Ecology Flashcards
Ecology
The scientific study of the interactions between organisms and the environment
- These interactions determine distribution of
organisms and their abundance
- Reveals the richness of the biosphere
What is Walker Branch Watershed?
Pipes and troughs used to move water between plots to study how forests responds to altered precipitation
What kind of enrichment allows experiments to be conducted in these fields?
Free-air carbon dioxide enrichment allows experiments with controlled atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide to be conducted in the fields
Organismal ecology
Studies how an organism’s structure, physiology, and (for animals) behavior meet environmental challenges
Population ecology
Focuses on factors affecting how many individuals of a species love in an area. Analyzes the factors that affect population size and how and why it changes through time
- Population is a group of individuals of the same
species living in an area
Community ecology
Deals with the whole array of interacting species in a community. Examines how species interactions (predation and competition) affect community structure
- Community is a group of populations of different
species in an area
Ecosystem ecology
Emphasized energy flow and chemical cycling among the various biotic and abiotic components (i.e., between organisms and environment =)
- Ecosystem is the community of organisms in an
area and the physical factors with which they
interact
Landscape ecology
Deals with arrays of ecosystems and how they are arranged in a geographic region. Focuses on factors controlling flow of energy, materials, and organisms across ecosystems
- Landscape or seascape is a mosaic of connected
ecosystems
Global ecology
Examines the influence of energy and materials on organisms across the biosphere. Examines how the regional exchange of energy and materials influences the function and distribution of life on earth
- Biosphere is the global ecosystem, the sum of all the planet’s ecosystems
What do ecologists provide?
The scientific understanding that underlies environmental issues
What do environmentalists do?
Advocate for environmental protection
What did Rachel Carson do?
She is credited with starting the modern environmental movement with the publication of Silent Spring in 1962
What do long term data series do?
- Serendipitously studied intertidal communities
in Scilly Isles - Showed that applying toxic dispersal chemicals
was more detrimental than oil itself - Also able to quantify time to dull ecosystem recovery
What is the value of long-term ecological data series?
- To assess rate and direction of change
- To distinguish directional trends from short-term
variability - To forecast environmental conditions in the
future
How do ecology and evolutionary biology link?
Study of ecology helps to interpret the evolution of body plans and other environmental adaptations
How do ecological interactions cause evolutionary change, and vice versa?
- Ecological change leads to,
- Alters in selective pressures in populations,
leads to, - Evolutionary change, leads to,
- Alters in outcomes of ecological interactions
Biogeography
Ecologists have long recognized global and regional patterns of distribution of organisms within the biosphere
What are the two kinds of factors that ecologists consider when attempting to explain the distribution of species?
- Biotic: living factors
- Abiotic: nonliving factors
What is dispersal?
- Movement of individuals away from centers of
high population density or from their area of
origin - Dispersal contributes to global distribution of
organisms - Understanding the capacity for each species for
dispersal is critical to understanding global
patterns of subspecies distribution
What is Natural Range of Expansions?
Natural range expansions show the influence of dispersal on distribution
What are invasive species?
Species transplants can disrupt the communities or ecosystems to which they have been introduced
what is a species transplant?
Includes organisms that are intentionally or accidentally relocated from their original distribution
What does a successful invasion indicate?
That the potential range of a species is larger than its actual range, i.e., species could live in certain areas if natural dispersal mechanisms carried them there
Does behavior limit the distribution of species?
- Some organisms do not occupy all of their
potential range even though they can disperse
into new areas - Species distribution may be limited by habitat
selection behavior, e.g., specific cues for larval
settlement or egg-laying may be absent or
temporal