2 Flashcards
The coldest true biome, characterized by a treeless expanse above permanently frozen soil (permafrost).
Tundras
biome densely populated by evergreen trees, with a short growing season and severe winters.
Boreal forests
A biome known for mild temperatures and abundant precipitation, and dominated by evergreen forests
Temperate rainforests
A biome with moderate temperature and precipitation conditions, dominated by deciduous trees (e.g., maple, beech, and oak).
Temperate seasonal forests
A biome characterized by hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters, a combination that favors the growth of drought-tolerant grasses and shrubs.
(Also known Mediterranean climate, chaparral, matorral, fynbos, and maquis.)
Woodlands/ lands
biome characterized by hot, dry summers and cold winters; dominated by grasses, non-woody flowering plants, and drought-adapted shrubs
(Also known as prairies, pampas, steppes.)
Temperate grassland. / cold desert
warm and rainy equatorial biome, with multiple layers of lush vegetation.
There is a canopy of 30–40 m trees with an understory containing smaller trees, shrubs, epiphytes, and vines.
Tropical rainforests
biome with warm temperatures and pronounced wet and dry seasons (due to movement of the intertropical convergence zone), dominated by deciduous trees that shed leaves during the dry season.
Tropical seasonal forests/ savanna’s
the vertical mixing of lake water that occurs in early spring, assisted by winds that drive the surface currents.
Spring overturn
the condition of a lake or pond when the warmer, less dense surface water floats on the cooler, denser water below.
Stratification
the vertical mixing that occurs in fall, assisted by winds that drive the surface currents.
Fall overturn
rapid increase in the population of phytoplankton in fall that occurs with the infusion of nutrients from fall overturn.
Fall bloom
aquatic biome containing standing fresh water, or soils saturated with fresh water for at least part of the year; shallow enough for emergent vegetation throughout all depths.
Freshwater wetland
saltwater biome that contains non-woody emergent vegetation.
Salt marshes
characterized by flowing water.
Lotic
terrestrial vegetation alongside rivers and streams that is influenced by seasonal flooding and elevated water tables.
Riparian zone
inputs of organic matter, such as leaves, that come from outside of an ecosystem (e.g., from a riparian zone).
Allochthonous
Inputs of organic matter that are produced by algae and aquatic plants inside an ecosystem.
Autochthonous
shallow area around the edge of a lake or pond containing rooted vegetation.
Littoral zone
the open water beyond the littoral zone, where the dominant photosynthetic organisms are floating algae (i.e., phytoplankton).
Limnetic (pelagic) zone:
the area in a lake that is too deep to receive sunlight; typically has low concentrations of oxygen.
Profundal zone:
the area with sediments at the bottom of lakes, ponds, and oceans; is habitat for burrowing organisms.
Benthic zone
root structures that grow out from the water surface and facilitate the aeration necessary for root respiration
Pneumatophores
Unlike most plants, whose seeds germinate in soil, many mangroves (e.g. red mangrove) are
viviparous
biome consisting of the narrow band of coastline between the levels of high tide and low tide.
Intertidal zone
marine biome found in warm, shallow waters that are 20°C year-round.
Coral reefs
the schedule of an organism’s growth, development, reproduction, and survival; represents an allocation of limited time and resources to achieve maximum reproductive success.
Life history
the number of offspring produced by an organism per reproductive episode.
Fecundity
the number of reproductive episodes an organism experiences.
Parity
the time and energy given to an offspring by its parents.
Parental investment
the life span of an organism
Longevity
short-lived, e.g., dandelion, with rapid population growth rate, small body size, early maturity, larger number of offspring, minimal parental care (animals). Inhabit unstable
conditions, disturbed areas.
R-selected organisms
competitive species, long-lived, e.g., oak tree with long life, production of few, large seeds that can grow readily in shaded environments, but lack of mean of wide dispersal, poor colonizers of new or
empty habitats.
K-selected organisms
(e.g., woody lousewort) are typically small herbs with a long life span, slow growth, and a long time to sexual maturity
Stress tolerators
Many of these rely on vegetative reproduction (reproducing from roots and stems) instead of producing costly seeds.
Stress tolerators
When conditions are less stressful, these (e.g., goldenrod) grow fast, achieve early sexual maturity, and devote little energy to seed production.
Competitors
(e.g., weeds such as Canada thistle) grow fast and devote a high proportion of their energy to reproduction.
Ruderals
the observation that when resources are devoted to one body structure, physiological function, or behavior, they cannot be allotted to another.
Principle of allocation
form of asexual reproduction in which growth
and development of embryos occur without fertilization.
Parthenogenesis
explains why the sex ratio of most species which produce offspring through sexual reproduction is approximately 1:1 between males and females.
Fishers principle
the number of mates each individual has and the permanence of the relationship with those mates.
Mating system
when a social bond between a male and female persists through the period that is required for them to rear offspring.
Monogamy
More than one mate of one sex for an individual of the other sex
Polygamy
the point at which reproductive success is equal between a polygamous individual on a better territory and a monogamous individual on a poorer territory.
Polygyny threshold
species have young that are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching (longer gestation, born in advanced stage of development.
Precocial
species have young that are hatched helpless (spend less energy in incubation, but require considerable parental care.)
Altricial
when organisms reproduce only once during their life; relatively rare in vertebrates, but common in insects and plants.
Semelparity
when organisms reproduce multiple times during their life; common among birds, reptiles, mammals, and amphibians.
Iteroparity
organism that has a life span of more than one year.
Perennial
semelparous tropical plants that have few opportunities for seed germination.
Bamboo
semelparous, arid plants that reproduce by growing a giant flowering stalk that produces a large number of seeds.
Agaves
spend the first part of their life underground where they obtain nutrients from the tissues of plant roots.
Cicada
the schedule of an organism’s growth, development, reproduction, and survival; represents an allocation of limited time and resources to achieve maximum reproductive success.
Life history
number of offspring produced by an organism per reproductive episode.
Fecundity
he number of reproductive episodes an organism experiences.
Parity
Long time to sexual maturity
Long life spans
Low numbers of offspring
High parental investment
Examples: elephants, oak trees
“Figure 1 -
Slow” live history
typically small herbs with a long life span, slow growth, and a long time to sexual maturity
Stress tolerance
(e.g., weeds such as Canada thistle) grow fast and devote a high proportion of their energy to reproduction.
Ruderals
the observation that when resources are devoted to one body structure, physiological function, or behavior, they cannot be allotted to another.
Principle of allocation
the point at which reproductive success is equal between a polygamous individual on a better territory and a monogamous individual on a poorer territory.
Polygyny threshold
individuals are highly determinate in form and while growing pass through predictable
(innately determined) sequences of life history stages
Unitary organisms
zygote develops into unit, or module, which produces more modules thus producing an organism with a variable number of modules, whose development is unpredictable and strongly influenced
by environmental factors
Modular organisms
Individual plants produced by sexual reproduction
Genets
Asexually produced individuals
Ramets
how individuals in a
population are dispersed in space
Population distribution
study of the vital statistics or properties of a population (age structure, birth, death,
migration, growth, reproduction, etc.)
Population demography
-study of the distribution and change of allele frequencies as a result of evolutionary
processes (natural selection, genetic drift, gene flow, etc.)
Population genetics
the inhibition of one plant (or other organism) by another, due to the release of chemical substances acting as germination or growth inhibitors.
Allelopathy
is the defense of an area by an organism or a group of similar organisms for the purposes as mating, nesting, roosting, or feeding.
Territoriality
involves vertical migration over the course of a day. During daylight zooplankton reside in the twilight zone to avoid predators; at night they migrate to surface waters to feed on phytoplankton. The daily mass movement of organisms is considered the largest synchronous migration on Earth
Diel vertical migration
series of small, discrete populations
united together by dispersal
Metapopulation
link core biological areas, allowing animal
movement between areas.
Corridors
may think of this as births, but includes more than
just birth - hatching, germination, fission
Natality
affect the size of a population similarly regardless of the density of the population (the number of individuals per unit area)
Density independent factors
if they lead to population regulation (stable population sizes).
Compensatory
factor is a population-limiting factor whose strength changes with density.
Density dependent
is a from of frequency-dependent predation in which a predator preferentially consumes the most common type of prey. Generalist predators often switch to common prey, so as prey populations increase, so does mortality.
Prey switching
is direct and occurs when species limits the
access of another species to a resource
Interference competition
is indirect and occurs in species which utilize a
shared resource
Exploitation competition
6 mechanisms of competition
Consumptive, preemptive, overgrowth, chemical, territorial, encounter
Morphological traits and food selection
of species shift depending on presence or absence of closely related
species.
Character displacement
Error is committed when a null hypothesis is true but is rejected
Type 1
Retain null hypothesis and it’s wrong
Type 2 error
