Question

Explain the difference between the organismal concept of communities and the individualistic continuum concept. Which do you think more accurately describes real communities, and why?

Your response should be at least 200 words in length.

Answer 1

Organismal concept of community states that species in a community are dependent on eachother to balance things and maintain the stability of the ecosystem , where the community resides. The community is assumed to be working like some superorganism with each species making their contribution for the stability and well being of the ecosystem in which the community exists. Thus the organismal concept of community is similar to an organism consisting of large number of cells, where each cell representats a part of the organism and contributes to well being of the organism.

On the contrary individualistic continuum concept of communities states that various species coexist in a community because of their similar requirements and tolerance towards eachother. This concept counters the organismal concept of communities where assume species join together and each species represents the part of the system.

None of these concepts are believed to exist as a whole. These are just two theories which are applicable to the communities. For instance the composition of a community can be better explained by organismal concept than individualistic concept while as some other property like tolerance of species towards eachother can be better explained by individualistic concept of communities.