Abiotic and biotic drivers

Question 1

What is true of the physiological controls on growth and survival?

Answer 1

• Physical conditions determine where organisms live
• Temperature effects enzymes, work, growth rate and population growth

Question 2

What are performance curves?

Answer 2

Different levels of performance required to survive, grow and reproduce

• Survive in widest range of conditions, reproduce in narrower set of conditions
• Usually a bell-shaped curve but can be others

Question 3

What are ecological niches?

Answer 3

In ecology, the term “niche” describes the role an organism plays in a community. A species’ niche encompasses both the physical and environmental conditions it requires (like temperature or terrain) and the interactions it has with other species (like predation or competition).

Abiotic factors are important in determining niches

Question 4

Abiotic factors dictate what?

Answer 4

Upper limits

Question 5

Definition of predation

Answer 5

Consumption of one live organism by another

Question 6

Competition exclusion principle

Answer 6

A state in which two species competing for the same resources cannot stably coexist if other ecological factors are constant

Question 7

General paradigm

Answer 7

Physiological constraints control upper limits
Biotic factors control lower limits

Question 8

Dominance controlled community

Answer 8

One is a strong inter specific competitor than the other (other speices driven to extinction)

Question 9

Founder controlled community

Answer 9

Both are strong interspecific and weak intraspecific competitors (one species dominates)