Behavioural Ecology Flashcards
Behaviour
an action that changes the relationship between an individual and its environment
4 Types of Behaviour
- flexible
- reflexive
- instinctual
- condition-dependent
Innate behaviour
a behviour that is inborn
Instintual Behaviour
an inborn behaviour that keeps the organism alive (natural insctints)
Flexible Behaviour
a condition-dependent behaviour that can be learned
Sexual Dimorphism
physical differences between males and females that can hinder its surival (against viability selection)
Sexual Selection
reproductive success based on ability to find a mate
Infanticide
when males kill each other’s offspring
Female Choice
an important factor of evolution leading to elaborate courtships by males
polygyny
when males mate with 2+ females
polyandry
when females mate with 2+ males
Sneaker Males
a behaviour that some males develop to avoid being eaten by the female after breeding
Diel Migration
daily migration usually involving a trade off between avoiding predators and access to food
Seasonal Migration
when a population/individuals migrate to a different location based on seasons
Migration
an intentional and often cylical movement of a population between 2 regions based on environmental factors
Dispersal
permanent movement of a population, usually from place of birth to new location
Communication
when the signal from one invidual alters the behaviour of another
Frequency-dependent selection
when fitness depends on how often a phenotype/genotype occurs in a population
“Lying”
when a false signal is displayed to trick other individuals, usually only works when rare
altrusim
a flexible behaviour where there is a direct cost to inididuval and a direct benefit to recipient, occurs between relatives
Kin Selection
when a behaviour that may lower surivival but increase fitness of a family member is favoured
Hamilton’s Rule
Br > C, if benefits multiplied by relatedness is greater than the costs of an altruistic behaviour, it will be selected for
Indirect Fitness
helping a relative produce more offspring that they could without your help
Reciprocal Altruism
exchange of fitness benefits that are seperated by time, occurs between non-relatives
Vampire Bats
- individuals allow hungry others to suck their blood
- cost is very low
- bats rememeber who helped them and will help in return
commensalism
one memeber of species benefits and no effect on the other (+/0)
coevolution
process where evolutionary traits of a species results in the traits or another
intraspecific compeition
competition between members of the same species, factor of density-dependent population growth
interspecific competition
compeition between different species
preemptive compeition
a types of interspecific compeition where one species takes other the space of another
territorial compeition
when a mobile species protects its feeding/breeding area from another
encounter competition
when two species compete over a common resource
niche
range of resources that a species can use, accounting neccesary conditions
competitive exclusion
principle that states species with the exact same niche cannot coexist
realized niche
niche of a species including competition
character displacement
evolutionary changes to avoid niche overlap
consumption
when one orgamism eats another (+/-)
mullerian mimicry
when harmful species resemble each other to warn predators
batesian mimicry
when harmless species resemble harmful species
inducible defenses
defense strategies that only occur when in danger and can be costly to maintain
mutualism
a behaviour that both parties benefit from (+/+)
species richness
number of species in an area
species abundance
number of individuals in a species (population in an area)
Shannon Diversity Index
species diversity = sum of
(species proportions) ln (species proportions)
Keystone Species
a species that has a dramatic effect on a community when added/removed
bottom-up control
when abiotic factors determine the number of primary producers
top-down influences
removal of high-tropic level predators having an effect on lower-trophic levels
Frederick Clements
believed that communities are extremely predicatable and reach a final stable stage known as climax community
Henry Gleason
believed that communities are not predictable and are instable
primary succession
recovery after a distrurbance that removes organisms in soil and on land
secondary succession
recovery after a distrubance that removes organisms on land but not in soil
Theory of Island Biogeography
- size and level of isolation of an island determines biodiversity
- assumes equilbrium
- works better at small scales
5 Hypothesis for LDG
(Latitude Diversity Gradient)
- high productivity
- energy (temperature)
- time (more time for specication)
- intermidiate disturbance
- area & age
