Ecological Concepts and Principles Flashcards
It is a pattern of survival and reproduction events typical for a member of the species.
life history/life cycle
How members of a species distribute limited resources among growth, survival and the production of the offspring.
Life History Strategy
True or False: Life History Strategy varies between species, depending on their traits.
True
Evolutionary Strategies that have fewer offspring but have extensive parental care. Produce few offspring but have higher probability of survival and is common in ling-lived and large animals.
K-strategist
Evolutionary Strategies with adult populations release large number, but reduced
parental care. Eggs are fertilized and then dispersed. Common to produce low-effort babies and occupy unstable environments.
R-strategist
True or False: Short-lived species often start reproducing early, while long-lived species are more likely to delay reproduction because they migrate and find a spot where nutrients and energy are enough for reproduction
True
This is how many times an organism reproduces over its lifetime.
Reproductive Cycles
Type of Reproductive Cycle that uses maximum energy invested in a single reproductive effort.
Semelparity: ex. Salmon
Type of reproductive cycle that uses less energy allocating for multiple reproductive efforts.
iteroparity
What are the 5 population characteristics?
size, density, abundance, distribution, & age structure
A population characteristic pertaining to the number of individuals.
Size
A population characteristic pertaining to the number of individuals per unit area of volume. It is the most important feature of population.
Density
True or False: Density is dependent on births, immigration and emigration, and deaths (natural occurrences).
True
This is used to determine the population size and density of plants or very small and slow-moving animals.
Quadrats
This is used to determine population size and density or organisms that move around.
Mark-recapture methods (tags)
This describes the area over which a population occurs.
Distribution
true or false: Distribution is influenced by occurrence of suitable environmental conditions.
true
It refers to the predicted increase or decline on birth and death rate of organisms at different ages, as well as the current age and sex make-up of the population.
Age structure
It refers to the graphs that show what fraction of population survive from one age to the next.
Survivorship curves
Type of survivorship curve where organisms tend not to die when they are young or
middle-aged, but die when they become elderly. They usually have small numbers of offspring and provide lots of
parental care to ensure the survival of organisms (e.g. whales).
Type 1
Type of survivorship curve where organisms die more or less equally at each age interval. May also have relatively few offspring and provide significant
parental care.
Type 2
Type of survivorship curve where very few organisms survive their younger years. They are the ones that make it through youth are likely to have long lives and usually have lots of offspring at once but don’t provide much
care for the offspring.
Type 3
It summarizes birth and death rates for organisms at different stages of their lives
Life Tables
It is a snapshot of a population in time showing how its members are distributed among age and sex categories.
Age-sex pyramid
It refers to the relationship of organisms to the environment.
Ecology
True or False: ECOLOGY refers to the biotic organism interaction and how the abiotic physical environment affect these relationships and interactions.
True
It refers to the group of individuals of the same species living in an area.
Population
This refers to all populations living in the same given area.
Community
It refers to the biotic community and nonliving organism.
Ecosystem
It refers to organism capable of producing their own food by using nutrients from the environment and energy from sunlight or inorganic substances.
Autotrophic organisms
True or False: Autotrophic organisms are self-feeding. It includes aquatic plants (duckweed, seagrass), algae (microalgae: diatoms: cheatoceros, macroalgae: seaweeds), & chemosynthetic bacteria.
True
Type of organisms that cannot produce own food.
heterotrophic
Type of autotrophic organism that is capable of photosynthesis.
Photoautotrophic
True or False: Photoautotrophic organism’s nutrient source is carbon dioxide while its energy source is light.
True
Type of autotrophic organism that uses carbon dioxide as carbon source. With energy source that is reduced inorganic compounds such as iron and ammonia.
Chemoautotrophic
A type of bacteria that uses chemical energy for food reproduction.
Nitrosomonas
true or false: The nutrient source of a heterotrophic organism are organic carbon form various plant sources, and its energy source are organic carbon from particulate matters.
True
Refers to what combines biotic and abiotic components.
Biosystems
True or False: Abiotic Components includes matter and energy.
True
True or False: Biotic Components starts form genes, cells, organs, organisms, population, and then up to communities.
True
● aufwuchs or biofilms
● bacteria, fungi, protozoa, algae, microscopic invertebrates
● film or microscopic organisms that thrive on surfaces of substrates
● give indicators to organisms to settle on them; inducers of settlement
Periphyton
A microscopic component of pleuston and floating organisms.
neuston
Thrives at the air-water interface (e.g. Portuguese man o war)
Pleuston
Lives in bottom sediments.
Benthos
Type of benthos that burrow in the sediment, feed on the surface of sediment.
Infauna
Type of Benthos that live on the surface of sediment and may be attached or free ranging.
Epifauna
It is a plankton type that is influenced by wave currents and tides.
Nekton
● can be animals or plants
● diverse collection of organisms
● small, large number, rapid growth rate
● drift passively and cannot swim against the current because of their size
Plankton
True or False: Phytoplankton can be cyanobacteria and diatoms.
True
true or false: Mussels, oysters, and sea urchin are examples of epifauna.
true
True or False: Water creates a stable buffer for broadcast spawners including optimum range, stress zones, and zone of intolerance.
True
True or False: Environmental conditions affect the rate of physiological processes; organisms only
have the limited range of conditions that it can tolerate for it to be able to live in its
preferred aquatic environment
True
It is where species operates at greater efficiency and the amount of energy is equally distributed for growth/reproduction.
Optimum Range
It is where operation is in less efficiency in terms of energy dynamic within their body and fluctuations of temperature and salinity is present.
Stress Zones
It is where too low or too high environmental conditions happen and no organisms can thrive.
Zone of intolerance
Factors Influencing Distribution includes: (PTSLNB)
(PTSLNB)
- Pressure
- Temperature
- Salinity
- Light
- Nutrient
- Biological limiting factors
True or False: pressure increases with depth. Deep-sea organisms do not need swim bladders to lessen the
impact of increasing pressure.
True
True or False: Rate of metabolism increases as temperature increases.
True
True or False: decrease in temperature; decrease in dissolution of oxygen.
True
It refers to the physical limiting factor that affects the rate of metabolism in aquatic organisms.
Temperature
It divides the more warmer waters near the surface area and cooler waters in deeper areas.
Thermocline
Its body temperature depends on the surrounding environment and is composed of mostly aquatic invertebrates and most finfishes.
Ectotherms
Its body temperature is independent from that of the surrounding environment (e.g. aquatic mammals, tuna, white sharks).
Endotherms
It is the concentration of dissolved salts in the water.
Salinity
It is the regulation of internal salt and water concentrations.
Osmoregulation
It can only tolerate a narrow range of salinity changes.
Stenohaline
It can adapt to a wide range of salinity changes.
Euryhaline
3 Zonation according to light penetration:
Euphotic (most light), Dysphotic (minimal light), Aphotic (no light)
It mainly affects primary production and water concentrations. Where water concentrations depend on carbon and oxygen.
Light
True or false: Rare significant light beyond 200 meters and organisms exhibits a variety of adaptive traits to live in darker zones (ex. bioluminescence, countershading, vision mutation/ strong senses)
True
Rate at which these are supplied affect the rate of primary production.
Nutrients
True or False: Nutrient-poor oceanic waters compared to land areas
True
It is the limiting nutrient for freshwaters.
Phosphorus
It is the limiting nutrient for marine waters.
Nitrogen
true or false: upwelling allows the mixing of nutrients in the water.
True
True or False: Near coastal areas is rich in nutrients because of the upwelling and mixing of the bottom and surface waters due to tides and currents.
True
Biological limiting factors influencing distribution affects:
- Species’ spatial patterns
- Range limits and geographic diversity patterns
