Forest Unseen Flashcards
How many legs do springtails have?
6 stumpy legs
How big are springtails?
Nearly microscopic
What do springtails eat?
Plants and fungi
How plentiful are springtails?
Tens of thousands in a few square yards of soil
How are springtails beneficial?
Their wastes fertilize the soil
What causes the earthy smell of soil?
actinomycetes bacteria
What benefit has come from actinomycetes?
Antibiotics
How thin are fungal hyphae compared to root hairs?
10x thinner
Early plants didn’t have roots. They got their soil nutrients via
Fungi
Bird adaptations to save weight: sex organs…
Atrophy out of breeding season
Bird adaptations to save weight: they have no…
Teeth
Bird adaptations to save weight: smaller bladders because…
They excrete uric acid crystals instead of urine
A bird’s heart’s size compared to a mammal’s is
Double
The function of purple plant leaves is
To protect them in the winter from UV damage; it allows a small amount of photosynthesis
What advantage is conferred by color blindness (esp dichromats)?
Better able to spot camouflaged things.
What percent of human males are dichromats?
2-8%
Spider silk color…
Can be adjusted by some spiders to make it less visible in their area of the forest (brightness and color)
Deer alert sounds
Alert other animals and can spread hundreds of yards
Vultures seek food partly by the smell of
Ethyl mercaptan
Ethyl mercaptan is in —, thus attracting —-
Natural gas (spiked); vultures
Two ways that vultures can tolerate “food poisoning” from rotting food are
Powerful stomach acid and enzymes; high WBC count
What consumes more forest leaves (in most forests) than all other causes combined?
Caterpillars
What do some caterpillars form a mutualistic relationship with to defend them from predators? How much does it help?
Ants, by secreting honeydew, giving them a 10x higher survival rate
What helps birds find caterpillars in a forest?
Leaf holes. Caterpillars with fewer natural defenses feed on leaf edges.
A patch of sunlight on the forest floor is called a
Sunfleck
How much do sunflecks matter to plants on the forest floor?
May provide up to 50% of its solar energy?
What do forest floor plants do to protect themselves from damage from forest sunlight that occasionally comes through?
Move chloroplasts rapidly to the bottom of the leaf
What is the value of mating type reproduction in fungi?
Prevents too many mitochondria in a cell
Ticks use Haller’s organs on their forelegs to sense
CO2, sweat, heat, and vibrations
How do ticks combat dehydration (a threat to them)?
secrete a special saliva that absorbs water from the air like silica gel (they then swallow it.)
How do ticks stay on so well? Hint: same reason they can’t release themselves quickly, such as when people try to burn them.
They cement themselves on
A tick’s full meal has a greater quantity of blood than their body’s volume afterwards. How can this be?
They extract water from their gut and inject it back into the host, which can transmit disease
Birds need calcium for egg shells. What is a good source?
Snails
Where does a developing bird get calcium for its bones?
The inside of the egg
What is one way acid rain harms birds?
makes it harder for snails to survive in the acidified soil (and birds need Ca from snail shells)
Mosquito proboscis structure
bundle of several tubes. Salivary tubes release anti-clotting chemicals and cause the allergic reaction
Mosquito proboscis actions
proboscis is flexible, probes for vessel - capillaries too thin / large vessels too tough. The feeding tube senses blood flow.
Mosquito after feeding
2x heavier; urinates excess water and salt. Then, blood proteins become basis for egg production
When not breeding, the mosquito would feed on
nectar, aphid honeydew, and plant juices, sugar from rotting fruit
Most common mosquito prey (for some species)
Birds
Mosquitoes’ effect on birds
Avian malaria or West Nile can be transmitted. Many birds aren’t substantially weakened; about ⅓ of birds may be infected.
Name 3 Mosquito preferences
high body heat, those with lots of skin bacteria, pregnant women, blood type O (Asian Tiger); beer drinkers; green and black clothes
Leaf miner diet
Phloem Sap - full of sugar but low in amino acids, so they drink 200x their body weight / day. Thus release “honeydew” from anus. need gut bacteria to synthesize certain amino acids.
Fixes to leaf wind drag
In strong wind, leaves fold to reduce drag. Trunk has coiled fibers that act like springs to absorb energy.
Male tree flowers with catkins
are wind-pollinated and can have an “umbrella” above it to reduce rain washing away pollen.
Female wind-pollinated tree flowers
may be designed to create eddies to slow the wind to increase pollen deposition.
Moth feet
are covered with chemical-sensing detectors.
Moths need
salt and if one lands on you, it might take some from your sweat. Sweat is blood with all the large molecules removed.
A tree in summer could exhale how much water?
Hundreds of gallons a day
Name 3 ring-porous woods.
hickory, oaks, ashes, catalpa, elm, mulberry
What is the xylem structure in ring-porous wood?
The tubes are long and wide, offering better water flow but more likelihood of air embolisms.
What are the effects of the structure of ring-porous wood?
Growth starts later but proceeds faster because air embolisms form more easily in the wider tubes when it freezes.
What does ring-porous growth look like?
Each season includes two sets of xylem growth, one with wider pores than the other.
Name 3 diffuse-porous woods.
maple, birch, willow; many tropical trees
What is the xylem structure in diffuse-porous wood?
Has smaller, shorter tubes that are less prone to blockage by air embolisms when frozen.
What distinguishes diffuse-porous wood?
Their xylem is more frost resistant and the tree leafs out earlier in spring but can’t carry as much water so growth lags in summer.
Name 3 semi-ring porous wood examples.
black walnut; butternut; cherry
What happens when pollen lands on a stigma?
It rejects pollen grains from other species and even same plant (except sometimes when time is “running out”)
What causes a pollen grain on a stigma to grow?
stigma releases water and nutrients that the pollen absorbs. The two cells inside the pollen grain expand and burst open its outer coat.
How does pollen get down the style?
The larger of the two pollen cells grows into tube that goes down through style. Remaining pollen cell splits into 2 sperm cells. They float down pollen tube passively.
What happens when flower pollen sperm reach the ovule?
One joins egg to make embryo. Other joins with DNA from other plant cells and makes cell with triple DNA, which grows into a food storage area for developing seed. This “double fertilization” only occurs in flowering plants.
How thick are moss leaves?
1 cell thick (helps water absorption)
Name 2 moss leaf structures that aid water absorption.
1) curls that hold water
2) bumps to increase surface area
3) wooly hairs.
Why aren’t moss leaves usually eaten?
fibrous nature and bitter compounds
Where do mosses get some trace nutrients?
from dust in the air (no roots)
Do mosses contain cellulose? Lignin?
Mosses (and most bryophytes) have no lignin.
Name 3 North American megafauna.
1) giant ground sloths (rhino size)
2) giant herbivorous bears
3) mastodons
What is not digested with a rumen?
mother’s milk
What ancient type of microorganisms are in rumen?
Primarily anaerobic microorganisms that evolved before earth’s atmosphere had much oxygen—it is poisonous to them. Some live deep in the soil.
What is the composition of rumen microorganisms?
Over 200+ species of bacteria, protists, and fungi. No single species can digest all parts of a plant cell.
