Communities & Conservation

Question 1

What are communities?

Answer 1

group of organisms living together the interact directly and indirectly

Question 2

What are the dominant/foundation species?

Answer 2

they can have a large effect on other species in the community and biodiversity by virtue of high abundance or biomass

Question 3

Why might the dominant species be dominant?

Answer 3

high abundance, good competitors, ecosystem engineers (create, modify habitat for themselves and others)

Question 4

What are keystone species? What effect can removing a keystone species have on the ecosystem?

Answer 4

have a strong effect because of their role in the community (larger than expected given relative abundance or total biomass)

ecosystem collapse

Question 5

Can keystone species be anywhere on the food chain?

Answer 5

yes

Question 6

What is a food chain vs a food web?

Answer 6

food chains are an abstract representation of feeding relationships and food webs summarize the feeding relationships in an entire community

Question 7

What are trophic levels?

Answer 7

the number of steps down the food chain an organism is

Question 8

What are the 5 trophic levels?

Answer 8

primary producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers, apex predators

Question 9

What are primary producers?

Answer 9

autotrophs, organisms that can produce their own food

ex. plants

Question 10

What are primary consumers?

Answer 10

herbivores, organisms that eat primary consumers

Question 11

What are secondary consumers?

Answer 11

animals that eat animals that eat plants

eat herbivores

Question 12

What percent of the calories from plants survive from the 1st to 2nd trophic layer?

Answer 12

10%

Question 13

Why do apex predators need such a large territory?

Answer 13

to make sure they are able to find the resources they need to survive

Question 14

What is are examples of community regulation? Explain them.

Answer 14

top-down regulation

consumers control the system and the population is limited by consumers

bottom-up regulation

resources control the system and the population is limited by resources (abiotic factors limit plants which limit everything else)

Question 15

What can happen in top-down regulation is the predators are removed?

Answer 15

over grazing of plants

Question 16

What are some of the main threats to biodiversity?

Answer 16

habitat loss and fragmentation, overexploitation and unsustainable use, increased pollution, invasive species, climate change

Question 17

What is overexploitation?

Answer 17

hunting, fishing, and collecting organisms at a faster rate than they an be replenished

Question 18

What are the two conservation approaches at the species level?

Answer 18

in-situ conservation and ex-situ conservation

Question 19

What is in-situ conservation? Examples?

Answer 19

protection of an organisms within its natural habitat

protected areas, reserves, national parks

Question 20

What is ex-situ conservation? Examples?

Answer 20

off site conservation, taking animal out of natural habitat and placing it in human care

zoos, aquarium, botanical gardens

Question 21

What are some limitations of ex-situ conservation?

Answer 21

works well for species that are easily bred in captivity but they are expensive and have had limited success in restoring wild populations, can only protect one species at a time,

Question 22

Pandas eat primarily bamboo so they would be considered a?

Answer 22

primary consumer

Question 23

What is the general evolutionary significance of mutualism?

Answer 23

Interaction increases the survival and/or population growth rate(s) of mutualistic species

Question 24

What are the 5 types of symbiotic relationships?

Answer 24

mutualism, commensalism, amensalism, parasitism, predation

Question 25

What is mutualism?

Answer 25

an ecological interaction where two species both benefit

Question 26

What is commensalism?

Answer 26

relationship where one species gets a benefit without harming or helping the other species

Question 27

What is amensalism?

Answer 27

relationship where one species is unaffected and the other is harmed/inhibited

Question 28

What is parasitism?

Answer 28

relationship where one species benefits and the other species is harmed

Question 29

What is the main goal of sustainable development?

Answer 29

use natural resources such that they do not decline over time