chapter something

Question 1

community ecology

Answer 1

the study of the interactinos between population/species

Question 2

biodiversity

Answer 2

measure of the variety of organisms
richness: total number of different species (in an area)most important
relative abundance: number of each species

Question 3

biodiverstiy tends to…

Answer 3

increase as you approach the equator (ex: abundant sunlight, rain, and warm temperatures are the best conditions for many species)

Question 4

biodiversity “hot spots”

Answer 4

relatively small areas with an exceptional concentration of species and a large number of endangered and threatened species

Question 5

tropic structure

Answer 5

• trophe (nourishment in greek)
• the feeding relationships among the various species
• predator/prey relationships

Question 6

food chain

Answer 6

shoows how energy moves throgh a system (up the food chain

-plants and phytoplankton are at the bottom of food chain

Question 7

consumers

Answer 7

obtain their energy from the food they eat

Question 8

primary consumers

Answer 8

• herbivores on land (eat plants (leaves, seeds, nectar

- zooplankton (eat phytoplankton

Question 9

secondary, tertiary and quaternary consumers

Answer 9

• carnivores (eat other animals)

- omnivores (eat both plants and animals)

Question 10

food web

Answer 10

• network of interconnecting food chains
• more complex than food chains (shows the complexity of how energy moves in a real life situation
• detritivores (eat dead material from both terrestrial and aquatic)

Question 11

niche

Answer 11

a species’ role in its community, or the sum total of its use of the living and nonliving resources of its habitat (what it eats, eats it, what it uses from the habitat, what it adds to the habitat); its role in the habitat; its “job”

Question 12

havitat

Answer 12

where a species lives

Question 13

bottom line

Answer 13

every species in a community has a niche, or a role to play in its habitat; if any species is removed, or added, it effects the community and ecosystem

Question 14

competition exclusion principal

Answer 14

two species that are so similar that they compete for the same resources cannot exist in the same place; one will have a competitive edge that will drive the other out or to extinction
ex: barnacle growing on sand?

Question 15

keystone species

Answer 15

species that has a critical role to play in the maintenance of specific ecosystem, due to its impact on other species

ex: beavers (throught the contruction of dams, they significantly alter an ecosystem
ex: sea otters (sea otters eat sea urchins which eat kelp; without sea otters there is an increase in sea urchins and a sharp reduction of kelp forests)
ex: gray wolves (wolves maintain elk herd levels better than human hunting; hunters go after the strongest deer vs wolves who go after the weakest deer = wolves strengthen the gene pool by getting ride of weak links)