BIOl 205 final Flashcards
is tourism good for national parks? why?
Yes, it encourages gov to set aside more land for preserves if the economy is supported
Is it better to protect all parts of an ecosystem or is part adequate?
All is ideal, better for preserving habitat biodiversity, also better for preserving larger carnivorous species, supports meta pops, and helps accommodate natural disturbances
Example for why protecting all parts of an ecosystem is better
the protection of cod in canada: when they migrate outside of the 200 mile protected radius of ocean, they can be fished. does not take into account migration patterns
what is the value of small parks?
protects regional biodiversity
Circle shaped parks are better why?
- Better perimeter/area ratio
- better for human shy species so behavior is not effected
Spacing and scale of management ideals
- better to have more parks spaced out over greater area for better diversity
- strategies for preservation should be discussed by managers of nearby parks, like controlled burning coordination
Buffer zone importance
- allows for a smooth transition from parks>human settlement
- increases park size
- reduces fragmentation, provides wildlife corridors
What accumulates as organisms move higher in the food chain?
higher amounts of bioaccumulation occur
2nd law of thermodynamics
Order of the pyramid of energy from greatest to least
Primary producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, third level consumers, apex predators
Endothermic and Ectothermic organisms
Endothermic: must regulate body temp and produce heat through metabolism
Ectothermic: cold blooded, relies on environment to regulate temp
Home ranges: carnivore vs herbivore
Carnivore ranges are 10x that of herbivores
First law of thermodynamics
Matter is neither created nor destroyed, but rearranged and recycled
Cause of much of our pollution problems
Nutrient cycling: what can be biodegraded, and what remains
pollutants/problems:
- Climate Change
- Ocean Dead Zones
- acid rain
- depletion of ozone
- egg shell thinning
- co2
- nitrates
- sulfur dioxide
- chlorofluorocarbons
- ddt
What did Rachel Carson add to our ecocetric ethic?
added a nutrient cycling aspect: considering organic vs non organic, pesticide use.
What was the first major environmental problem to be solved?
The banning of DDT in 1972: it threatened bald eagles that were declared endangers in 1967 (shell thinning) and they are no longer at risk
What are the main limiters of primary production in salt/freshwater ecosystems
Salt: nitrogen. Runoff from synth fert: was not a problem, bacteria fixed nitrogen until 20th cen. creates dead zones.
Fresh: phosphorous, causes algae bloom. Primarily from sewage and fertilizer. Effects are local.
Eutrophication:
Over fertilization of fresh water. Algae blooms cause things to die, causes a lack of oxygen.
2nd major success story: Lake Erie and the great makes water quality agreement
Lake where Detroit and Cleveland dumped “inadequately treated wastes.” Second environmental prob to be solved in 1972 w/ the great makes water quality agreement to target municipal sewage, reduced phosphorous.
The carbon cycle
- Photosynthesis removes, cellular respiration adds.
- cycle disrupted by fossil fuel burning, releases carbon too quickly.
what causes ocean acidification and acid rain
Acid rain: burning of coal heavy in sulfur are released, makes silver dioxide rain becomes acidified as it falls.
Ocean acidification: Carbonic acid, c02 plus water
Acid rain: 3rd major env problem to be solved
-Switched to low sulfur coal, alt anergy sources, scrubbers in smokestacks,
4th major success: depletion of ozone
Montreal Protocol signed: ozone hole is stable and should decline
Daniel kozlovkly:
- “ATOMs are transient. What is the environment today is organism tomorrow”
- we should be careful about what we dump into the environment, because physically and psychologically, tomorrow its likely to be us.
Inadvertent services ecosystems produce for humans (and economic value)
-Nutrient cycling: breaks down trees to return nutrients to soil, dead bodies don’t lie around.
-Pollination: produces food, would have to pay humans to do it otherwise
-Climate regulation: forests sequester co2, would have to be done by us.
-Water supply: costs to restore are less than building new plants.
Flood control: forests provide natural floor control, prevents flash flooding
Ecosystem services ranked 1-10
- ) nutrient cycling: n &p cycles.
- ) cultural value: art, s ience, non commercial
- ) waste treatment: recovery of mobile nutrients, detoxification.
- )disturbance regulation: storm protection, flood control by vegetation.
- )water supply: storage and retention by watersheds, reservoirs.
- ) food production
- ) gas regulation
- ) recreation
- ) raw materials
- ) pollination
How is the value of ecosystem services effected by % of ecosystem protection
Value increases
Common property resources: why are they exploited
Common pool, public owned, open access, free, difficulty of exclusion: benefits go to users, costs shared by all. Overexploitation occurs when individual benefits exceeds share of cost.
Why is there no technical solution to tragedy of the commons
“A technical solution may be defined as one that requires a change only in the techniques of the natural sciences, demanding little or nothing in the way of change in human values or ideas of mortality.” -Hardin
Proposed solutions to Tragedy of the Commons
Coercion, laws, make it illegal/cheaper to do the right thing. Privatization.
Flaws in Hardin (1968)
- ) population growth, a critical problem but not TOC.
- ) privatization as the only route to sustainability: does work, but not only solution. Just because property is owned, does not solve all issues: example being a pesticide treated lawn.
- ) overly pessimistic, thought TOC was inevitable
Examples of within-species cooperation
> schools of fish (anti-predator)
man of war: individual polyps that form large defensive form.
primate grooming
Examples of intra-species cooperation (humans)
recycling, giving blood, peace keeping, volunteering, etc. goes beyond concepts of natural selection, likely due to evolving in small societies
Inter-species mutualism examples
> mitochondria within eukaryotic cells allows for aerobic respiration
relationship between flowering plants and root fungi: plant gains absorptive capacity from fungi, fungi gains carbohydrates.
pollination and seed dispersal
Prisoner’s dilemma as tragedy of the commons
Best individual strategy is to over harvest, best mutual strategy is to harvest sustainably. Tells us over harvest is the best strategy, ethical/normal people will likely over harvest.
How to encourage cooperation/sustainability?
-spatially structured environments help: TFT (tit for tat) takes over, cooperations sweeps neighborhoods. example being trench warfare in ww1:
insights from prisoner’s dilemma:
- make the world smaller: local, repeated interactions.
- spacial structure.
- memory: recognize neighbors.
- punish defectors.
- cooperate with those you trust.
- eternal cooperators lead to defection, there must be pushback.
- economic incentives: carbon taxes.
4 major problems we have solved
DDT, eutrophication, acid rain, ozone hole.
Gause’s competitive exclusion principle
- No 2 species can exist on the same limiting resource.
- No 2 species can coexist in the same ecological niche
Ecological niche
How a species uses the biotic and abiotic resources in the environment
-example being darwin’s finches, all fitting into eco niches
Species have limited distributions because
- habitats to which they are adapted may be limited (eco niches)
- Evolutionary history: distribution, barriers to movement
Transpant experiments
If successful: implies there are barriers t movement, not lack of habitat.
-local transplant experiments usually fail as they would already be established (except for fish in lakes)
Transplants: how many become invasive
10% of introductions take, 1% become invasive
- examples: rabbits in Australia caused major extinctions.
- introductions of pigs, goats, rats: onto islands, cause bird extinctions bc they eat eggs
- common reeds outcompete local plants
Main threats to biodiversity in canada
- habitat loss
introduced species: #1 on islands, #3-4 mainland
Species at risk act
-habitat that is necessary for the survival or recovery of a species in critical endangerment is legally protected
how does proximity to the equator affect biodiversity? why?
Increases closer to the equator 0 degree latitude. -Sunnier/warmer promotes more primary production–photosynthesis
-also older habitats
What are the most threatened ecosystems?
Grasslands. Have become wheat fields, prairie species are endangered/extinct
Area effect
Bigger islands have more species. Habitat diversity, big pops, bigger target for colonizing species
Island Biogeography Theory
rate of immigration decreases with species richness. best dispersers are already there. Rate of extinction increases, populations decrease with competition.
How proximity to mainland affects immigration
islands closer to mainland have higher rates of immigration, but identical rates of extinction to identical but further islands. extinction rate lower on larger islands bc bigger pops
Main predictors of biodiversity
s (species richness) increases closer to equator, increases with area: (islands, ecological islands, mainland)
10:50 rule
10% of area can protect 50% of biodiversity
ecological Succession
changes in species over time within a community. structure becomes more complex over time.
Stages of eco succession
pioneer species, seral stages, climax community
Effects of disturbances
-removes climax species, changes population structure and available resources
Disturbances: abiotic and biotic
abiotic: fires, storms, landslides
biotic: insect outbreaks
at what frequency of disturbances is diversity highest?
intermediate, maximized diversity, species and early n late successional stages coexist
do successions come to an end?
pioneer species are allowed to recolonize when there are gaps in the canopy: disturbance events make for climax communities to be very rare
pioneer vs climax species traits
pioneer: better dispersers, weak competitors
climax: poor dispersers, good competitors
disturbance based management
-balance between raw material harvest & biodiversity: heterogenity, biodiv, adaptive capacity
Implications of species niches
no two competing sp. can exist on the same resources, when two have the same niche they will go extinct
How does closeness to islands effect number of endemics
far islands from mainland: less immigration, more endemics
Species area curves:
relationship between area of habitat and number of sp. in that area
Benefits of buffer zones
decreases pollution, controls erosion, provides wild habitat. Shields residential zones from industrial accidents, nat disasters
Solutions to fragmentation
more reserves, corridors, heterogenous habitats, round park shape, size variation, light tourism
Centinelan extinctions
sp that go extinct w/o us knowing
