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Biology > Chapter 54 Community Ecology > Flashcards

Chapter 54 Community Ecology Flashcards

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AP® Biology flashcards Biology 101 flashcards
1
Q

What is a community?

A

An assemble of populations of various species living close enough for potential interaction

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2
Q

What are interspecific interactions?

A

Interactions in a community that either help, harm, or have no effect on the species involved

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3
Q

What are some examples of interspecific interactions? (5)

A
  • competition
  • predation
  • herbivory
  • symbiosis (parasitism, mutualism, and commensalism)
  • facilitation
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4
Q

What is interspecific competition?

A

Occurs when species compete for a resource in a short supply

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5
Q

What is negative/negative interaction? Provide an example.

A

Interaction between species are harmful on each other

Example: Interspecific competition

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6
Q

What is competitive exclusion?

A

Local elimination of a competing species

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7
Q

What is the competitive exclusion principle?

A

States that 2 species competing for the same limiting resources cannot coexist in the same place.

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8
Q

What is ecological niche?

A

The sum of a species’ use of biotic and abiotic resources

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9
Q

What is resource partitioning?

A

Differentiation of ecological niches, enabling similar species to coexist in a community

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10
Q

What is a species’ fundamental niche?

A

The niche potentially occupied by that species

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11
Q

What is a species’ realized niche?

A

The niche that is actually occupied by that species

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12
Q

What is character displacement?

A

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

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13
Q

What is predation?

A

An interaction in which one species, the predator, kills and eat the other, the prey

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14
Q

What is positive/negative interaction? Provide 2 examples.

A

One species benefits from the interaction, the other species is harmed

Example: Predation and Herbivory

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15
Q

What are some feeding adaptations of predators? (3)

A
  • claws
  • fangs
  • poison
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16
Q

What are the various types of defensive adaptations of prey? (5)

A
  • Behavioral defenses
  • Morphological defenses
  • Physiological defenses
  • Mechanical/chemical defenses
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17
Q

What is aposematic coloration?

A

A bright warning coloration as an effective chemical defense of animals

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18
Q

What is cryptic coloration?

A

Camouflage/ coloration that makes prey difficult to spot

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19
Q

What is atesian mimicry?

A

Palatable or harmless species mimics an unpalatable or harmful model

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20
Q

What is Mullerian mimicry?

A

Two or unpalatable species resemble each other

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21
Q

Can mimicry also be used by predators?

A

Yes, predators can use mimicry to confuse/manipulate the prey

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22
Q

What is herbivory?

A

Refers to an interaction in which an herbivore eats parts of a plant of algae

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23
Q

What is symbiosis?

A

Relationship where two or more species live in direct and intimate contact with one another

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24
Q

What happens in parasitism?

A

One organism, the parasite, derives nourishment from another organism, its host, which is harmed in the process

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25
Q

What are endoparasites?

A

Parasites that live within the body of their host

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26
Q

What are ectoparasites?

A

Parasites that live on the external surface of a host

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27
Q

What is positive/positive interaction? Provide an example.

A

Interspecific interaction that benefits both species.

Example: Mutualism

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28
Q

What are the two types of mutualism?

A
  • Obligate
  • Facultative
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29
Q

What is obligate mutualism?

A

One species cannot survive without the other

30
Q

What is facultative mutualism?

A

Both species can survive alone

31
Q

What is positive/zero interaction? Provide an example

A

Interspecific interaction where one species benefit but the other species is not harmed/helped

Example: Commensalism

32
Q

What is faciliation?

A

Interaction in which one species has positive effects on another species without direct and intimate contact

33
Q

What are the two fundamental features of community structure?

A
  • Species diversity
  • Feeding relationships
34
Q

What is species diversity?

A

The variety of organisms that make up the community

35
Q

What are the two components of species diversity?

A
  • Species richness
  • Relative abundance
36
Q

What is species richness?

A

The number of different species in the community

37
Q

What is relative abundance?

A

Proportion of each species that represents of all individuals in the community

38
Q

What is the Shannon diversity index?

A

A diversity index that compares diversity of communities

H = - (pA ln pA + pB ln pB + pC ln pC + …)

39
Q

What are the 4 characteristics of communities with higher diversity?

A
  • More productive; they produce more biomass (the total mass of all organisms)
  • More stable in their productivity
  • Better able to withstand and recover from environmental stresses
  • More resistant to invasive species, organisms that become established outside their native range
40
Q

What is trophic structure?

A

The feeding relationships between organisms in a community

41
Q

What do food chains do?

A

Link trophic levels from producers to top carnivores

42
Q

What is a food web?

A

A branching food chain with complex trophic interactions

43
Q

What does the energetic hypothesis suggest?

A

Suggests that the length is limited by inefficient energy transfer

44
Q

What is important about the energy stored in the organic matter?

A

Only about 10% of the energy stored in organic matter at each trophic level is converted to organic matter at the next trophic level

45
Q

What are dominant species?

A

Species that are the most abundant or have the highest biomass

46
Q

What are invasive species?

A

Species that are typically introduced to a new environment by humans and become dominant due to a lack of predators or disease

47
Q

What are keystone species?

A

Species that exert strong control on a community by their ecological roles or niches

48
Q

What are ecosystem engineers?

A

Foundation species that cause physical changes in the environment that affect community structure

49
Q

What is the bottom-up model?

A

A model that proposes a unidirectional influence from lower to higher trophic levels

N (nutrient) -> V (plants) -> H (herbivores) -> P(predators)

50
Q

What is top-down model?

A

The trophic cascade model that proposes that control comes from the trophic level above

In this case, predators limit herbivores, herbivores limit plants, and plants limit nutrient levels

N <- V <- H <- P

51
Q

What does biomanipulation help with?

A

Helps to restore polluted communities

52
Q

What is a disturbance?

A

An event that changes a community, removes organisms from it, and alters resource availability

53
Q

What is a nonequlilibrium model?

A

A model that describes communities as constantly changing after being buffeted by disturbances

54
Q

What are the most significant sources of disturbances in ecosystems? (2)

A
  • storms
  • fires
55
Q

What is high level of disturbance a result of?

A

A high intensity and high frequency of disturbance

56
Q

What is low levels of disturbance a result of?

A

Low frequency or low intensity of disturbance

57
Q

What does the intermediate disturbance hypothesis state?

A

States that moderate levels of disturbance can foster greater diversity than either high or low levels of disturbance

58
Q

What is ecological succesion?

A

The sequence of community changes after a disturbance

59
Q

What is primary succession?

A

Succession that occurs where no soil exists when succession begins

begins from nothing

60
Q

What is secondary succession?

A

Succession that begins in an area where soil remains after a disturbance

61
Q

What does human disturbance due to a community’s species diversity?

A

Reduces its species diversity

62
Q

What are the two key factors that affect a community’s species diversity?

A
  • Latitude
  • Area
63
Q

What are the two key factors in equatorial-polar gradients of species richness?

A
  • Evolutionary history
  • Climate
64
Q

What are the 2 main climatic factors correlated with biodiversity?

A
  • sunlight
  • precipitation
65
Q

What is evapotranspiration?

A

Evaporation of water from soil plus transpiration of water from plants

66
Q

What does the species-area curve quantify?

A

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

S = cA^z

S is the number of species, c is a constant, A is the area, and z represents how many more species should be found as habitat area increases

67
Q

What are pathogens?

A

Disease-causing microorganisms, viruses, viroids, and prions

68
Q

What are zoonotic pathogens?

A

Pathogens that have been transferred from other animals to humans

69
Q

What is a vector?

A

Transfer of pathogens that are direct or through an intermediate species

70
Q

What is an example of a vector?

A

Malaria that goes to a human from a mosquito

Biology (34 decks)

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