Behavioural Ecology

Question 1

Behaviour

Answer 1

an action that changes the relationship between an individual and its environment

Question 2

4 Types of Behaviour

Answer 2

• flexible
• reflexive
• instinctual
• condition-dependent

Question 3

Innate behaviour

Answer 3

a behviour that is inborn

Question 4

Instintual Behaviour

Answer 4

an inborn behaviour that keeps the organism alive (natural insctints)

Question 5

Flexible Behaviour

Answer 5

a condition-dependent behaviour that can be learned

Question 6

Sexual Dimorphism

Answer 6

physical differences between males and females that can hinder its surival (against viability selection)

Question 7

Sexual Selection

Answer 7

reproductive success based on ability to find a mate

Question 8

Infanticide

Answer 8

when males kill each other’s offspring

Question 9

Female Choice

Answer 9

an important factor of evolution leading to elaborate courtships by males

Question 10

polygyny

Answer 10

when males mate with 2+ females

Question 11

polyandry

Answer 11

when females mate with 2+ males

Question 12

Sneaker Males

Answer 12

a behaviour that some males develop to avoid being eaten by the female after breeding

Question 13

Diel Migration

Answer 13

daily migration usually involving a trade off between avoiding predators and access to food

Question 14

Seasonal Migration

Answer 14

when a population/individuals migrate to a different location based on seasons

Question 15

Migration

Answer 15

an intentional and often cylical movement of a population between 2 regions based on environmental factors

Question 16

Dispersal

Answer 16

permanent movement of a population, usually from place of birth to new location

Question 17

Communication

Answer 17

when the signal from one invidual alters the behaviour of another

Question 18

Frequency-dependent selection

Answer 18

when fitness depends on how often a phenotype/genotype occurs in a population

Question 19

“Lying”

Answer 19

when a false signal is displayed to trick other individuals, usually only works when rare

Question 20

altrusim

Answer 20

a flexible behaviour where there is a direct cost to inididuval and a direct benefit to recipient, occurs between relatives

Question 21

Kin Selection

Answer 21

when a behaviour that may lower surivival but increase fitness of a family member is favoured

Question 22

Hamilton’s Rule

Answer 22

Br > C, if benefits multiplied by relatedness is greater than the costs of an altruistic behaviour, it will be selected for

Question 23

Indirect Fitness

Answer 23

helping a relative produce more offspring that they could without your help

Question 24

Reciprocal Altruism

Answer 24

exchange of fitness benefits that are seperated by time, occurs between non-relatives

Question 25

Vampire Bats

Answer 25

- individuals allow hungry others to suck their blood - cost is very low - bats rememeber who helped them and will help in return

Question 26

commensalism

Answer 26

one memeber of species benefits and no effect on the other (+/0)

Question 27

coevolution

Answer 27

process where evolutionary traits of a species results in the traits or another

Question 28

intraspecific compeition

Answer 28

competition between members of the same species, factor of density-dependent population growth

Question 29

interspecific competition

Answer 29

compeition between different species

Question 30

preemptive compeition

Answer 30

a types of interspecific compeition where one species takes other the space of another

Question 31

territorial compeition

Answer 31

when a mobile species protects its feeding/breeding area from another

Question 32

encounter competition

Answer 32

when two species compete over a common resource

Question 33

niche

Answer 33

range of resources that a species can use, accounting neccesary conditions

Question 33

competitive exclusion

Answer 33

principle that states species with the exact same niche cannot coexist

Question 34

realized niche

Answer 34

niche of a species including competition

Question 35

character displacement

Answer 35

evolutionary changes to avoid niche overlap

Question 36

consumption

Answer 36

when one orgamism eats another (+/-)

Question 37

mullerian mimicry

Answer 37

when harmful species resemble each other to warn predators

Question 38

batesian mimicry

Answer 38

when harmless species resemble harmful species

Question 39

inducible defenses

Answer 39

defense strategies that only occur when in danger and can be costly to maintain

Question 40

mutualism

Answer 40

a behaviour that both parties benefit from (+/+)

Question 41

species richness

Answer 41

number of species in an area

Question 42

species abundance

Answer 42

number of individuals in a species (population in an area)

Question 43

Shannon Diversity Index

Answer 43

species diversity = sum of (species proportions) ln (species proportions)

Question 44

Keystone Species

Answer 44

a species that has a dramatic effect on a community when added/removed

Question 45

bottom-up control

Answer 45

when abiotic factors determine the number of primary producers

Question 46

top-down influences

Answer 46

removal of high-tropic level predators having an effect on lower-trophic levels

Question 47

Frederick Clements

Answer 47

believed that communities are extremely predicatable and reach a final stable stage known as climax community

Question 48

Henry Gleason

Answer 48

believed that communities are not predictable and are instable

Question 49

primary succession

Answer 49

recovery after a distrurbance that removes organisms in soil and on land

Question 50

secondary succession

Answer 50

recovery after a distrubance that removes organisms on land but not in soil

Question 51

Theory of Island Biogeography

Answer 51

- size and level of isolation of an island determines biodiversity - assumes equilbrium - works better at small scales

Question 52

5 Hypothesis for LDG | (Latitude Diversity Gradient)

Answer 52

- high productivity - energy (temperature) - time (more time for specication) - intermidiate disturbance - area & age