handout 6 Flashcards
The translocation of a species to a favourable habitat beyond its native
range for the purpose of protecting the species from human-caused
threats.
assisted migration
A relatively small area with numerous endemic species and a large
number of endangered and threatened species
biodiversity hot spot
Any of the various chemical cycles, which involve both biotic and abiotic
components of ecosystems
biogeochemical cycle
A process in which retained substances become more concentrated at
each higher trophic level in a food chain
biological magnification
The integrated study of ecology, evolutionary biology, physiology,
molecular biology, and genetics to sustain biological diversity at all
levels
conservation biology
The amount of added nutrient, usually nitrogen or phosphorus, that can
be absorbed by plants without damaging ecosystem integrity
critical load
A species that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant
portion of its range.
endangered species
An estimate of the size of a population based on the numbers of
females and males that successfully breed; generally smaller than the
total population
effective population size
A process by which nutrients, particularly phosphorus and nitrogen,
become highly concentrated in a body of water, leading to increased
growth of organisms such as algae or cyanobacteria
eutrophication
A downward population spiral in which inbreeding and genetic drift
combine to cause a small population to shrink and, unless the spiral is
reversed, become extinct
extinction vortex
The principle of conservation of energy: Energy can be transferred and
transformed, but it cannot be created or destroyed.
first law of thermodynamics
The warming of Earth due to the atmospheric accumulation of carbon
dioxide and certain other gases, which absorb reflected infrared
radiation and reradiate some of it back toward Earth
greenhouse effect
The total primary production of an ecosystem.
gross primary production (GPP)
A physical law stating that matter can change form but cannot be
created or destroyed. In a closed system, the mass of the system is
constant.
law of conservation of
mass
The smallest population size at which a species is able to sustain its
numbers and survive
minimum viable
population (MVP)
The gross primary production of an ecosystem minus the energy used
by all autotrophs and heterotrophs for respiration.
net ecosystem
production (NEP)
The gross primary production of an ecosystem minus the energy used by the producers for respiration.
net primary production (NPP)
An herbivore; an organism that eats plants or other autotrophs.
primary consumer
An autotroph, usually a photosynthetic organism. Collectively,
autotrophs make up the trophic level of an ecosystem that ultimately
supports all other levels.
primary producer
The amount of light energy converted to chemical energy (organic
compounds) by the autotrophs in an ecosystem during a given time
period
primary production
The percentage of energy stored in assimilated food that is not used for
respiration or eliminated as waste.
production efficiency
The principle stating that every energy transfer or transformation
increases the entropy of the universe. Usable forms of energy are at
least partly converted to heat
second law of thermodynamics
A carnivore that eats herbivores.
secondary consumer
The amount of chemical energy in consumers’ food that is converted to
their own new biomass during a given time period.
secondary producer
Development that meets the needs of people today without limiting
the ability of future generations to meet their needs
sustainable development
A carnivore that eats other carnivores
tertiary consumer
A species that is considered likely to become endangered in the
foreseeable future
threatened species
The percentage of production transferred from one trophic level to the
next.
trophic efficiency
The time required to replace the standing crop of a population or group
of populations (for example, of phytoplankton), calculated as the ratio
of standing crop to production.
turnover time
concept 16.1
physical laws govern energy flow and chemical cycling in ecosystems
concept 16.2
energy and other limiting factors control primary production in ecosystems
concept 16.3
energy transfer between trophic levels is typically only 10% efficient
concept 16.4
biological and geochemical processes cycle nutrients and water in ecosystems
concept 16.5
restoration ecologists help return degraded ecosystems to a more natural state
concept 14.6
the human population is no longer growing exponentially but is still growing rapidly
concept 17.1
human activities threaten earths biodiversity
concept 17.2
population conservation focuses on population size, genetic diversity and critical habitat
concept 17.3
landscape and regional conservation help sustain biodiversity
concept 17.4
earth is changing rapidly as a result of human actions
concept 17.5
sustainable development can improve human lives while conserving biodiversity
How are matter and energy used in ecosystems?
A. Matter is cycled through ecosystems; energy is not
A cow’s herbivorous diet indicates that it is a(n)
A. primary consumer.
To recycle nutrients, the minimum an ecosystem must have is
B. producers and decomposers.
Which of the following is an example of an ecosystem?
E. Interactions between all of the organisms and their physical environment in a tropical rain forest.
Which of the following is true of detrivores?
C. They convert organic materials from all trophic levels to inorganic compounds usable by primary producers
Subtraction of which of the following will convert gross primary productivity into net primary productivity?
C. the energy used by autotrophs in respiration
Which of the following ecosystems would likely have a larger net primary
productivity/hectare?
B. grassland because of the small standing crop biomass that results from
consumption by herbivores and rapid decomposition.
The difference between net and gross primary productivity would likely be greatest
for
D. an oak tree in a forest
The total biomass of photosynthetic autotrophs present in an ecosystem is known as
B. standing crop.
How is it that satellites can detect differences in primary productivity on Earth?
D. By comparing the wavelengths of light captured and reflected by
photosynthesizers to the amount of light reaching different ecosystems
Trophic efficiency is
B. the percentage of production transferred from one trophic level to the next.
Which statement best describes what ultimately happens to the chemical energy that is not converted to new biomass in the process of energy transfer between
trophic levels in an ecosystem?
D. It is dissipated into space as heat in accordance with the second law of
thermodynamics.
If you wanted to convert excess grain into the greatest amount of animal biomass, to which animal would you feed the grain?
E. mealworms (larval insects)
In terms of nutrient cycling, why does timber harvesting in a temperate forest cause less ecological devastation than timber harvesting in tropical rain forests?
E. Typical harvests remove up to 75% of the nutrients in the woody trunks of
tropical rain forest trees, leaving nutrient-impoverished soils behind
Which of the following describes carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapour re-
reflecting infrared radiation back toward Earth?
D. greenhouse effect
For most terrestrial ecosystems, pyramids of numbers, biomass, and energy are essentially the same-they have a broad base and a narrow top. The primary reason for this pattern is that
B. at each step, energy is lost from the system as a result of keeping the
organisms alive
How does phosphorus normally enter ecosystems?
C. rock weathering
Which of the following is caused by excessive nutrient runoff into lakes?
E. eutrophication.
Which of the following causes excessively high levels of toxic chemicals in fish-eating birds?
C. biological magnification
Agricultural lands frequently require nutritional supplementation because
B. the nutrients that enter the plants are not returned to the soil on lands
where they are harvested
The Nile perch (Lates niloticus) is a good example of a(n)
A. predator that has negatively affected biodiversity in ecosystems where it
has been introduced.
Estimates of current rates of extinction
C. indicate that rates may be greater than the mass extinctions at the close of
the Cretaceous period
What is the term for a top predator that contributes to the maintenance of species diversity among its animal prey?
A. keystone species
What term did E.O. Wilson coin for our innate appreciation of wild environments
and living organisms?
C. biophilia
Suppose you attend a town meeting at which some experts tell the audience that they have performed a cost-benefit analysis of a proposed transit system that would probably reduce overall air pollution and fossil fuel consumption. The analysis, however, reveals that ticket prices will not cover the cost of operating the system when fuel, wages, and equipment are taken into account. As a biologist, you know that if ecosystem services had been included in the analysis the experts might have
arrived at a different answer. Why are ecosystem services rarely included in
economic analyses?
A. Their cost is difficult to estimate and people take them for granted
According to most conservation biologists, the single greatest threat to global biodiversity is
D. alteration or destruction of the physical habitat.
How is habitat fragmentation related to biodiversity loss?
C. Populations of organisms in fragments are smaller and, thus, more
susceptible to extinction
Which of the following poses the greatest potential threat to biodiversity?
D. importing an Asian insect into the United States to control a weed that
competes with staple crops
Introduced species can have deleterious effects on biological communities by
E. A, B, C, and D all are correct
Overexploitation encourages extinction and is most likely to affect
B. large animals with low intrinsic reproductive rates
The greatest cause of the biodiversity crisis that includes all of the others is
E. overpopulation of humans
Of the following, which ecosystem types are the ones that have been impacted by
humans the most?
A. wetland and riparian
One chief area of concern among biologists who use small-population approach is
C. genetic diversity
If we say a species is endemic to a certain area, we mean that
A. it is found only in one particular area of the world.
Which of the following would be research in which a conservation biologist would
be involved?
A. re-establishing whooping cranes in their former breeding grounds in North
Dakota
The term ʺbiotic boundaryʺ refers to the
B. area needed to sustain a population
Which of the following is a method of predicting the likelihood that a species will persist in a particular environment?
B. population viability analysis
Which of the following statements is correct about landscape ecology?
B. It is the application of ecological principles to land-use planning
Which of the following is true about ʺhot spotsʺ?
A. 1/3 of all species on Earth occupy less than 1.5% of the earth’s land area
After a disturbance, natural recovery of a biological community is most strongly
influenced by
B. the spatial scale of the disturbance
