Ecology Flashcards
The study of distributions of organisms
Bio geography
The study of the distributions of earths climate and surface features
Physical geography
Non living components
Abiotic
Living components
Biotic
A group of individuals of the same species that live, interact, and interbreed in a particular geographic area at the same time
Population
Assemblage of interacting populations of different species within a particular geographic area
Community
Multiple communities
Landscapes
All organisms and environments of the planet
Biosphere
A sample of individuals over time
Cohort
Explain the principle of allocation
Once an organism acquires a unit of resource, it can be used for only one function at a time
An organism can allocate a unit of resource to one of witch five functions?
Maintenance, foraging, growth, defense, reproduction
Is an exponential or logistic growth curve seen more in nature?
Logistic
The number of individuals in a population that the resources of its environment can support
Carrying capacity (K)
What is reached as carrying capacity is reached?
Equilibrium
A relationship where two or more different species use the same resource (-/-)
Competition
Relationship where organisms gain nutrients by eating or feeding off of other living organisms (+/-)
Consumer- resource
Where individuals kill and consume organisms from other species
Predation
Where a parasite consumes part of a host but doesn’t kill it
Parasitism
A type of interaction between species that benefits both (+/+)
Mutualism
An interaction where one participant benefits while the other is unaffected (+/0)
Commensalism
An interaction where one individual is harmed while the other is unaffected (-/0)
Amensalism
Interactions between members of the same species
Intraspecific
Interactions between members of different species
Interspecific
Set of environmental tolerances of a species which define where it can live
Niche
Natural habitat of an individual
Fundamental niche
The part of a fundamental niche that an organisms occupies as a result of limiting factors in its habitat
Realized niche
Differences between competing species in resource use
Resource partitioning
Due to resource partitioning, is intraspecific or interspecific competition stronger?
Intraspecific
Why do some introduced species become invasive?
They are introduced into a region where their natural enemies are absent
The particular mix of species that communities contain and the relative abundance of those species
Species composition
The change over time of a community , series of events by which life comes back
Ecological succession
Gets energy from the sun
Autotroph
Gets energy by eating producers or other consumers
Heterotrophs
Total amount of energy that primary producers capture and convert to chemical energy during some period of time
Gross primary productivity
Energy that is contained in the tissues that primary producers have produced, available for consumption
Net primary productivity
This tropic level is made up of autotrophs
Producers
This tropic level consists of herbivores
Primary consumers
Species in this tropic level consume herbivores
Secondary consumers
What are secondary consumers also known as?
Primary carnivores
Species in this tropic level consume secondary consumers
Tertiary consumers
What are tertiary consumers also known as?
Secondary carnivores
The progression over successfully lower tropic levels of the indirect effects of a predator
Tropic cascade
What are the two elements of species diversity?
Species richness and species evenness
The number of species in a community
Species richness
The distribution of a species abundance in a community
Species evenness
What is the general relationship between primary productivity of a community and species richness?
Greater species richness= greater primary productivity
__________ varies with latitude
Species richness
These organisms feed from multiple tropic levels
Omnivores
These feed on waste products or dead bodies of organisms
Decomposers
What are decomposers also known as?
Detritivores
What is a major assumption of the BD model?
There is no migration
What sequence describes the pathway of energy through most living things in their environment
Light energy —–> chemical energy —–> heat
Which goes through cycles, energy or matter?
Matter
What type of model do you get when you add the total number of emigrated and immigrated individuals to the BD model?
BIDE model
The proportion of the original cohort surviving from fledging to age x
Survivorship
Average number of young fledged per female of age x
Fecundity
When measuring growth rate , what is N?
Population size
What is the formula for growth rate?
Births-deaths/N
Species that grow quickly but do to offer lots of parental care
R-related species
Species that grow slowly but offer more parental care to their offspring
K-related species
Survivorship where most survive at an early age but survivorship drops at old age
Type I survivorship curve
Survivorship where most die at early age and few survivors level off
Type III survivorship curve
Survivorship where organisms die at a linear rate
Type II survivorship curve
A lack of genetic diversity can lead to ______
Extinction
When does primary succession occur?
No soil left
When does secondary succession occur?
Soil remains
Organisms that tend to make a living by coming back after a disturbance
Pioneer organisms
At the end of succession, you have a _______ species
Climax
