Frederic Clements and Henry Gleason debated whether interactions occurring in these ecological entities are highly organized or depend on history. For 10 points each:
[10m] Name these entities consisting of different biotic populations that coexist with one another in the same geographic area. Unlike a larger ecological entity, these entities [emphasize] do not consider abiotic interactions.
ANSWER: communities [or community; accept biocoenosis; accept life assemblages; accept ensembles; accept local guilds; prompt on guilds; reject “ecosystems”]
[10h] Clements used this term to define the interdependency of members in plant communities. This term, coined by William Wheeler, is more typically used to describe eusocial populations with complex social hierarchies.
ANSWER: superorganisms [or supraorganisms]
[10e] Gleason argued that communities form via chance by noting how these plants do not distribute far from each other in desert regions. One of these spiny plants bears the prickly pear fruit.
ANSWER: cactuses [or cacti; or Cactaceae; accept Opuntia or prickly pear cactus]
<Kane Nguyen, Biology>