Lecture 1 & 2 Flashcards
Who was Aristole?
“Nature could only ne understood through observation, analysis, and classification.”, divided animals into those with and without blood (vertebrates and invertebrates) and classified animals using hierarchies and relationships.
Who was Linnaeus?
“System of nature through the three kingdoms of nature.”, and created the binomial nomenclature - Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species.
Who was Cuvier?
French anatomist that studied groups and broke them down into more groups.
Who was Forbes?
Formalized the azoic hypothesis, that there is no life greater than 300 fathoms, no one could go that deep into the ocean to study species so there was thought to be no organisms below (never tested this hypothesis).
Who was Charles Darwin?
Formalized the subsidence theory, when volcanoes form in the ocean, reefs surround it (fringing reefs > barrier reefs > atolls). Atolls represent successive stages in an evolutionary sequence.
What is ecology? What are environments affected by?
The study of organisms and how they interact with each other. Environments are affected by both biotic and abiotic factors. Abiotic factors include: salinity, diffusion, and osmosis.
What is a habitat? What is microhabitat?
Habitat is an environment in which organisms live. Microhabitat is a small area within a habitat that has unique conditions to support another species.
What is a Niche?
A role that an organism or population plays in an ecosystem, describes how an organism responds to and alters the distribution of resources and competitors in its’ environment.
What is a population?
A species in a specific place at a specific point in time.
What is a community?
A group of two or more species interacting with their environment and each other.
What is an ecosystem?
Living organisms and their environment, and the interaction between them.
What is the optimal environmental range?
It is the range in which a species can thrive, often has a higher population density.
What is a stress zone?
The zone/range in which a only a few (species) can tolerate, is outside of an optimal range.
What is an osmoconformer?
An organism that can conform to their environment’s salt content.
What is an osmoregulator?
An organism that need to regulate their salt content, cannot tolerate varying salt changes.
