Basic Concepts (Modules 13-15) Flashcards
What percentage of vascular plants benefit from fungi?
90%
What are fungi?
Major decomposers, pathogens, and mutualists.
What are the characteristics of fungi?
Eukaryotic Heterotrophic Saprodic decomposers, parasites, or mutualists Related to animals than plants Chitin in their cell walls Filamentous or unicellular (or both)
What are filamentous fungi composed of?
Hyphae, which can form a mycelium.
What is a common trait between unicellular and filamentous fungi?
Both can reproduce either asexually, sexually or both. Spores can be produced sexually or asexually.
What is in the cell wall of fungi?
Chitin
What affects the length of hyphae?
Cytoplasmic streaming.
The importance of a high surface area?
The volume ratio of hyphae makes fungi very efficient at absorption.
What do fungi do?
Secrete enzymes into their substrate to break down organic compounds, then absorb smaller organic molecules (decomposers, pathogens, mutualists).
What do fungi that are mutualistic with plant roots have?
Mycorrhizae “fungus roots”
Benefits of mycorrhizae for vascular plants and some conifers and orchids?
Provides water and nutrients from soil
More efficient than plant roots alone- much greater surface area
Protects plants roots
Plants provide carbs and other nutrients
Affect the relationship between plants
Affect competitive interactions between invasive species and native species
What are endophytes?
Neutral or beneficial fungi found in plant tissues. Fights against pathogens and stress.
What are lichens?
fungi in mutualism with algae and cyanobacteria (provide protection from light and desiccation as well as physical protection.
What are the types of pollination?
Wind, by animals,
What are the benefits of wind pollination?
Don't need to attract pollinators Male flowers are higher Grows in large populations Lots of pollen Long stigma/style Ex: Corn
Animal pollinated plants
Offer rewards such as nectar, pollen, oil, site for egg-laying
Pollination by animals?
Signals that attract pollinators
Relationships general or specific
What kind of signals might a plant use?
Visual signals (colors, markings, shapes)
Olfactory signals
Temperature
What keeps bees from falling off flowers?
Velcro
What attracts bats to flowers?
Usually open at night, pale and very fragrant with large quantities.
What is the main disadvantage to specialized pollination?
Dependent upon pollinator populations.
What are the advantages to specialized pollination?
More assurance of pollination if rare.
What is a selective pressure?
The need to attract pollinators
Why is outcrossing preferrable?
Genetic recombination, avoids inbreeding,
When might selfing be more favorable?
when individuals are mored adapted/stable in their environment, or if pollinators are unreliable or absent.
Mutualistic partnerships
Mycorrhizae and plants
Nitrogen fixing bacteria and plants
Pollinators
What is pollinator confusion?
When subspecies overlap.
How has drought and heat stress affected plants and seedlings.
Reduced the range within which seedlings survive.
What is ecology?
The study of relationships of organisms to each of their environments.
What is a population?
Groups of individuals of the same species that are connected geographically.
What is a community?
Groups of populations living and interacting with each other in the same place.
What is an ecosystem?
Both the living and non-living components in an environment.
What is something all organisms have in common?
All need to acquire and use energy.
Producers
Acquire energy from the environment.
Primary consumers
herbivores, feed directly on producers.
Secondary consumers
Predators, feed on primary consumers.
Decomposers
Break down dead organic materials
Food chain/web
the flow of energy from/through trophic levels.
Where is the most energy stored in trophic levels?
Primary producers
What supports aquatic food chains?
Phytoplankton.
What happens to chemical energy once acquired by producers?
It gets passed to other organisms.
What trophic efficiency?
The fraction of energy passed on to the next trophic levels.
Types of relationships between individuals and species?
Anyshonistic, mutually beneficial, or neutral
What is mutualism?
When both parties benefit from the relationship.
Predation or herbivory?
When one party consumes the other
Competition
Fitness of both parties is reduced by appropriation or defense of resources.
Commensalism
When one benefits and the other is unaffected.
Where can carbon move from/ to?
Atmosphere and water, and aquatic food chain.
Carbon in living organisms?
Photosynthesizing organisms take CO2 from the atmosphere and fix the carbon into organic molecules.
How does the carbon cycle and nitrogen cycle differ in relation to plants?
Unlike carbon, plants cannot directly acquire nitrogen from the atmosphere.
What is nitrogen fixation?
Conversion of N2 to ammonia and compounds
How is nitrogen returned to the atmosphere?
Certain bacteria and by human activitiy.
What is an autotroph?
produces complex organic compounds from simple substances present in its surroundings,
How are patterns of plant distribution determined?
Climate, temperature, and precipitation.
How are biomes categorized?
plant characteristics and climate patterns.
Tropical rain forest
Adaptions to compete for light or utilize low light
Desert
adaptions to access water, reduce water loss, and protect from excess light
What are the 3 factors that affect biome distribution?
Ocean currents
Continuality
Rain shadows
Rain Shadows
As air is forced up and over mountains it cools and releases moisture.
Continuality
Oceans moderate changes in air temp
Elevation/Altitude
Affects temperature, humidity, wind, soils, etc.
What are plants able to change?
The abiotic environment, provide and create microclimate.
Temperate grasslands
Less rain, cold winters, hot summers, seasonal
What is the largest biome?
Grasslands
What is Ecosystem services?
Benefits to humans provided by an ecosystem.
(carbon storage, water filtration, and storage, and oxygen production.
How are grasslands categorized?
Vegetation types: savanna or steppe
Steppe (including prairies)
grasslands with no trees or just a few isolated trees
