Community Ecology (E2)

Question 1

Community

Answer 1

An assembly if all organisms living close enough together for potential interaction

Question 2

Symbiosis

Answer 2

Species interactions

Question 3

Commensalism

Answer 3

One species benefits the other neither benefits or is harmed

Question 4

Mutualism

Answer 4

Both benefits… can become obligatory

Question 5

Parasitism

Answer 5

One benefits while the other is harmed

Question 6

Competition

Answer 6

Between species… reduces the fitness for both (for similar resources)

Question 7

Habitat

Answer 7

Physical space where an animal lives and is defined by the animal’s normal activity

Question 8

Niche

Answer 8

The set of environmental conditions under which a species can survive and multiply

Question 9

Specialists

Answer 9

Organisms with narrow niches

Question 10

Generalists

Answer 10

Organism with broader niches

Question 11

Fundamental niche

Answer 11

The wider range of conditions within which an animal can live

Question 12

Realized niche

Answer 12

The narrower subset of suitable environments that an animal actually experiences

Question 13

Niche overlap

Answer 13

Portion of resources shared by two or more species

Question 14

Competitive exclusion

Answer 14

Species cannot occupy the same nice forever…one will eventually be excluded

Question 15

Character displacement

Answer 15

Differences in a resource utilizing trait (a “tool”) due to competition
Regards natural selection

Question 16

Guild

Answer 16

When two or more exploit a similar resource in similar ways

Question 17

Coevolution

Answer 17

When two or more species reciprocally affect each other’s evolution

Question 18

Darwin’s orchid

Answer 18

An orchid with a narrow tube where pollen needs a specific pollinator, a moth with an extremely long tongue specializes in the orchid

Question 19

Predatory coevolution

Answer 19

Populations responds to density but some delay

Question 20

Batesian mimicry

Answer 20

Harmless species mimics a toxic model to thwart a common predator

Question 21

Müllerian mimicry

Answer 21

All toxic species converge on a common form…predators only have to learn one toxic image

Question 22

Keystone species

Answer 22

A species whose absence drastically changes the composition of a community

Question 23

Endoparasites

Answer 23

Cannot choose habitat;
Depend on tremendous reproductive output

Question 24

Ectoparasite

Answer 24

Hose provides nutrition and aids in dispersal

Question 25

Red Queen Hypothesis

Answer 25

Parasites ability to infect the host is ahead but exactly the host’s ability to resist infection

Question 26

Virulence

Answer 26

How pathogens are passed between hosts

Question 27

Horizontal transmission

Answer 27

Pathogen passed to an unrelated host

Question 28

Vertical transmission

Answer 28

Pathogen passed down to offspring (mother to offspring)

Question 29

Autotroph

Answer 29

Make their own food

Question 30

Heterotroph

Answer 30

Feed on autotroph or other heterotrophs

Question 31

Herbivores

Answer 31

Eat plants

Question 32

Omnivores

Answer 32

Eat plants and heterotrophs

Question 33

Detritrophs/decomposers

Answer 33

Break down dead organic matter for use by plants

Question 34

Carnivores

Answer 34

Eat herbivores, omnivores, and other carnivores

Question 35

Trophies levels

Answer 35

The hierarchy sequence of feeding events creates a series

Question 36

Trophies structure

Answer 36

Energy source->trophic level 1(primary producers/plants)->troph.lvl 2(primary consumers/herbivores)->troph.lvl 3(secondary consumers/omnivores)->troph.lvl 4(tertiary consumers/omnivores)->trop.lvl 5(quartermary consumers/apex predators)

Question 37

Food chain

Answer 37

The linear flow of nutrients through the different trophic levels

Question 38

Eltonian pyramid

Answer 38

Based on numbers or organisms at each trophic level
Does not indicate mass of organisms at each level

Question 39

Pyramid of biomass

Answer 39

Total bulk of “standing crop” of organisms at each trophic level

Question 40

Energy pyramid

Answer 40

Depicts rate of energy flow between levels
Never inverted
Gives best overall picture of community structure because it is based on production