Exam 1 (Ch. 44, 45, & 46) Flashcards
1
Q
What are the levels of study?
A
Organisms, populations, communities, ecosystems and biosphere.
2
Q
What are organisms?
A
Living things in an environment.
ex: each pine tree in the forest
3
Q
What is a population?
A
All the same species in an area
4
Q
What are communities?
A
All the plants and animals in one area/region that are living simultaneously.
5
Q
What are ecosystems?
A
Biological region/system which includes the living organisms and environment.
6
Q
What is the biosphere?
A
All ecosystems on Earth.
7
Q
What is biogeography?
A
The study of the geographic distribution of living organisms and the abiotic factors that affect their distribution & living.
8
Q
Biogeography abiotic factors
A
Abiotic factors such as temperature & rainfall vary based mainly on latitude and elevation.
9
Q
If abiotic factors change, does it affect organisms/life distribution?
A
Yes, as abiotic factors change, the composition of plant & animal communities also change.
10
Q
Tropical Forest Characteristics?
A
- Found in equatorial regions
- High Biodiversity
- Warm temps and high precipitation
- Consistent levels of sunlight and temp meaning very little seasonality.
11
Q
Savanna Characteristics?
A
- Grasslands with scattered trees
- Hot, tropical areas with extensive dry season and consequent fires.
- Found in Africa, South America, and Northern Australia
12
Q
Desert Characteristics?
A
- Exists between 15-30 degrees North and South latitude.
- Very dry because evaporation typically exceeds precipitation.
- Low species diversity
- To reduce water loss, many desert plants have tiny leaves or no leaves at all.
13
Q
Chapparal (Scrub Forest) Characteristics?
A
- Found in California, along the Mediterranean Sea, and along the Southern coast of Australia.
- Majority of the rain falls in the winter, summers are very dry.
- Vegetation is dominated by shrubs and is adapted to periodic fires.
14
Q
Temperate grassland Characteristics?
A
- Found in central North America and in Eurasia.
- Also known as Prairies, steppes.
- Hot summers and cold winters.
- Dominant vegetation is grass. Trees mainly found near rivers and streams.
15
Q
Temperate forest Characteristics?
A
- Found in Eastern North America, Western Europe, Eastern Asia, Chile and New Zealand.
- Defined growing seasons during the spring, summer and early fall.
- Precipitation is relatively consistent throughout the year.
- Deciduous trees are dominant plant.
16
Q
Boreal forest (Taiga) Characteristics?
A
- Found roughly between 50-60 degrees North Latitude across most of Canada, Russia, Alaska and Northern Europe.
- Long, cold, dry winters and short, cool, wet summers.
- Dominated by evergreen coniferous trees like pine, spruce and fir.
17
Q
Tundra Characteristics?
A
- Found in Arctic regions
- Very short growing season
- very cold, low precipitation and low evaporation.
- Vegetation is low; shrubs, grasses and lichens.
18
Q
What is the oceanic zone?
A
The part of the ocean lying beyond the continental shelf, the beginning where water drops to below 200 meters.
19
Q
What is the photic zone?
A
The uppermost layer of the ocean that receives sunlight, and allows phytoplankton to preform photosynthesis.
20
Q
What is the Aphotic zone?
A
Under the Photic zone, and it’s the portion of a body of water where no sunlight is at, or very little sunlight.
21
Q
What is the Abyssal zone?
A
A layer of the pelagic zone of the ocean and it’s the deeper part of the ocean, absolutely no sunlight.
22
Q
What is the neritic zone?
A
The relatively shallow part of the ocean above the continental shelf. Lots of sunlight and has lots of life such as corals, fish, etc.
23
Q
What is the intertidal zone?
A
The area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide. Sea urchins, mussel shells, and starfish often found here.
24
Q
What are coral reefs?
A
Formed by calcium carbonate skeletons of coral organisms.
High biodiversity
structurally complex habitats
High productivity
Corals are animals
25
Population size
(N) = the total number of individuals
26
Population density
The number of individuals within a specific area or volume.
27
Why are population density and population size important?
They are the 2 main characteristics used to describe and understand populations.
28
What is type 1 survivorship curve?
Very low mortality rate early in life and high mortality rate late in life. (Humans).
29
What is type 2 survivorship curve?
Death is probable at any age, (birds).
30
What is type 3 survivorship curve?
High mortality rate early in life, very low mortality rate later in life if they survive early stages of life. (Trees)
31
Early reproduction?
Organisms that reproduce early in life most likely produce more offspring, but is often the expense of the parent.
32
Late reproduction?
Organisms that reproduce later in life can provide more for themselves & the offspring but risk not surviving until reproduce age.
33
What is semelparity?
Where an organism only reproduces a SINGLE time in their life and then dies.
34
What is Iteroparity?
Species that reproduce repeatedly during their lives.
35
What is exponential growth in population?
When resources are unlimited, so the bar continues to go up /
36
What is logistic growth in population?
When resources are limited, and population decreases as resources become scarce (when a population reaches carrying capacity line). S shape graph.
37
What is carrying capacity?
The largest population that can be maintained for an indefinite period by a particular environment, assuming there are no changes in the environment.
38
How is carrying capacity act in nature?
It is dynamic and changes in response to environmental changes.
39
Growth rate calculation?
Change in number / change in time = birth rate - death rate
40
What is population regulation?
Density-dependent factors include predation, inter and intraspecific competition, accumulation of waste and diseases. Usually the denser the population, the higher mortality rate.
41
What are density INdependent factors?
weather, natural disaster, pollution, and other chemical/physical conditions. These occur and impact population no matter what.
42
What are density dependent factors?
inter and intraspecific competition, accumulation of waste, predation, and diseases.
43
What is intraspecific competition?
Exploitation competition: all individuals in a population share a limited resource equally, at high population densities none obtain the adequate amount to survive.
44
What are k-selected species?
Selected by stable/predictable environments. these species often have less offspring, provide longer parental care, live longer, and mature later in life.
45
What are r-selected species?
Have a large number of offspring, usually in unpredictable and changing environments. Mature early, shorter lifespans, give less parental care.
46
What is rapid growth?
Diagram rapidly comes to a triangle point. This indicates that the number of individuals decreases rapidly with age.
47
What is slow growth?
Diagram slowly comes to a triangle point. The number of individuals decrease steadily with age.
48
What is stable growth?
The diagram is more rounded. This shows that the number of individuals per age group decreases gradually and then increases for the older part of the population. The
49
What is a niche?
An animals ecological role within the structure and function of a community.
50
What is an ecological niche?
It takes into account all the biotic and abiotic factors (physical, chemical and biological), that species need to survive and reproduce.
51
What does a niche include?
Includes the local environment in which a species lives, what it eats, what eats it, what organisms it competes with, and its responses to abiotic factors.
52
What is predation?
The consumption of one species (prey) by another predator.
53
What does predation result in?
The evolution of predator strategies (ways to catch prey) and prey strategies (ways to escape predator)
54
What is coevolution?
The interdependent evolution of 2 interacting species.
55
What are predator-prey adaptions?
Camouflage, warning coloration, chemical warfare, behavioral strategies, many more
56
What is batesian mimicry?
When a harmless species mimics the the coloration of a harmful species.
57
What is mullerian mimicry?
2 dangerous organisms look the same
58
What is competitive exclusion principal?
2 species cannot occupy the same niche in a habitat. Different species cannot coexist in a community if they are competing for the same resources.
59
What is resource partitioning?
Species divide a niche to reduce competition. Ex: large, med, and small finches of Galapagos Islands eat different seeds based on their beak size. (All eat seeds but divide it into size).
60
What is symbiosis?
Close interactions between individuals of different species over an extended period of time, which impacts the abundance and distribution of the associating populations.
61
What is a commensal relationship?
One species benefits, other species is neither harmed or helped.
62
What is a mutualism relationship?
2 Species benefit from their interaction.
63
What is a parasitism relationship?
One organism lives in or on another living organism and derives nutrients from it. Parasite benefits and host is harmed.
64
What is a keystone species?
A species whose presence is key to maintaining biodiversity within an ecosystem and to upholding a an ecological community's structure.
65
What are community dynamics?
Succession describes the sequential appearance and disappearance of species in a community over time.
66
What is primary succession?
Newly exposed or newly formed land is colonized by living things.
67
What is secondary succession?
Part of an ecosystem is disturbed and remnants of the previous community remain.
68
What 7 things is species richness influenced by?
Structural complexity, geographic isolation, habitat stress (pollution, extreme conditions), Latitude (species richness), closeness to the margins of adjacent communities, dominance of one species over others, geological disturbances.
69
What is a primary producer?
The bottom of the food chain, usually photosynthetic organisms.
70
What is primary consumer?
Consumes the primary producer
71
What is the secondary consumer?
Are usually carnivores that eat the primary consumers.
72
What is apex consumer?
The highest-level consumer in the ecosystem.
73
What is a food web?
a graphic representation of a holistic, nonlinear web of primary producers, consumers and higher level consumers used to describe ecosystem structure and dynamics.
74
What are photoautotrophs?
Such as plants, algae, and photosynthetic bacteria, serve as the energy source for a majority of the world's ecosystems.
75
What are chemoautotrophs?
Synthesize complex organic molecules, such as glucose, for their own energy; usually they do this without sunlight and rather use other sources of energy.
76
What are heterotrophs?
Acquire energy from digesting living or previously living organisms.,
77
What is biomass?
the total mass, in a unit area at the time of measurement, of living or previously living organisms within a trophic level.
78
What is gross primary productivity?
The rate at which photosynthetic primary producers incorporate energy from the sun.
79
What is net primary productivity?
The energy that remains in the primary producers after accounting for the organism's respiration and heat loss. The net productivity is then available to the primary consumers at the next trophic level.
80
What is biological magnification
The increasing concentration of persistent, toxic substances in organisms at each trophic level, from the primary producers to the apex consumers.
81
What is the water cycle?
When water from the land and oceans enters the atmosphere by evaporation or sublimination, where it condenses into clouds and falls as rain or snow.
82
What is the carbon cycle?
Carbon dioxide gas exists in the atmosphere and is dissolved in water. Photosynthesis converts carbon dioxide gas to organic carbon, and respiration cycles the organic carbon back into carbon dioxide gas. Long-term storage of organic carbon occurs when matter from living organisms is buried deep
underground and becomes fossilized. Volcanic activity and, more recently, human emissions, bring this
stored carbon back into the carbon cycle.
83
What is the nitrogen cycle?
Nitrogen enters the living world from the atmosphere via nitrogen-fixing bacteria. This
nitrogen and nitrogenous waste from animals is then processed back into gaseous nitrogen
by soil bacteria, which also supply terrestrial food webs with the organic nitrogen they need
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