General ecology

Question 1

Succession

Answer 1

The process by which the structure of a biological community evolves over time. Two kinds:
Primary: Where life was not sustainable.
Secodary: Where a previously-exisitng community has been removed.

Question 2

Habitat

Answer 2

Place where an organism or a community of organisms lives, including all living and nonliving factors or conditions of the surrounding environment.

Question 3

Competition

Answer 3

Interaction between two organisms relating to pursuing limited resources

Question 4

Biological species concept

Answer 4

Interbreeding with fertile offspring; secondary properties include reproductive isolation and mate recognition

Question 5

Ecological species concept

Answer 5

Same niche or adaptive zone

Question 6

Evolutionary species concept

Answer 6

Unique evoutionary role, tendencies, and fate

Question 7

Cohesion species concept

Answer 7

Phenotipic cohesion

Question 8

Phylogenetic species concepts

Answer 8

Subdivded into:

Hennigian (ancestor becomes extinct)
Monophyletic (ancestor + descendants)
Genealogical (coalescence of alleles*)
Diagnosable (some level of non-overlap)

*All alleles of a gene come from a common ancestral allele not shared with other species
* Note an allele is one of two or more possible forms of a gene

Question 9

Phenetic species concepts

Answer 9

Measurable similarities

Question 10

Genotypic clusters species concepts

Answer 10

Heterozygotes (i.e., presence of two different alleles in a particular gene region)

Question 11

Umbrella species

Answer 11

A species that protects many other species.

Question 12

Flagship species

Answer 12

A species that serves a symbol for a habitat.

Question 13

Ecosystem engineer

Answer 13

A species that modifies the environment, creating new habitats.