Final Flashcards
What did fungi evolve from?
evolved from unicellular flagellated protist
What does unikont mean?
A eukaryotic cell with a single flagellum
What are the closest relatives to plants?
Charophytes
What are 2 examples of mutalist relationships?
1) Lichens (algae + fungus): fungus provides a better climate for the algae and the algae provides the fungus w/ nutrients
2) Mycorrhizae and tree: mycorrhizae aids with branching of roots therefore increased uptake and tree provides fungus with sugar to grow (both aid in growing)
What are the 3 main things plants have to do to survive?
1) Obtain energy
2) Withstand current and future conditions
3) Reproduce
What does Sporo- mean?
makes spores
What does Gameto- mean?
Makes gametes
What does -phyte mean?
whole organism
What does -angium mean?
specific organ or tissue
What does -cyte mean?
cell
What does sporocyte mean?
cell that produces spores
What does gametangium mean?
Specific organ (or tissue) that produces gametes
Why did it take long for plants to evolve to terrestrial life; 2 key challenges?
1) availability of H2O
2) Spatial separation of resources
What are the 4 key traits that separate land plants from their algal relatives and let them adapt to land?
1) Multicellular dependent embryos: protect from drying out and provides nourishment
2) Multicellular gametangia: facilitates reproduction in H2O limited areas
3) Walled spores: surrounded by resistant covering made of sporopollenin (dispersed in air without drying out)
4) Apical meristems: all for tissue specialization; structure that allows for growth in opposite directions in branching structures = help get nutrients
What are the 4 stages of plant evolution?
1) Bryophytes
2) Seedless vascular plants (pteridophytes)
3) Gymnosperms
4) Angiosperms
How did plants during the carboniferous period cause global cooling?
Giant lycophyte trees were a massive biomass that needed large amounts of photosynthesis causing global cooling
What is the hypothesis for the decline of coal forests?
1) Drier cooler conditions due to global cooling (large amounts of photosynthesis)
2) Permian extinctions
What’s a seed?
Embryo w/ food supply packaged in a protective coat derived from integument
What is integument (the layer that protects the embryo in a seed)?
It’s a layer of sporophyte tissue that contributes to ovule structure
What are the 3 generations of seeds in gymnosperms?
1) female sporophyte found in seed coat and megasporangium remnants (2n)
2) Female gametophytic tissue found in food supply (n)
3) Sporophyte of next gen, found in embryo (2n)
What does pollen contain?
it contains male gametophyte in a tough protective coating that acts as a vehicle for sperm (replaces swimming sperm)
Which group of plants have both independent sporophytes and gametophytes?
Seedless vascular plants such as ferns, horsetails, and club mosses
How do you recognize the bryophyte lifecycle?
Requires H2O for sperm to swim to thingy and has 4 generations:
1) Gametophyte
2) gametes
3) sporophyte
4) spores
How do you recognize the seedless vascular plant life cycle?
Sorus and sporangium: which release spores
How do you recognize the gymnosperm plant life cycle?
Heterospory: the production of spores of generally two sizes (microspores and megaspores), each developing into a particular type of gametophyte: Archegonium and antheridium
How do you recognize the angiosperm life cycle?
3 F’s: Flowers, fruits, and double fertilization
What is the largest and youngest plant phylum?
Anthophyta (Angiosperms): 250,000 species
What does global ecology look at?
how exchange of materials/energy influences function + distribution of organisms across the biosphere
what is the biosphere?
The parts of the Earth’s surface that contain life
What does landscape ecology look at?
what controls the flow of energy, materials, and organisms across multiple ecosystems
What does ecosystem ecology look at?
emphasizes energy flow and chemical cycling b/w organisms and env.
What does community ecology look at?
how species interactions affect community structure and organization
What does pop ecology look at?
How and why pop sizes change through time
What does organismal ecology look at?
how an organism’s structure, physiology, and behaviour relate to its env
How does the transition from grassland to forest occur?
w/ increase in temp and precipitation
Terrestrial biomes are heavily shaped by climate, w/ 3 main factors, what are they?
1) Average temp
2) Average amount of precipitation
3) Seasonality
What are terrestrial biomes defined by?
Defined based on dominant vegetation:
1) Grass: not woody, grow quickly, often drought tolerant, and often have deep roots
2) Shrubs: woody, but shorter than trees; don’t need as much moisture, can compete for light w/ grass, resist herbivores
3) Trees: outcompete shorter species for light, often need lots of moisture and long growing season
How is the formation of grasslands (prairies) in mid-western Canada and USA best expolained?
Rain-shadow effect created by the Rockies
What can maintain or alter biomes and what’s an example?
Disturbance can maintain or alter biomes, for example, savannas are transitional biomes b/w desert and forest
What is the transitional biome b/w desert and forest?
Savannas
What’s the most productive area of the lake per meter squared?
Littoral zone bc you’re getting new nutrients from land while still getting sun
What is the limiting nutrient for the ocean?
Nitrogen bc there aren’t many organisms that can fix nitrogen since it takes a lot of energy to break the bonds in NH4
What is secondary production?
energy captures in the bodies of consumers after eating plant matter
What is the 2nd law of thermodynamics?
entropy is always increasing (form of entropy = heat), usable energy is always decreasing in every ecological “reaction”
Where does plant biomass come from?
Air -> photosynthesis makes sugar which is a major component of cellulose, starch and lignin
In an ecosystem, what is the minimum requirement to recycle nutrients?
Primary producers and decomposers
How does the carbon cycle work?
CO2 gas in the air is used in photosynthesis by plants to make sugar, plant is eaten by animal, animal dies, decomposers breakdown animal into nutrients again, nutrients taken up by consumers and the breathed out in form of CO2 in cellular respiration
Why is N fixation important for plants?
It allows plants to convert N into Nitrate
What is the largest reservoir for N?
the atmosphere
What is bioaccumulation?
accumulation of toxic substances in an organism’s tissues
What is biomagnification?
Toxic substance concentration increasing w/ trophic levels
Which pop structure (sex ratio, age or size structure, stage structure, or spatial structure) can tell us if a pop is growing or sinking?
Age structure
What is the definition of a metapopulation?
Group of pops that are connected by immigration and emigration
What are the 6 things of evidence for evolution?
1) Inference from adaptations
2) Homologous traits; similar traits by descent
3) Fossil record
4) Similarities in DNA
5) Biogeography: species living in geographically close areas tend to have similar traits not linked to adaptations to local conditions
6) Embryos + development, long-term observation, experiments, math, etc.
What are analogous traits?
similar traits due to common selection pressures
difference b/w brown and green foodweb?
A “green” food web is a food web where the basal (lowest) source of energy in the food web is living plants, and the primary consumers are herbivores. A “brown” foodweb is a foodweb where the basal energy / carbon source is from detritus (dead material and waste productions), and the primary consumers are detrivores
example of a brown foodweb?
Bottom of the ocean where organisms depend on detritus
What is the hierarchical organization of ecology?
1) Individuals
2) Pops
3) Communities
4) Ecosystems
How do you measure species richness?
total # of species in the community
How do you measure evenness?
relative abundances of species within community
What is shannon diversity?
Measuring biodiversity: takes into account both richness and evenness. If 2 communities have same richness than the community that’s more even will have higher diversity
What are the 2 ways you calculate biodiversity?
1) Functional biodiversity: more functional traits = higher biodiversity
2) Phylogenetic biodiversity: more individs that diverged longer ago = higher biodiversity
What are the 2 key factors that demonstrate patterns in species richness?
1) Latitude = more diverse in tropics
2) Area = bigger island and closer to mainland = more diverse and less extinction
Our CO2 levels are similar to CO2 levels how long ago?
3 million years ago
How will currently living species respond to anthropogenic change?
move, adapt, or die
What are more accurate depictions of trophic structures and why (2 reasons)?
foodwebs because trophic position of species isn’t fixed and species can feed at more than 1 trophic level
What % of the food we grow is eaten by insects?
they eat up to 20%
What are 3 influences on abundance?
1) Genetic diversity
2) rates of evolution
3) risk of extinction
What are 2 influences on density?
1) meeting freq
2) availability of resources
What are 2 influences on biomass?
1) amount of energy stored in pop
2) rates of flow of energy and materials b/w organisms and env
Which group of plants have both independent gametophytes and sporophytes?
seedless vascular plants: ferns, horsetails, lycopods, etc.: plants reproduce using haploid, unicellular spores instead of seeds. The spores are very lightweight (unlike many seeds), which allows for their easy dispersion in the wind and for the plants to spread to new habitats
