3.1- What is Ecology Flashcards
What is the biosphere?
consists of all life on Earth, and all parts of the Earth in which life exists, including land, water, atmosphere, every organisim from bacteria to trees to whales or mold spores to humans
How big is the biosphere
Extends from 8 km above Earth’s surface to 11 km below the surface of the ocean
What is ecology?
the scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their physical environments
What is the result of interactions within the biosphere?
interactions with in the biosphere lead to a web of interdependence, leanding to organismis responding to their environment, resulting in an ever-chainging and dynamic biosphere
Economics is
ecology but just about humans
What are the levels of organization?
from smallest to largest
species, population, community, ecosystem, biome, biosphere
What is a species?
a group of similar organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring
What is a population?
a group of indviduals that belong to the same species and live in the same area
What is a community?
an assemblage of differnet populations that live together in a defined area
What is an ecosystem?
all the organisms that live in a place together with their physical environment
What is a biome?
a group of ecosystems that share similar climates and typical organisms
Environment is
all conditions/factors surronding an organism, biotic and abiotic factors
What is a biotic factor?
any living part of the envirnoment with which an organisims might interact, including animals, plants, bacteria
Biological influence on organisms
What is an abiotic factor?
any nonliving part of the envirnoment, like sunlight, heat, precipitation, wind, water currents, soil type
physical components of an ecosystem
What dynamic mix of 2 things shape every enviroment?
biotic and abiotic factors
Give an example of a part of the enviroment that is both biotic and abiotic
the muck along the shores of ponds have both sand and mud (abiotic) and decomposing plant material that is foood for bacteria nad fungi that live in the muck (biotic)
Give an example of a biotic factor affecting an abiotic factor
leafy canopy of trees shade a pond’s shorline from direct sun and strong wind; strongly affecting the amount of sunlight abd temperature the shoreling recives
What 3 methods do ecologists use in their work?
Observation- asking questions
Experimentation- used to test hypothesis
Modeling- make models (ex: w/ math) for events that happen over long distances or time
relies on scientfic methodology
Ecology is the study of:
our ‘Living Planet’
How people study ecology since it is so big?
break it down into usable parts (biosphere)
Subway sandwhich principle: a bite at a time
What is the root if the word ecology?
greek word ‘oikos’ which means house
Based on the root of the word ecology, what is the definition?
the study or nature’s ‘houses’ and the organisms that live in those houses; interactions among natures houses based on energy and the nutrients that supply the energy
How are ecology and economics related?
humans live in the biosphere and depend on ecological processes to provide food and drinkable water
Describe economics
food/water is bought, sold, and traded; agricultre is a big industry in our biosphere
Local economics: big business is tourism because of natural beauty of surrondings
example of local species:
white tailed deer, black hills spruce, prairie dog
example of local populations
rainbow trout, mountain lions, sharo tail grouse, finches
Example of local community:
bison and prairie dogs and snakes and burrowing owls
example of ecosystems:
area of Black Hills, prairie, coastal, alpine
What is interdependence?
dependence between or amound individual or things
physical environment and organisms are interdependent because changes in one cause changes in the other
explain the interdependence between sea kelp, sea otters and sea urchins
sea urchins eat and kill sea kelp; sea otters eat sea urchins, therefore regulating the population of sea urchins and keeping the kelp population stable; important because the kelp provides a habitat for many other species
What is a keystone species?
a species that has a large effect on its envirnoment, if it were to dissapear, the ecosystem would change dramatically
Ex: bison in praire, wolves in yellowstone, sea otters in kelp/costal
examples of biomes
grassland, artic, rainforest biomes
examples of biotic factors:
population density, precipitation, communicable diseases
blue tongue disease in deer
examples of abiotic factors:
weather conditions, topography, temperature
explain the connection between prairie dogs and wildflowers
scarlet globemallow and foetid marigold rely on prairie dogs to churn the soil and bring nutrients from deep in the earth up; they do this whene they dig holes/build mounds, they cycle the soil and prairie
what is Blue Tongue Disease in deer?
Epizootec Hemorrahagic disease casued by mite that carries a virus and bites and infects the deer, leads to blood vessels of deer to rupture; its a cycle- when there are large deer populations mites go around and kill many deer until there are less deer and then the virus stops spreading until next season when there are lots of deer again
