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General Biology: OrganismL Biology and Evolution - Set 1 > Ecology > Flashcards

Ecology Flashcards

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1
Q

Ecology

A

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

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2
Q

What is Walker Branch Watershed?

A

Pipes and troughs used to move water between plots to study how forests responds to altered precipitation

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3
Q

What kind of enrichment allows experiments to be conducted in these fields?

A

Free-air carbon dioxide enrichment allows experiments with controlled atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide to be conducted in the fields

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4
Q

Organismal ecology

A

Studies how an organism’s structure, physiology, and (for animals) behavior meet environmental challenges

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5
Q

Population ecology

A

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

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6
Q

Community ecology

A

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

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7
Q

Ecosystem ecology

A

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

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8
Q

Landscape ecology

A

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

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9
Q

Global ecology

A

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

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10
Q

What do ecologists provide?

A

The scientific understanding that underlies environmental issues

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11
Q

What do environmentalists do?

A

Advocate for environmental protection

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12
Q

What did Rachel Carson do?

A

She is credited with starting the modern environmental movement with the publication of Silent Spring in 1962

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13
Q

What do long term data series do?

A
  • 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
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14
Q

What is the value of long-term ecological data series?

A
  • To assess rate and direction of change
  • To distinguish directional trends from short-term
    variability
  • To forecast environmental conditions in the
    future
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15
Q

How do ecology and evolutionary biology link?

A

Study of ecology helps to interpret the evolution of body plans and other environmental adaptations

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16
Q

How do ecological interactions cause evolutionary change, and vice versa?

A
  • Ecological change leads to,
  • Alters in selective pressures in populations,
    leads to,
  • Evolutionary change, leads to,
  • Alters in outcomes of ecological interactions
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17
Q

Biogeography

A

Ecologists have long recognized global and regional patterns of distribution of organisms within the biosphere

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18
Q

What are the two kinds of factors that ecologists consider when attempting to explain the distribution of species?

A
  • Biotic: living factors
  • Abiotic: nonliving factors
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19
Q

What is dispersal?

A
  • 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
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20
Q

What is Natural Range of Expansions?

A

Natural range expansions show the influence of dispersal on distribution

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21
Q

What are invasive species?

A

Species transplants can disrupt the communities or ecosystems to which they have been introduced

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22
Q

what is a species transplant?

A

Includes organisms that are intentionally or accidentally relocated from their original distribution

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23
Q

What does a successful invasion indicate?

A

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

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24
Q

Does behavior limit the distribution of species?

A
  • 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
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25
Q

Do biotic factors, such as other species, limit the distribution of a species?

A

Yes, some biotic factors can affect the distribution of organisms may include
- Interactions with other species
- Food availability
- Predation
- Competition

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26
Q

What are some examples of species dependence?

A
  • Plants may require specific pollinators
  • Clownfish require anemones for protection
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27
Q

How does food availability affect species?

A
  • Specific types of food required by juveniles or
    adults
  • Feeding apparatus, behavior, or physiology is
    tailored to certain food items and animals
    cannot adjust to new diet
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28
Q

How do abiotic factors limit species distribution?

A

Temperature, water, sunlight and wind amount to climate
- Macro climate consists of patterns on the global,
regional, and local level
- Micro climate consists of very fine patterns, such
as those encountered by the community of
organisms underneath a fallen log
Most abiotic factors vary in space and time

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29
Q

What is environmental oxygen?

A

An important factor in distribution of many organisms because it is needed for respiration

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30
Q

What is important about environmental temperature?

A

It is an important factor in distribution of organisms because of its effects on biological processes

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31
Q

Endotherms

A

Expend energy to regulate their internal body temperature

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32
Q

Ectotherms

A

Body temperature fluctuates with that of the environment, physiological performance affected by temperature changes

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33
Q

What can range shifts in response to climate change affect?

A

It can dramatically affect the distribution of other species
- For example, the long-spined sea urchin (C.
rodgersii) expanded its range in response to
increasing water temperature
- C. rodgersii consumed the seaweed in its new
range and destroyed the diverse communities
that formerly inhabited the seaweed stands

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34
Q

What does salinity affect?

A

Water balance of organisms through osmosis
- Hypertonic = not enough water
- Isotonic = perfect balance
- Hypotonic = too much water

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35
Q

What can sunlight affect?

A

Light intensity and quality affect photosynthesis
- Water absorbs light, thus in aquatic
environments most photosynthesis occurs near
the surface

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36
Q

What are some of the characteristics of soil that limit distribution of plants and thus the animals that feed upon them?

A
  • Physical structure
  • pH
  • Mineral composition
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37
Q

What is zonation?

A

It is determined by relative lengths of exposure to the air and to the action of waves
- High stress/low predation = Splash & Spray zone and high tide zone
- Low stress/high predation = Mid and low tide zone

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38
Q

Fluctuations in abiotic factors

A
  • Predictable changes in light and temperature
    over diurnal cycle
  • Others can be unpredictable, e.g., intertidal:
    interplay of wind, tidal height, seasons, and
    cloud cover
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39
Q

Who sets the limits in the intertidal system?

A
  • Predation sets the lower limit
    • Predators feed when submerged, the lower an
      organism lives on the shore the longer it is in
      potential contact with predators
  • Abiotic factors set the upper limit
  • Tradeoff, live high to escape predation but lose
    opportunity to feed and risk damage from
    abiotic factors
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40
Q

What are community interactions classified by?

A

Whether they help, harm, or have no effect on the species involved
- Examples are competition, predation, herbivory,
and symbiosis (parasitism, mutualism, and
commensalism)
- Interspecific interactions can affect the survival
and reproduction of each species, and the
effects can be summarized as positive (+),
negative (-), or no effect (0)

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41
Q

Interspecific competition

A

(-/- interaction) occurs when species compete for a resource in short supply

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42
Q

What is the competitive exclusion principle?

A

The competitive exclusion principle states that two species competing for the same limiting resources cannot coexist in the same place

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43
Q

What are ecological niches?

A

The total of a species’ use of biotic and abiotic resources
- Can also be thought of as an organism’s
ecological role
- Ecologically similar species can coexist in a
community if there are one or more significant
differences in their niches

44
Q

What happens to a species niches as a result of competition?

A

A species’ fundamental (or potential) niche may differ from its realized niche

45
Q

Resource partitioning

A

Differentiation of ecological niches, enabling similar species to coexist in a community, via evolution by natural selection

46
Q

Character displacement

A

A tendency for characteristics to be more divergent in sympatric populations of two species than in allopatric populations of the same two species

47
Q

Exploitation

A

Refers to any +/- interaction in which one species benefits by feeding on the other species
- Exploitative interactions include predation,
herbivory, and parasitism

48
Q

Predation

A

(+/- interaction) refers to interaction where one species, the predator, kills and eats the other, the prey

49
Q

Behavioral defenses

A

Include hiding, fleeing, forming herds or schools, self-defense, and alarm calls
- Animals also have morphological and chemical defense adaptations

50
Q

Aposematic coloration

A

Animals with effective chemical defense often exhibit bright warning coloration

51
Q

Cryptic coloration

A

Makes prey difficult to spot

52
Q

Batesian mimicry

A

A palatable or harmless species mimics an unpalatable or harmful model

53
Q

Müllerian mimicry

A

Two or more unpalatable species resemble each other

54
Q

Herbivory

A

(+/- interaction) refers to an interaction in which an herbivore eats parts of a plant or alga
- Has led to the evolution of plant mechanical and
chemical defenses and consequent adaptations
by herbivores

55
Q

Symbiosis

A

A relationship where two or more species live in direct and intimate contact with one another

56
Q

Parasitism

A

(+/- interaction), one organism, the parasite, derives nourishment from another organism, its host, which is harmed in the process

57
Q

Mutualism

A

(+/+ interaction), an interspecific interaction that benefits both species
- Obligate, where one species cannot survive
without the other
- Facultative, where both species can survive
alone

58
Q

Commensalism

A

(+/0 interaction), one species benefits and the other is apparently unaffected

59
Q

Population

A

A group of individuals of a single species living in the same general area
- Share same resources
- Are likely to interact and breed with one another
- A description of a population is normally
described by its boundary and size

60
Q

Dispersion

A

The pattern of spacing among individuals within the boundaries of the population
- Environmental and social factors influence
spacing of individuals in a population
- In a clumped dispersion, individuals aggregate in
patches
- A clumped dispersion may be influenced by
resource availability and behavior

61
Q

What is a uniform dispersion?

A

A uniform dispersion is one in which individuals are evenly distributed
- May be influenced by social interactions such as
territoriality, the defense of a bounded space
against other individuals

62
Q

What is a random dispersion?

A

In a random dispersion, the position of each individual is independent of other individuals
- It occurs in the absence of strong attractions or
repulsions

63
Q

Density

A

The number of individuals per unit area or volume
- In most cases, it is impractical or impossible to
count all individuals in a population
- Sampling techniques can be used to estimate
densities and total population size

64
Q

What can population size be estimated by?

A

Either extrapolation from small samples, an index of population size (e.g., number of nests), or the mark-recapture method

65
Q

Mark recapture method

A
  • Scientists capture, tag, and release a random
    sample of individuals (s) in a population
  • Marked individuals are given time to mix back
    into the population
  • Scientists capture a second sample of individuals
    (n), and note how many of them are marked (x)
  • Population size (N) is estimated by N= sn/x
66
Q

What is density the result of?

A

An interplay between processes that add individuals to a population and those that remove individuals

67
Q

Immigration

A

The influx of new individuals from other areas

68
Q

Emigration

A

The movement of individuals out of a population

69
Q

What does exponential models describe?

A

Population growth in an idealized, unlimited environment

70
Q

Why is it useful to study population growth in an idealized situation?

A

Idealized situations help us understand the capacity of species to increase and the conditions that may facilitate this growth

71
Q

What is a populations growth rate?

A

A populations growth rate equals birth rate minus death rate
- The population growth rate can be expressed
mathematically using differential calculus

72
Q

What can birth and death rates be expressed as?

A

Per capita rate - average number of births and deaths per individual during the specified time interval

73
Q

Exponential population growth

A

Population increase under idealized conditions
- Under these conditions, the rate of increase is at it’s maximum, denoted ar rmax

74
Q

What kind of curve does exponential population growth result in?

A

A J-shaped curve
- Characterizes some rebounding populations

75
Q

Carrying capacity

A

The maximum population size the environment can support (varies with the abundance of limiting resources)

76
Q

What kind oc curve does the logistic model of population growth produce?

A

A sigmoid (S-shaped) curve

77
Q

What is the logistic growth model?

A

In the logistic population growth model, the per capita rate of increase declines as carrying capacity is reached
- The logistic model starts with the exponential
model and adds an expression that reduces per
capita rate of increase as N approaches K

78
Q

What is an allee effect?

A

In which individuals have a more difficult time surviving or reproducing if the population size is too small

79
Q

What factors determine the carrying capacity of a population?

A
  • Most populations show density-dependent
    regulation, birth rates fall and death rates rise
    with population density
  • Example of a negative feedback that regulated
    population growth
80
Q

Competition for resources

A

In crowded populations, increasing population density intensifies competition for resources and results in a lower birth rate

81
Q

Disease

A

Population density can influence the health and survival of organisms
- In dense populations, pathogens can spread
more rapidly

82
Q

Territoriality

A

In many vertebrates and some invertebrates, competition for territory may limit density

83
Q

Intrinsic factors

A

For some populations, intrinsic (physiological) factors appear to regulate population size
- Increasing frequency of interactions between
individuals leads to stress and a decrease in
birth rate

84
Q

Predation

A

As a prey population builds up, predators may feed preferentially on that species

85
Q

Toxic waste

A

Accumulation of toxic wastes can contribute to density-dependent regulation of population size

86
Q

What does the study of population dynamics focus on?

A

The complex interactions between biotic and abiotic factors that cause variation in population size

87
Q

What is a population cycle?

A

Some populations undergo regular boom-and-bust cycles
- Cycle is driven by the availability of prey and in
turn the abundance of predators

88
Q

Species diversity

A

A community is the variety of organisms that make up the community

89
Q

Why is diversity a good thing?

A

Higher diversity communities more resistant to stress, more, productive, more resistant to invasions

90
Q

Species richness

A

The total number of different species in the community

91
Q

Relative abundance

A

The proportion each species represents of the total individuals in the community

92
Q

What are species that have a large impact on community structure called?

A

They are dominant or play a pivotal role in community dynamics

93
Q

Dominant species

A

Those that are most abundant or have the highest biomass
- Competitively superior in exploiting resources
- More successful at avoiding predators

94
Q

Keystone species

A

Exert strong control on a community by their ecological roles, or niches
- Not necessarily abundant in a community
- Often predators or “ecosystem engineers”

95
Q

Foundation species

A

Cause physical changes in the environment that affect community structure

96
Q

What is the bottom-up model?

A

The bottom-up model of community organization proposes a unidirectional influence from lower higher trophic levels
- Presence or absence of mineral nutrients
determines community structure, including
abundance of primary producers

97
Q

What is the top-down model?

A

The top-down model, also called the trophic cascade model, proposes that control comes from the trophic level above
- Predators control herbivores, which in turn
control primary producers

98
Q

What is a disturbance?

A

An event that changes a community, removes organisms from it, and alters resource availability
- Fire is a significant and sometimes necessary
disturbance in most terrestrial ecosystems

99
Q

What is nonequilibrium?

A

Communities that are constantly changing after being buffeted by disturbances

100
Q

The intermediate disturbance hypothesis

A

Suggests that moderate levels of disturbance can foster greater diversity than either high or low levels of disturbance
- High levels of disturbance exclude many slow-
growing species
- Low levels of disturbance allow dominant
species to exclude less competitive species

101
Q

Human disturbance

A
  • Humans have the greatest impact on biological
    communities worldwide
  • Human disturbance to communities usually
    reduces species diversity
  • Humans also prevent some naturally occurring
    disturbances, which can be important to
    community structure, e.g., preventing wildfires
102
Q

Who won the Nobel Peace prize in 2007 and why?

A

R. K. Pachauri and Albert Arnold Gore Jr. for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change

103
Q

What is most affected by rising atmospheric CO2 levels and global warming?

A

Marine biomes
- Temperature increases
- Ocean acidification

104
Q

Why were so many mussels killed by the heat wave?

A

Because biotic factors lower down the shore (predation) force them to live higher up shore where they are vulnerable to abiotic factors (heat and desiccation)

105
Q

What are the key concepts of ocean acidification?

A
  • More CO2 in atmosphere leads to more CO2
    dissolved in the ocean
  • More CO2 dissolved in the ocean makes the
    ocean more acidic

General Biology: OrganismL Biology and Evolution - Set 1 (23 decks)

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