Final Exam Class 3 Behavioral Ecology Cont. and Population Ecology

Question 1

what is migration?

Answer 1

a long distance movement of a population
(often associated with the change of seasons)
(2 way)

Question 2

what is dispersal?

Answer 2

one way movement of organisms from one area to

Question 3

what are the proximate causes of navigation?

Answer 3

piloting (use of landmarks) (ex. migratory birds)

compass orientation (oriented by the sun, stars, earth magnetic field) (ex. salmon, butterflies) (uses circadian clock)

true navigation (ability to locate specific place on a surface) (ex. salmon sea turtles)

Question 4

what is the circadian clock?

Answer 4

maintains a 24 hr rhythm of chemical, activity like hormone patterns, sleep cycles

Question 5

what is the example of true navigation

Answer 5

sea turtles use magnetic field to be able to locate a certain point on earth surface

Question 6

what are the ultimate causes of migration?

Answer 6

movement of food resources
seasonal shifts
reproduction
climate

Question 7

what is communication

Answer 7

any process by which a signal from one individual modifies the behavior or another
- chemical
- auditory
-visual
(ex. honeybee dancing, birdsong, vocal and non vocal communication in mammals like wolves howling)

Question 8

what id deceit in communication?

Answer 8

possum playing dead
female mimic fish
predatory tricks

Question 9

what is an example of a predatory trick?

Answer 9

frogs mimicking predatory snakes

Question 10

what is altruism?

Answer 10

behavior that has a fitness cost to the individual exhibiting the behavior

Question 11

what is kin selection?

Answer 11

when natural selection acts to benefit relatives at the expense of the individual
ex.) prairie dog alarms

Question 12

what is eusociality

Answer 12

extreme cooperation
ex.)bees: workers sacrifice all direct reproduction to help the queens

Question 13

what is indirect fitness

Answer 13

focus on the offspring staying alive, but it is not crucial that the individual itself stays alive

Question 14

what is population ecology?

Answer 14

the study of how and why populations change in time and space
“where do they live and how many are there?”

Question 15

a species… can be influenced by both abiotic and biotic factors?

Answer 15

range

Question 16

what is demography?

Answer 16

the study of the size and structure of populations throughout time

Question 17

changes in population depend on

Answer 17

birth rate
death rate
immigration rate
emigration rate

Question 18

what is age structure?

Answer 18

how many individuals of each age class are alive

Question 19

what is generation time>

Answer 19

the average time between when an individual is born and when its 1st offspring is born

Question 20

what do we use to understand how demography changes?

Answer 20

life table

Question 21

what does a life table take into account

Answer 21

age class
survivorship
fecndity

Question 22

what is age class

Answer 22

group of ind. in a specific age

Question 23

what is survivorship

Answer 23

proportion of ofspring that survive

Question 24

what is fecundity

Answer 24

the number of female offspring that are born

Question 25

what is a survivorship curve?

Answer 25

describes the rate and onset of death

Question 26

type 1 SC

Answer 26

humans

Question 27

type 2 SC

Answer 27

even

Question 28

type 3 SC

Answer 28

ants

Question 29

what is the net reproductive rate?

Answer 29

average births/year/original female
(lx)(mx)
then add all of them up
=1 stable
> 1 growing
<1 declining

Question 30

what is life history?

Answer 30

describes how organisms allocate resources to survival v. reproduction
ex) individual growth
defense
repro. investment
immune functions

Question 31

r selected species

Answer 31

high fecund. low surv.

Question 32

k selected

Answer 32

low fecund. high survivorship

Question 33

why cant an animal have both high fecundity and high survival

Answer 33

if a female devotes lots of energy to the production of offspring, she cant devote that same energy to her growth nutrient stores or other traits that maximize survival

Question 34

Rate (r) of population growth is quantified by

Answer 34

comparing the change in the number of individuals (N) over time (T)

Question 35

exponential growth curve

Answer 35

J shaped curve
r remains constant
density independent (only limited by abiotic factors)
common in new habitats or following natural disasters
(adaptive radiation) (bottleneck) etc.

Question 36

exponential growth cannot

Answer 36

continue forever

Question 37

what is a logistic growth curve?

Answer 37

when growth slows due to difficulty finding food, spread of diseases in a crowded population
S shaped curve
growth is density dependent (limited by biotic and abiotic factors)

Question 38

what is carrying capacity

Answer 38

the max. pop. that can be supported in this habitat for a sustained period of time
(can be overshot)

Question 39

what are some examples of density dependent factors?

Answer 39

competition and predation, toxic waste, social behavior, disease

Question 40

population size increases

Answer 40

density dependent factors reduce population size

Question 41

what are metapopulations?

Answer 41

composed of numerous independent sub populations,, driven by the extinctions and migration among sub populations

Question 42

what are population cycles?

Answer 42

when population sizes change regularly,, caused by the interaction between interspecific and intraspecific biotic factors

Question 43

what are interspecific factors?

Answer 43

predation and disease

Question 44

what is intraspecific factor?

Answer 44

competition