Ch 54 Community Ecology

Question 1

Interspecific interactions

Answer 1

Relationships between species in a community

Question 2

Interspecific interactions can affect the 1)___ and 2)___ of each species

Answer 2

1) Survival

2) Reproduction

Question 3

Interspecific competition (-/-)

Answer 3

Two or more species compete for a resource that is in short supply

Question 4

Predation (+/-)

Answer 4

One species (predator) kills and eats the other (prey)

Question 5

What does predation lead to?

Answer 5

Diverse adaptations, including mimicry

Question 6

Herbivory (+/-)

Answer 6

An herbivore eats part of plant or alga

Question 7

Plants have various 1)___ and 2)___ defenses against 3)___

Answer 7

1) Chemical
2) Mechanical
3) Herbivory

Question 8

Symbiosis

Answer 8

Individuals of two or more species live in close contact with one another

Question 9

Three types of symbiosis:

Answer 9

1) Parasitism
2) Mutualism
3) Commensalism

Question 10

Parasitism (+/-)

Answer 10

The parasite derives its nourishment from a second organism (host), which is harmed

Question 11

Mutualism (+/+)

Answer 11

Both species benefit from the interaction

Question 12

Commensalism (0/+)

Answer 12

One species benefits from the interaction, while the other is unaffected by it

Question 13

Facilitation (+/+ or 0/+)

Answer 13

Species have opposite effects on the survival and reproduction of other species without the intimate contact of a symbiosis

Question 14

Competitive exclusion principle

Answer 14

States that two species competing for the same limiting resources cannot coexist in the same place

Question 15

Ecological niche

Answer 15

The total of a species’ resources

Question 16

Resource partitioning

Answer 16

One or more significant differences between species’ niches

Question 17

Similar species can coexist if there is ___ ___

Answer 17

Resource partitioning

Question 18

Competition can results in animal’s 1)___ ___ being smaller than its 2)___ ___

Answer 18

1) Realized niche

2) Fundamental niche

Question 19

Fundamental niche

Answer 19

The full range of conditions under which an animal can potentially exist

Question 20

Character displacement

Answer 20

A tendency for characteristics to be more divergent in sympatric populations of two species than in allopatric populations of the same two species

Question 21

Cryptic coloration

Answer 21

Camouflage

Makes prey difficult to spot

Question 22

Aposematic coloration

Answer 22

Bright warning coloration

Question 23

With what kind of species is aposematic coloration associated with?

Answer 23

Animals with effective chemical defenses

Question 24

Batesian mimicry

Answer 24

A palatable (harmless) species mimics an unpalatable (harmful) model

Question 25

Mullerian mimicry

Answer 25

Two or more unpalatable species resemble each other

Question 26

Species diversity

Answer 26

The variety of organisms that make up the community

Question 27

Two components of species diversity

Answer 27

1) Species richness

2) Relative abundance

Question 28

Species richness

Answer 28

The number of different species in the community

Question 29

Relative abundance

Answer 29

The proportion each species represents of all the individuals in the community

Question 30

Shannon diversity

Answer 30

H = -( pA ln pA + pB ln pB +…)

Question 31

Communities with higher diversity can be:

Answer 31

1) More reproductive and more stable in their productivity
2) Better able to withstand and recover from environmental stresses
3) More resistant to invasive species

Question 32

Invasive species

Answer 32

Organisms that become established outside their native range

Question 33

Trophic structure

Answer 33

The feeding relationships between organisms in a community

Question 34

Food chains

Answer 34

Link trophic levels from producers to top carnivores

Question 35

Food chains can have a key role in ___ ___

Answer 35

Population dynamics

Question 36

Food web

Answer 36

A branching food chain with complex trophic interactions

Question 37

In a food web, species may play a role at more than one ___ ___

Answer 37

Trophic level

Question 38

Two hypotheses as to why even complex food webs posses food chains that are usually only a few links long.

Answer 38

1) Energetic hypothesis

2) Dynamic stability hypothesis

Question 39

Energetic hypothesis

Answer 39

Suggests hat length is limited by inefficient energy transfer

Question 40

Dynamic stability hypothesis

Answer 40

Proposes that long food chains are less stable than short ones

Question 41

Dominant species

Answer 41

Species that are most abundant in a community

Question 42

Keystone species

Answer 42

Species that exert strong control on a community by their ecological roles (or niches) without necessarily being abundant

Question 43

Intermediate disturbance hypothesis

Answer 43

Suggests that moderate levels of disturbances can foster greater diversity rather than either high or low levels of disturbance

Question 44

Species-area curve

Answer 44

Quantifies the idea that, all other factors being equal, a large geographic area has more species

Question 45

Species richness on islands depends on:

Answer 45

1) Island size
2) Distance from the mainland
3) Immigration
4) Extinction

Question 46

Equilibrium model of island biogeography

Answer 46

Maintains that species richness on an ecological island levels off at a dynamic equilibrium point