L1: Introduction Flashcards
What is ecology?
The study of the relationships between organisms and their environment.
Who coined the term ecology (oekologie, meaning relation of the animal both to its organic as well as its inorganic environment)?
Ernst Haeckel
Who first described the interrelationships between organisms and their nonliving environment?
Theophrastus
Who theorized the conflict between expanding populations and the capability of the Earth to supply food?
Thomas Malthus
What is Malthusianism?
Malthusian Theory. It states that population growth will always tend to outrun the food supply and that betterment of humankind is impossible without stern limits on reproduction.
Who is the father of botany?
Theophrastus
Who is the father of biogerontology?
Raymond Pearl
Who developed the prey-predator model?
Alfred Lotka
Vito Volterra
What is biogerontology?
The study of the biological bases of ageing and age-related diseases
They applied mathematics to ecology
Raymond Pearl
Alfred Lotka
Vito Volterra
They developed the concept of animal behavior (ethology)
Konrad Lorenz
Nikolaas Tinbergen
Who conceptualized imprinting?
Konrad Lorenz
Who studied the role of social behavior in the regulation of populations through epideictic displays?
Vero Wynne-Edwards
What is group selection?
Natural selection at the level of groups
Many behaviors evolved for the good of a species as a whole
Who introduced the concept of trophic levels and how energy is transferred from producers to consumers?
August Thienemann
What are trophic levels?
An organism’s number of steps from the start of the food chain
Who developed the concept of ecological niches and pyramids of numbers & the food chain and food web concept?
Charles Elton
Who measured the energy budget of lakes, developed the idea of primary productivity, and developed limnology?
Edward Birge
Chancey Juday
What is limnology?
The study of inland aquatic ecosystems
Who developed the trophic-dynamic concept of ecology?
Raymond Lindeman
What is Lindeman’s 10% Law?
Only 10% of energy is transferred from one trophic level to another
Who quantified field studies of energy flow through ecosystems?
Eugene Odum
Howard Odum
Who is the father of modern ecology?
Eugene Odum
Who studied the Nutrient Cycle?
J.D. Ovington
What is the ecological hierarchy?
Individual
Population
Interactions
Community
Ecosystem
Landscape
Region
Biosphere
A branch of ecology that deals with the study of how organisms survive in their environments, with emphasis on extreme conditions
Physiological Ecology
A branch of ecology that deals with the study of the factors that drive behavioral adaptation and how individuals find their food and avoid predators
Behavioral Ecology
A branch of ecology that deals with the study of the environmental factors that drive species adaptations and how populations have changed genetically over several generations
Evolutionary Ecology
Also called autecology.
A branch of ecology that deals with the study of a single species and why some species are rare while others are abundant
Population Ecology
A branch of ecology that deals with the study of the evolutionary effects of interactions on a species and on population structure or properties of ecological communities
Ecology of Interactions
Also called synecology.
A branch of ecology that deals with the study of the subsets of organisms and what ecological factors determine how many species are present in an area
Community Ecology
A branch of ecology that deals with the study of large-scale ecological issues such as biomass, energy flow, and nutrient cycling
Ecosystem Ecology
A branch of ecology that deals with the study of landscape structure and processes
Landscape Ecology
A branch of ecology that deals with the study of the relationship between organisms and their environment across the biosphere.
Geographic Ecology
A branch of ecology that deals with the prevention of species extinction
Conservation Ecology
A branch of ecology that deals with the interdisciplinary study of the ecology of the earth’s atmosphere boundary
Aeroecology
A branch of ecology that deals with the study of urban areas
Urban Ecology
