most northern tips, biotic factors such as vegetation will also control the distribution space.
The competitive exclusion principle states that two species competing for the same resources cannot coexist if other ecological factors are constant. Resource partitioning is when resources in an environment are limited, different species must evolve to “share” the resource. What they may do, in order to maintain order and not have to resort to the competitive exclusion principle, will be to feed on different parts of the shared resource. For example, giraffes will feed on leaves that are at the tops of trees and deer will feed on low hanging leaves. Thus, both species will use the same resource but will consume a different part of the resource. Because there is very little vegetation in the tundra, many species have to allocate food in different ways. Herbivores (such as the caribou) may have to consume part of a shrub (perhaps the outside of the shrub) while other species (such as the lemming) may conceal itself within shrubs as a mode of habitat. This is resource partitioning.
With gestation periods of 52 days, foxes will form monogamous pairs in the breeding season to increase successful birth rates. Even the young from the previous generation will stay and help the female foxes to receive adequate conditions for birth. Only having on average three kits per litter, these foxes have trouble living through abnormal conditions in the tundra due to low genetic diversity. Distributed along most of the interior and coast line of the tundra, the arctic fox has been pushed up north in search of more food.
With no hibernation period over the winter, the Lemmings remain active in their communities at all time whether it is finding food by burrowing through the snow or gathering grass clippings to be stored. Although they are generally solitary, they will meet during the spring season to reproduce and then go there separate ways (which is highly common among many rodent species). High reproductive rates while food is plentiful also connect this tundra rodent with rodents around the world. Lemmings live in almost all of the tundra area except the most northern tips, biotic factors such as vegetation will also control the distribution space.
The competitive exclusion principle states that two species competing for the same resources cannot coexist if other ecological factors are constant. Resource partitioning is when resources in an environment are limited, different species must evolve to “share” the resource. What they may do, in order to maintain order and not have to resort to the competitive exclusion principle, will be to feed on different parts of the shared resource. For example, giraffes will feed on leaves that are at the tops of trees and deer will feed on low hanging leaves. Thus, both species will use the same resource but will consume a different part of the resource. Because there is very little vegetation in the tundra, many species have to allocate food in different ways. Herbivores (such as the caribou) may have to consume part of a shrub (perhaps the outside of the shrub) while other species (such as the lemming) may conceal itself within shrubs as a mode of habitat. This is resource partitioning.