Ecosystem Services Flashcards
What are the four types of ecosystem services?
Cultural
Provisioning
Supporting
Regulating
What is the name of the benefits people get
Ecosystem services
Definition of ecosystem
All living things in an area, interacting with each other and their non-living environments
Definition of Biosphere
All living components on earth, including all organic matter that has not yet decomposed
Definition of Biodiversity
The variety of all life on earth, in all its forms and all its interactions
Contraction of Biological and Diversity and describes the variety of life and its processes.
What is the current number of described species
1.7m described. The estimated actual number is closer 10m
IUCN acronym
International Union for conservation of nature
Key causes of biovisersity loss
- Habitat loss due to deforestation and land use changes
- Fungal disease
- Climate change, increases in temperature etc
- Bush meat and other animal trades
- Contact with humans spreading viruses, e.g. Ebola
- Introduction of invasive, non native species, e.g. grey squirrel, American mink, Asian hornet, killer shrimp, monk parakeet
What are the 3 types of diversity that make up biodiversity
Ecosystem
Species
Genetic
Deinifiton of ecology
Ecology is the study of biological communities. Ecologists study how species interact and the processes which enable them to do this.
What are the levels of organisation? (4)
Individual organism - animal, plant or microorganism
Population - a group of same species living in same place (Habitat)
Community - a collection of populations of all the organisms that occur together in a given place (habitat) and time
Ecosystem - includes all interacting physical and biological components of an area which may consist of one or more communities together with their physical surroundings
Definition of Population
A group of the same species living in the same place (habitat) at the same time
Definition of community
The sum of all organisms present in a place at a given time
AND
How these organisms interact
Both make up the community
Name the 5 types of ecological interaction
Competition Predation Parasitism Mutualism Commensalism
Definition of competition (in ecological interaction)
Two or more species want the same limited resource (food or shelter). They may harm one another to get this resource
Definition of Predation
One animal or species hunts, kills and eats all or part of a second animal species
Deinfition of parasitism
Two species live in an obligatory association in which the parasite depends on the host. The parasite doesn’t normally kill the host but i may weaken it
E.g mistletoe on an apple tree
Definition of mutualism
Two species live in close association to the benefit of both species, for example cleaner fish and sharks
- clown fish and sea anemones - crush keep clean and anemone allows protection from predators
- bees and flowers
- Spider crab and algae that disguises and protects form sun
- Bacteria and humans
Definition of commensalism
Two species live in close association , once gains with you affecting the other
- clown fish and sea anemones
- tree frogs using plants as protection
Examples of keystone species
Keystone species have a disproportionately large impact in comparison to their numbers and are critical for the long term survival of a community or ecosystem
- bees
- sea otters
- lions
- jaguars
- beavers
What are the two concepts relating to ecological stability
Resistance
Resilience
Definition of ecological resistance
Resistance measures how much an ecosystem resists change
A systems which remains the same despite disturbance or changes in, for example, nutrient input or changes in pollution level, has a high resistance
Ecosystems which are inhabited by a broad range of species, with few, if any niche habitats, are more likely to have global stability. In other words, they’re more likely to be highly resistant to changes in species composition and or food web dynamics.
They are said to have a high level of constancy
Definition of ecological resilience
Resilience measures how quickly a system recovers from a disturbance, such as over predation, hunting, pollution and natural disaster, and returns to a steady state.
