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Zoology > Ecology > Flashcards

Ecology Flashcards

1
Q

etymology: oikos (house) + logia (study of), the study of the relationships between organisms and their environment and to other organisms

A

Ecology

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2
Q

It looks at how organisms interact with their habitat

A

Ecology

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3
Q

include the availability of oxygen and inorganicions, light, temperature, wind current or velocity, water availability, among others

A

Abiotic factors

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4
Q

All organisms live within a certain range of values

A

range of tolerance

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5
Q

The conditions under which an organism is most successful lies within the range of tolerance

A

range of optimum

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6
Q

When one of these factors is outside an organism’s tolerance range

A

limiting factor

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7
Q

An organism’s response to an abiotic factor is to orient itself with respect to it

A

Taxis

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8
Q

The ability to do work. This includes everything from foraging for food to moving molecules around within cells

A

Energy

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9
Q

The total energy contained in the food an animal eats

A

gross energy intake

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10
Q

some energy is used to support minimal maintenance activities

A

existence energy

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11
Q

any energy left can be devoted to growth, mating, nesting, and caring for young

A

productive energy

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12
Q

Temperature influences the rates of chemical reactions in animal cells

A

metabolic rate

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13
Q

Warm-blooded animals like birds and mammals

A

Endothermic

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14
Q

In endothermic animals, periods of unusually low body temperature and metabolic rates

A

controlled hypothermia

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15
Q

a time of decreased metabolism and lowered body temperature that may occur daily bats, hummingbirds, and some other small birds and mammals who must feed constantly when they are active

A

Daily torpor

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16
Q

a time of decreased metabolism and lowered body temperature in mammals, such as rodents, shrews, bats, and bears

A

Hibernation

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17
Q

a period of inactivity in some animals that must withstand extended periods of heat and drying

A

Aestivation

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18
Q

Cold blooded animals like amphibian and nonavian reptiles

A

ectothermic

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19
Q

Include interactions that occur within an organism’s own species as well as interactions with organisms of other species

A

Biotic factors

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20
Q

include how populations grow, how growth is regulated, food availability, competition for food

A

Biotic factors

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21
Q

Animal populations change over time as a result of birth, death, and dispersal

A

Population Growth

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22
Q

survive to an old age then die rapidly

A

Type I

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23
Q

have a constant possibility of death throughout their lives

A

type II

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24
Q

experience very high juvenile mortality

A

type III

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25
Q

environmental factors are relatively unimportant in influencing mortality and most individuals live out their potential life span

A

Type I

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26
Q

environment has an important influence on death regardless of an individual’s age

A

Type II

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27
Q

environment is typically harsher on juveniles and its effects reduce significantly as an individual reached adulthood

A

Type III

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28
Q

produce few offspring and the parents invest a large portion of resources to the care and protection of their offspring

A

Type I

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29
Q

intermediate between the extremes of type I and III

A

Type II

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30
Q

produce a huge number of offspring and parents provide little to no care or protection for their offspring

A

Type III

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31
Q

Instead of adding a constant number of individuals to the population, every generation, populations experience this

A

exponential growth

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32
Q

Exponential growth cannot occur indefinitely because space, food, water, and other resources are limited. These constraints are called ?

A

environmental resistance

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33
Q

The population size that a particular environment can support is the environment’s ______________ represented by K

A

carrying capacity

34
Q

growth curves assume a sigmoid and is referred to as ?

A

logistic population growth

35
Q

the amount of individuals within a given environment

A

Population density

36
Q

influence the number of animals in a population without regard to the number of individuals per unit space. (Ex. weather conditions)

A

Density-independent factors

37
Q

change in relation to the density of the population. Some effects amplify when density is high, some when density is low. (Ex. competition, disease, predation, parasitism, mating)

A

Density-dependent factors

38
Q

occurs when animals use similar resources and in some way interfere with each other’s procurement of those resource

A

Competition

39
Q

Competition that happens among members of the same species

A

intraspecific competition

40
Q

Competition that happens among members of different species

A

interspecific competition

41
Q

It states that when resource requirements are identical, one species may be forced to move or become extinct

A

Competitive exclusion principle

42
Q

occurs when competing species evolve different adaptations

A

Specialization

43
Q

the sum total of all the ways it utilizes the resources of its environment

A

niche

44
Q

________ is the entire niche that a species is capable of using whereas the ________ is the actual niche that a species occupies

A

fundamental niche; realized niche

45
Q

occurs when there is a significant barrier to reproduction and range separate populations of species

A

Speciation

46
Q

the change in characteristics of a population over several generations

A

Evolution

47
Q

occurs when there are no longer any members of a population of a species that survives

A

Extinction

48
Q

This can occur when species use resources in slightly different ways, at different times, or occupy different parts of the environment for shelter

A

Coexistence

49
Q

This occurs when one or more ecologically related species exerts a strong selective influence on one another

A

Coevolution

50
Q

coevolution can occur when a change toward greater predator efficiency is countered by increased elusiveness of prey

A

predator-prey relationships

51
Q

coevolution is obvious

A

plant-pollinator relationships

52
Q

Interactions can result in neutral, positive, or negative relationships among different organisms

A

Symbiosis

53
Q

one or both of the symbionts entirely depend on each other for survival

A

obligate

54
Q

organisms can generally live independently

A

facultative

55
Q

any symbiotic relationship in which the symbiont lives on the body surface of the host, including the inner surface of the digestive tract or ducts of exocrine glands

A

Ectosymbiosis

56
Q

any symbiotic relationship in which one symbiont lives in the tissues of another, whether in cells or extracellularly

A

endosymbiosis

57
Q

usually provide nutrients that the host needs

A

Endosymbionts

58
Q

This is when an organism consumes another organism as a source of nutrition

A

Predation and herbivory

59
Q

this is an interspecies relationship wherein both species benefit from the partnership

A

Mutualism

60
Q

this is an interspecies relationship where one species benefits but the other species does not get any significant benefits or harms

A

Commensalism

61
Q

this is a relationship wherein one organism benefits from another while also causing harm

A

Parasitism

62
Q

includes all instances of animals avoiding detection, including visual, chemical, and auditory crypsis

A

Crypsis

63
Q

occurs when a species resembles one or more other species and gains protection by the resemblance

A

Mimicry

64
Q

some animals that protect themselves by being distasteful to predators advertise their condition by conspicuous coloration

A

Aposematic coloration

65
Q

Most communities have certain members that have immense importance in determining community characteristics due to their abundance or activity called the?

A

keystone species

66
Q

refers to the total amount of variations in a population (genetic diversity), community (species diversity), and ecosystem (ecosystem diversity)

A

Biodiversity

67
Q

the variety of species per unit area

A

Species diversity

68
Q

It is the variety of ecosystems in a given area

A

ecosystem diversity

69
Q

The niche of any species includes all the attributes of an animal’s lifestyle: where it looks for food, what it eats, where it nests, and what conditions of temperature and moisture it requires

A

Ecological Niche

70
Q

A niche in which anywhere that an organism can thrive

A

fundamental niche

71
Q

A niche in which an organism actually occupies

A

realized niche

72
Q

change over long periods of time, largely due to the activities of the plants and animals present

A

ecological succession

73
Q

a process in which organisms occupy a site and change its environmental conditions

A

Succession

74
Q

organisms use resources, die, and decay thus turning eventually into soil

A

pioneer community

75
Q

these have higher growth rates and greater biomass than later seres but they usually have lower species diversity

A

seral stage or sere

76
Q

These usually have very complex structures, high species diversity, and slower rates of biomass production

A

climax community

77
Q

Formulated the laws of ecology

A

Barry Commoner

78
Q

The first law of ecology, which states humans and other species are connected/dependant on a number of other species

A

Everything is connected to everything else

79
Q

The second law of ecology, which states no matter what you do, and no matter what you use, it has to go somewhere

A

Everything must go somewhere

80
Q

The third law of ecology, which states holds that any major man-made change in a natural system is likely to be detrimental to that system

A

Nature knows best

81
Q

The fourth law of ecology, which states that the exploitation of nature always carries an ecological cost

A

There is no such thing as a free lunch

Zoology (11 decks)

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