Community Ecology Flashcards

You may prefer our related Brainscape-certified flashcards:
1
Q

What are the 3 levels Organisms interact with the environment?

A
  1. Individual
  2. Population
  3. Community
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

What is a community?

A

A community is a set of species occurring at a specific place.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

What are the 2 ways communities can be characterized?

A
  1. Species richness+species assemblage
  2. Inter Specific interactions
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

What are interspecific interactions?

A

A set of interactions between species.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

What is species richness?

A

How many species

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

What is species assemblage?

A

Which species

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

What is interspecific competition?

A

Negative effect one species has on another when two species attempt to use the same resource and there is not enough to satisfy both.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

What is interference competition?

A

Physical interactions over access to resources, typically leading to displacement of one species.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

What is exploitative competition?

A

Consuming the same resources.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

What is the competitive exclusion principle?

A

No two species can occupy the same niche indefinitely when resources are limiting.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

What is competitive exclusion?

A

If two species are competing for a limited resource, the species that uses the resource more efficiently will eventually eliminate the other locally.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

What is a Niche?

A

The total of all the ways an organism uses its environment.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

What is a fundamental niche?

A

The entire niche that a species is capable of using, based on physiological tolerances, limits, and resource needs.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

What is a realized niche?

A

Actual set of environmental conditions in which species can establish a stable population.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

What are 3 ways a niche may be restricted?

A
  1. Presence/absence of other species (competition)
  2. Predator absence/presence
  3. Absence of pollinators
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Competition between species for resources can lead to ?

A
  1. Resource partitioning (behavioral adjustments)
  2. Character displacement (evolutionary adjustment)
17
Q

What is predation?

A

Consuming of one organism by another.

18
Q

Insects and other animals that are poisonous use what coloration?

A

Warning coloration

19
Q

Non-poisonous animals may have what kind of coloration that helps them blend into surrounding?

A

Cryptic Coloration

20
Q

What is mimicry?

A

Allows one species to capitalize on the defensive strategies of another.

21
Q

What is Batesian mimicry?

A

Mimics look like distasteful species.

22
Q

What is mullerian mimicry?

A

Several unrelated but poisonous species come to resemble one another.

23
Q

What is parasitism?

A

Exploitation where one species benefits at the expense of another.

24
Q

What are Ectoparasites?

A

Feed on exterior surface of an organism.

25
Q

What are parasitoids?

A

Insects that lay eggs on living hosts.

26
Q

What are Endoparasites?

A

They live in the host.

27
Q

What is commensalism?

A

Interaction in which one species benefits and the other is unaffected.

28
Q

What are epiphytes?

A

Plants that grow on the branches of other plants.

29
Q

What is mutualism?

A

An interaction that benefits both species.

30
Q

What is a keystone species?

A

Species whose effects on composition of communities are greater than one would expect based on their abundance.

31
Q

What is succession?

A

Predictable series of changes in a community after a disturbance.

32
Q

What is disturbance?

A

Disruption of a community, typically through a removal of biomass.

33
Q

What is primary succession?

A

Begins on bare, lifeless substrate

34
Q

What is secondary succession?

A

Where an existing community has been disturbed but organisms still remain.

35
Q

What is establishment?

A

Arrival of weedy, r-selected species, tolerant of harsh conditions.

36
Q

What is facilitation?

A

Early successional species introduce local changes to the habitat, k-selected species replace r-selected species.

37
Q

What is inhibition?

A

Later species inhibit early species and ultimately replace them entirely.

38
Q

What are the 3 stages of succession?

A
  1. Establishment
  2. Facilitation
  3. Inhibition
39
Q

What is the intermediate disturbance hypothesis?

A

Communities experiencing moderate amounts of disturbance have higher species richness than those experiencing more or less disturbance.