just the entire thing in one deck

Question 1

What are the levels of organization

Answer 1

Organisms (their characteristics and adaptations)

Populations (groups of organisms of the same species)

Communities (different populations living in the same area and how they interact)

Ecosystems (all of the organisms in an area and its biotic and abiotic factors)

The Biosphere (all of Earth and global interactions)

Question 2

what are producers?

Answer 2

(autotrophs) can make their own food, most often by photosynthesis (although there are chemoautotrophs in some food webs).

Question 3

what are consumers

Answer 3

Consumers (heterotrophs) eat other organisms for food.

Question 4

What is the difference between a food chain and web?

Answer 4

A food chain is a sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass from one organism to another.

Food webs show many different and overlapping food chains.

Question 5

What is a trophic level?

Answer 5

A trophic level indicates the number of steps in the food chain from the initial producers.

Question 6

What is biomagnification/bioamplification?

Answer 6

the increasing concentration of a substance, such as a toxic chemical, in the tissues of organisms at successively higher levels in a food chain.
–> Some compounds (e.g. methylmercury, DDT, PCB’s) are stored in the fatty tissues of organisms, rather than being excreted. As a result, each level of the food chain consumes and stores the compound from its prey.

Question 7

What is bioaccumulation?

Answer 7

the accumulation of pollutants or toxins in the tissues of an organism over its lifetime.

Question 8

What is population density?

Answer 8

the number of individuals of the same species that occur per unit area or volume

Question 9

What is the difference between crude density and ecological density?

Answer 9

crude density - population density within the total area of habitat

ecological density - population density within useable area

Question 10

What are the different kinds of population distribution-+

Answer 10

clumped, uniform, random

Question 11

what factors affect distribution patterns?

Answer 11

the distribution of resources (e.g. food and water) within a habitat

the interactions among members of a community (e.g. social interactions)

Question 12

What are the different ways to measure population characteristics?

Answer 12

-use indirect indicators, e.g. tracks & droppings

• transect sampling – a path along which one counts occurrences of a population (e.g. plants or coral)

-quadrat sampling - define an area (e.g. 1 m2 or 1 km2) and count all organisms in that area, extrapolate to determine population sizes and densities (works best with stationary species)

-mark recapture method - individuals are captured, tagged (e.g. radio collar, band on leg) then released; time passes; individuals are captured again; proportion of marked to unmarked provides basis for estimating the size of population

Question 13

What are factors of population growth?

Answer 13

death, birth, immigration, emigration

To determine whether a population is increasing or decreasing, calculate:

(births + immigration) - (deaths + emigration)

Question 14

what are the types of populations?

Answer 14

open (regular) and closed (zoos, island)

Question 15

What are the 2 different population growth models?

Answer 15

exponential growth: population growth under ideal conditions (no predators, unlimited resources)
–population is continually growing; no breeding season
–under these conditions, populations have high per capita growth rates (high biotic potential)

e.g. yeast, humans

logistic growth: growth increases exponentially as population is established, but levels off as the population nears its carrying capacity

carrying capacity = the max. # of organisms that can be sustained by the available resources over a period of time

Question 16

What factors affect population as a whole?

Answer 16

Age when it is sexually mature

How often it reproduces

Number of offspring that survive to reproduce

Fecundity – the average number of offspring produced by a female member of a population over her lifetime

Question 17

What are the types of survivorship curves (and describe them)

Answer 17

type I: species with a high survival rate of their young
-most of the individuals are expected to die only when old
e.g. humans, large mammals

type II: species in which individuals die at a constant rate from hunting, disease, etc.
e.g. chipmunks, bees, many reptiles and birds

type III: species in which most individuals die when young
many babies are born, but few survive very long
e.g. plants, most fish, sea turtles, many insects

Question 18

What are r and k selection?

Answer 18

‘r’ refers to species whose population is well below the carrying capacity and can still grow exponentially with a rate (r)

‘K’ refers to populations that are almost at their carrying capacity (K)

c) ‘r’ and ‘K’ refer to different strategies that will ensure the survival of the species

Question 19

What is the r strategy?

Answer 19

-unstable environment (e.g. after a flood)
-small size of organism
energy used to make each individual is low
-many offspring are produced
-early maturity
-short life expectancy (not always true, e.g. maple tree)
-each individual reproduces only once (not always true)
-organisms that use r strategy have type III survivorship

Question 20

What is the k strategy?

Answer 20

-stable environment
-large size of organism
-energy used to make each individual is high
-few offspring are produced
-late maturity, prolonged parental care
-long life expectancy
-individuals can reproduce more than once
-organisms that use K strategy have type I and II survivorship

Question 21

What is biotic potential, and limiting factors?

Answer 21

Biotic potential
the maximum reproductive capacity of a population under ideal conditions

Limiting factors
biotic or abiotic resources that limit growth, abundance, or distribution of a population of organisms in an ecosystem

Question 22

What are the biotic limiting factors?

Answer 22

Intraspecific competition
individuals compete for resources with others of the SAME species
e.g. high density trees – lots of shade, little water, few nutrients per tree

Predation
from a predator viewpoint:
more prey/predator = more food

from a prey view point:
more prey/predator = less chance of being eaten
less prey/predator = more chance of being eaten

Allee Effect
reproduction fails to equal mortality due to low density
e.g. cannot find a mate

Question 23

What is the minimum viable population size?

Answer 23

(the smallest number of individuals that ensures the pop. can persist for a determined amount of time)

Question 24

What are the abiotic limiting factors?

Answer 24

temperature; regardless of how much food is available, a cold winter will cause a decline in an insect or plant population

e.g. DDT makes hawk egg shells thinner; regardless of how many hawks are in an area or how many good nest sites or how much food is available, the hawk population will decrease

Question 25

What is interspecific competition?

Answer 25

2 or more species compete for the same resource
restricts population growth
e.g. competition for nesting space, prey, etc.

Question 26

How is competition reduced?

Answer 26

competition is reduced by resource partitioning (species occupy slightly different niches)
e.g. competing bird species occupy different levels of a forest canopy

Question 27

What are some adaptations of predators?

Answer 27

senses; e.g. eyesight; smells; echolocation

behaviour; e.g. stalking, sit & wait, organize a group

physical (morphological); e.g. claws, jaws

camouflage

Question 28

What are some adaptations of prey?

Answer 28

physical (morphological); e.g. shells, spines, horns

camouflage

senses; e.g. hearing

behaviour; e.g. hiding, large groups

warning signals

toxins; e.g. blue-ringed octopus

mimicry (copy a poisonous animal) e.g. king snake

Question 29

What are the different types of symbioses

Answer 29

a) mutualism; both species benefit
e.g. oxpecker and eland; insect pollinators and flowering plants

b) commensalism; one species benefits, one species is unaffected
e.g. algae on the back of a turtle; a clown fish and sea anenome

c) parasitism; one species benefits, one species is harmed
e.g. mosquito and human; tapeworm and human

Question 30

What are the different types of population pyramid?

Answer 30

Rapid growth, Slow growth, Negative growth

Question 31

What factors determine whether the world
population continues to grow, stabilizes, or crashes?

Answer 31

poverty, war, disease, population control measures (birth control), environmental impact,

Question 32

What are the most important problems facing humankind?

Answer 32

climate change, loss of biodiversity, air polution, water polution, antibiotic resistance, land degredation