Chapter 44&45, 46 Flashcards
What is semelparity
Species that reproduce a single time and then die.
What is population ecology
The study of biological factors that affect the sizes of populations.
What is iteroparity
Species that produce offspring repeatedly over time.
What is community ecology?
The study of an assemblage of populations of various species living close enough for potential interaction.
What are types of a communities interactions
Competition, predation, herbivory, symbiosis and disease.
What is the ecological niche
The total of an organism’s use of the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment.
What is interspecific competition
When species compete for a resource that is in short supply
What is the competitive exclusion principle
Two species competing for the same limiting resources cannot coexist in the same place.
What is resource partitioning
Differentiation of niches that enable similar species to coexist in a community.
What would cause a species’ fundamental niche to be different from its realized niche
Competition.
What is an ecosystem
The biotic community of organisms in an area plus the abiotic environment affecting the community.
Ecosystems ecology is concerned with the ___
Movement of energy and materials through organisms and their communities.
What is a trophic level
A feeding level in a chain.
What forms the base of the food chain
Primary producers.
What are detritivores?
Decomposers.
What does chain length refer to
The number of links between the trophic levels involved.
What does the second law of thermodynamics say
Energy conversions are not 100% efficient and some energy is lost in the transfer.
How does the pyramid of numbers work
Number of individuals decreases at each trophic level. Or can be inverted.
Describe DDT’s solubility
Low in water, high in fats.
What is the gross primary productivity
The amount of carbon fixed during photosynthesis.
R= what
energy lost in plant cellular respiration.
What is the Net primary productivity
The GPP-R. Gross primary productivity - energy lost in respiration. THe amount of energy available to primary consumers. Measured in calories.
What is secondary production
A gain in the biomass of heterotrophs and decomposers.
What is Liebig’s law of the minimum.
Species biomass or abundance is limited by the scarcest factor.
In terrestrial systems, what three things affect primary production.
Precipitation, temperature, nutrients.
In aquatic ecosystems, primary productivity is mainly limited by what
Light and nutrient availability.
Where is primary productivity the highest
In tropical rainforests.
Why are coral reefs high in marine production
Temperature and light are high.
The absorption of chemicals by living organisms and their subsequent release back into the environment is
Biological Transport Mechanisms.
Weathering and erosion of rocks, and elements transported by surface and subsurface drainage is the
Geological transport mechanisms.
Dissolved matter in rain and snow, atmospheric gases, and dust blown by the wind
Chemical transport mechanisms.
Where is the main amount of phosphorus located
The earth’s crust.
How is phosphorus released into the soil
Weathering and erosion of rocks.
What is the limiting element in most aquatic systems.
Phosphorus.
What is eutrophication.
Elevated nutrient levels lead to an overgrowth of algae and depletion of water oxygen levels.
How much of the earth’s CO2 is removed by plants
1/7
What are limestone deposits formed from
Carbon incorporated into shells of marine organisms.
What do volcanoes and hot springs release
Carbon
What makes up 78% of the earth’s atmosphere
Nitrogen. N2
Why is nitrogen a limiting nutrient.
It is an essential component of proteins, nucleic acids and chlorophyll.
What are the five parts to the nitrogen cycle
Nitrogen fixation, Nitrification, Assimilation, Ammonification, Denitrification.
How is acid rain formed.
Burning fossil fuels that releases nitrogen oxides.
