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BIOL2010 > Gimme Walter's Lectures > Flashcards

Gimme Walter's Lectures Flashcards

1
Q

why are most species difficult to study?

A

1) cannot obtain density relationships

2) forced to focus on individuals

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2
Q

what are the adaptations of tree pythons?

A

> light build
strike must be precise to stop loss of prey
teeth long, straight and slender
flexible jaw apparatus - push teeth forward
penetrate prey
bring prey back to body coils

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3
Q

in the context of mechanisms of interaction, what can we generalise from the tree python example?

A

1) different pythons may live in same area, but interact with different subsets of environmental variables (on tree or on ground)
2) mechanism of interaction - intricate ( numerous components)
3) mutual adjustment of components
4) complex adaptation - development, morphology, physiology, behaviour

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4
Q

describe the pollination of cycads

A

> pollination mutualisms - ancient plants and specific insects
weevils on the female cones take pollen to male cones
specifically thrips

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5
Q

describe macrozamia in australia

A

> each macrozamia species - specific pollinator (no other host)
coordination
- male and female cones mature at the same time
- october/november (species-specific differences)
- specific pollinator must emerge (pupa in soil) at same time
- biochemical and physiological processes
environment
- thermal conditions
- cones are thermogenic
- cannot go through thermogenesis if too cold

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6
Q

describe the thrips cycad relationship

A

> thrips live inside cone of cycad
only emerge once the cone temperature exceeds a certain level, because it becomes too humid for the thrips
the thrips leave the cone when this happens, then reenter, thus allowing pollination in this time.
also, thermogenesis only occurs over a 24 hour cycle if nights are cooler than this coordinates thermogenesis peaks with insect activity peaks

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7
Q

what can you generalise about the mechanisms of interaction from the thrips example?

A

1) timing is crucial - seasonal and daily
2) mechanism of interaction is very intricate (numerous components)
3) mutual adjustment of components - species-specific (e.g., weevil (night) vs thrips (day) pollination)
4) complex adaptation (biochemistry, physiology, morphology, behaviour, temperature)

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8
Q

describe interactions with mates in regards to three-spined stickleback

A

> males secrete stuff from kidneys
builds nest
female swims in and lays eggs if nest right condition
male then enters and fertilises eggs and looks after them

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9
Q

describe the three-spined stickleback in terms of complex adaptations and stabilising selection

A

> several intermediate steps to achieve goal (dance and whatnot)
each achieves nothing on its own (environmental context and sequence)
a change to a step means the organism is unlikely to succeed
this is thus stabilising selection
THE ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXT IS FOLLOWED BY THE FUNCTIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF STEPS

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10
Q

What is SMRS?

A

> specific mate recognition system
the fish
environmental context
then the general model of physiological and behavioural processes of individuals
then the functional significance of each step

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11
Q

what are some key features of SMRS?

A

> effective in usual habitat of species
- frogs in differing environments change their call to suit that environment
- fit into the structure of the environment
behaviour adapted to habitat
- calls from a particular site
- lays eggs above a pool
- any interactions are confined by the environment

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12
Q

what are the final generalisations about interactions?

A
  1. complex - many components
  2. involve various processes - biochemical, physiological, morphological, developmental, behavioural
  3. influence by diverse environmental variables - abiotic (e.g., light, temperature, structure) biotic (e.g., plant, vegetation, prey, pollinator), timing and spatial placement
  4. mutual adjustment of components - species specific (e.g., pythons, weevil vs thrips pollination, frogs)
> they are coordinates to act in concert to achieve end goal
>tend to do the same thing over and over
> normal variation
> may vary with context 
> extremes may get selected against
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13
Q

what are the ecological implications of interactions?

A

> environment of an organisms is important for its usual life processes.
subset of environment is significant to the adaptations of the species
ecological consequences?

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14
Q

what is environmental matching?

A 
> structure of life cycle (2 stages)
> structure of environment (2 variables)
> these must match
> the better the match of the environment to the plants' needs, the more abundant the plant will be
> effects ecology directly
 - thermal requirements must be met
 - heat as a resource
 - or thermal tolerances - too much damage

THEREFORE:
> life of individual (lifeline) - must match sequence of thermal conditions in a locality
> closer the match, the more abundant the species
> several variables
> species specific (only one variable)

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15
Q

what are some examples of requirements for environmental matching?

A

> flowering of tomato plant
- mean temperature alone not entirely informative
- days spent above upper temp threshold and that effect on yeild
- amount of rainfall, too low is limiting and too high is limiting, mean tells us not much
- plotting both yield, temp and rainfall on same graph, gives best description for reality
moths on apples
thermal requirements:
- summer: 610 - 625 degree days - extreme north and south limits
- winter: larvae diapause (daylength) -32 too cold, so larvae don’t grow
- need Subarctic moth
- thermal response
- cannot grow down near the lake because it gets too cold

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16
Q

how do adelie penguins match their environment?

A

> they live on the continent of the south pole, however, the gentoo and the chinstrap only live on the islands surrounding the pole

  • they feed on krill that feed on algae under pack ice
  • they are adapted to a short summer
  • winter far north of antarctica (they avoid the unstable zone)
  • moult on pack ice
  • store fat for migration
  • early breeding, mate immediately (little mate fidelity)
  • short courtship, lay early, large eggs, leave chicks sooner, chicks fledge when smaller
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17
Q

describe what happened to large mammals and the differences with mammoth steppe

A

> few mammals with a gestation >12 months
all large - tapir size or bigger
global distribution - temperatures not extreme
- no snow cover
- rainfall cycles
tropics and subtropics - long season favourable for birth and young
for moose who live in extreme climates, the trade off is that their young weigh a lot less than other mammals,
MAMMOTHS
outside tropics - short season favourable for young
gestation even moose, young tiny
mammoth steppe - dry grass steppe
- this was in a long favourable period for young
- disrupted by climate change
- vegetation change to shrub steppe

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18
Q

what are some life cycle and environment generalisations?

A
  1. environment is structured
  2. life cycle structure (lifeline) must match environmental structure
  3. dictates geographical distribution
  4. influences local abundance
  5. measures of environmental variables have a variance
  6. calculate local risk to individual organisms
  7. species specific adaptations
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19
Q

what is significant to organisms ecologically about climate dynamics?

A
  1. movement
  2. sensitivity to changed environmental variables
  3. nature of change to environment of organisms
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20
Q

give examples of how organisms are always moving

A

> beetle in grain
- more than enough grain to feed entire population
- and yet they still fly away into pheremone traps
brown planthopper
- invades japan every year on the monsoonal winds
- dies out every winter because it is too cold
Planthooper and fairyfly
- planthopper colonise small offshore islands every spring/summer
- with the colonisation by the planthopper, the population of the parasitoid fairyfly increases as well
- then they both become extinct again
MOVEMENT IS FUNDAMENTAL TO ORGANISMS

21
Q

give some examples of organisms ongoing change in distribution

A

> birds migrating and giving birth at different places
distribution of moths change as temp increases, providing a wider area that suits their temp requirements
sooty copper moth
- become extinct in some areas as temp increases, and extend their distribution in others that have just become a suitable temp range.

22
Q

dscribe and give examples of climate change and its local effects

A

> bird species in the same place at the same time
- after climate change:
- some populations increases in abundance
- some crashed then increased
- some didn’t seem to be affected
- some decreased
in one area given a change in climate/environment, different species respond in different ways

23
Q

describe climate change in terms of season and locality

A

> there can be a change in climate over seasons, meaning that there are shorter summers, or hotter summers, or colder summers etc
organisms that require a certain amount of heat, may not be able to function in a changed environment described above
differences in variability in climate
changes in rainfall
organisms either cope or they die out, or change their geographical distribution.

24
Q

describe some features of quaternary ecology

A

> from ~ 1.6 million years ago
last 100 000 years (late pleistocene and holocene)
major ice ages - climate change
species that still exist
well preserved - pollen, beetles, snails

25
Q

describe what happened to some holocene plants

A

> distribution shifts with time
beech and hemlock had independent distributions 12,000 years ago
now they overlap
this could be because of melting ice caps, making them shift under climatic influence
this happens very slowly
happens because of seeds diversify
won’t germinate in unsuitable areas, so eventually move the distribution to a more suitable area.

26
Q

describe what happened to pleistocene beetles?

A

> species co-occur in one locality
then with changing climate, caused association fragments
now they are widely spread in response to climate change
Possible explanations are that they:
- adapted to new conditions
- or tracked specific subset of conditions (which is what happened)
because comparing fossil beetles with today’s beetles, there have been no adaptations
the morphology is identical to extant forms
therefore they tracked the same type of environment and shifted as the environment shifted.

27
Q

what are some of the climate variables?

A

> temperature, often represented by mean value
generally poor correlation with geographical distribution
temperature impacts organisms in many ways
winter maxima (not cold enough/too cold/ days of frost in spring etc)
summer maxima (not high enough/ too high/ too many consecutive days above a given temperature
duration of growing season/ temperature sum of growing season
rain (too much/ too little/ distribution too clumped/ too little in wet/ too much in dry season
oceanic currents [ and wind disturbance]

28
Q

how does temperature impact organisms?

A

> each of the different ways has an axis of environmental differentiation - has a profile (range and pattern of variation)
in one locality - organisms experience temperature intensity in various combinations (maxima, optima and minima - daily and seasonally, extreme or amount)
their means and variances shift relative to one another

29
Q

wht is the subtle influence of climate

A

> several variables - shift simultaneously
independently and in opposite directions (e.g., summer and winter temperatures)
different stages of life cycle thus affected in new ways
different species affected differentially

30
Q

what is climate’s influence on organisms?

A

> each species not affected by all changes
each species affected by different combination - defines its OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT
represents living conditions of species (requirements and tolerances)
explains independent movement of species(plants and beetles)

31
Q

the movement of organisms is not just climate alone, what else?

A

> host availability
- northern limit of bugs it limited by the tree distribution
host plant physiology
- population growth influenced by stress levels in plants
Behavioural mechanisms must be appropriate
- fish, only swimming in one area because its ecology dictates that, i.e., can’t swim in strong current because will get swept away.

32
Q

describe environmental tracking

A

> locate suitable locality - remain and reproduce (environmental match)
spatially dynamic view of populations
temperature- related shifts this century

33
Q

what are some conclusions that can be drawn from climate and changes in distributions of animals?

A

> climate - primary “driver of ecological change”
species - specific adaptations and requirements interact with environment - primary influences
other influences imposed over this (parasitism, predation etc) - secondary influences
density relationships maybe?

34
Q

what can we expect in a new species?

A 
> operational environment different
> different sexual communication system
> species characteristics species wide
THREE ASPECTS:
> environment
 - conditions, adaptive change
>population size
> geography
35
Q

describe the effects of environment of adaptive change

A

> directional selection - shifting environment causes organisms to adapt to remain alive (happens slowly)
environmental axes of differentiation - impose on particular life stage of organisms
changed environment
effective function of complex adaptations
life cycle appropriate to environment - structure and dynamics
not always obvious why

36
Q

explain geography’s effect on adaptation

A

> usually no strong selection to force change
adaptive change only under specific conditions
SMALL population CONFINED to area of different habitat

37
Q

describe the stages of adaptive change

A 
> different environment
> confined with directional selection
> on a small population
> evolutionary change thus FORCED
> imposed by environment
38
Q

what is populations effect on adaptive change

A

> allele fixation occurs more readily in small populations

> thus fixing a new mutated allele quickly, allowing for adaptive change

39
Q

how does adaptive change create a new species?

A

> adaptation to new environmental conditions, NOT simply to form a new species
if it changes enough, it is a new species
i.e., speciation is a by-product

THEREFORE:
> species thus adapted to specific circumstances
> once adapted - spread geographically to other suitable areas
> carry new properties with them
> geographical scale of species-specific properties

40
Q

give a summary of how a new species is formed

A 
> geographical isolation
> smal populations
> random events
> adaptation - species formation perhaps
> properties carried - species-wide distribution
41
Q

what do we see when we see an invasion?

A

> population growth
underpinned by diffusion
yearly expansion
- rapid expansion (reproduction and dispersal)
- different rates in different directions
- mainly towards areas where the environment is what is needed for that organism.

42
Q

what influences dispersal distance of an invasive species?

A

> probability of establishment
- exponential drop with distance from natal nest of dove
occasional longer distances
short-distance, neighbourhood diffusion and longer distance dispersal (form bridgeheads for other expansion fronts)

43
Q

what do organisms need to be invasie?

A

> high reproductive rate
movement ongoing, slowed sometimes but not stopped
homogenous environment
when the environment is heterogenous, its harder for the invasive.

44
Q

how can you test for invasiveness?

A

> models - include important ecological processes
data demanding reproductive output, dispersal distances and directions, etc
predict expansion rate
check against recorded expansion rate

45
Q

are there any traits for invasiveness?

A

> not really in animals but in plants maybe
invasives:
- grow faster and shorter life cycle
- higher leaf nutrients and leaf area
- more resources for reproduction ( more seeds, better dispersed, germinate faster)
absence of herbivores

46
Q

what are invasive traits the same as?

A

> most other widespread abundant plants
native plants with expanding distributions
native plants of disturbed, fertile soils
i.e. plants have adapted to disturbed eutrophic agricultural landscapes
structure of environment

47
Q

why is there stability in nature?

A
  1. lifeline matches environmental structure
    - mismatch, selected out
  2. male-female sexual communication
    - mismatch selected out
  3. developmental processes coordinated
    - constraints on change
48
Q

what are some conclusions in terms of stabilising selection?

A

> life cycle of species - set sequence and given set of interactions with environment
species-specific - even related species in same area interact in different ways with the environment
each species is generally stable across its distribution - in its interactions with the environment
local abundance will vary with environmental conditions

BIOL2010 (10 decks)

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