lecture 2

Question 1

What is Ecology

Answer 1

Scientific study of interactions between organisms and their environment in a hierarchy of levels of organization: individuals, populations, communities, and ecosystem

Question 2

Biosphere

Answer 2

All space occupied by living things on Earth

Question 3

Ecosystem

Answer 3

A region containing interacting abiotic and biotic factors

Question 4

Community

Answer 4

Population of species that occur together in the same space and time

Question 5

Population

Answer 5

Individuals of the same species that occur together in the same space and time

Question 6

Individual

Answer 6

Living entities that are genetically and physically discrete

Question 7

Autoecology

Answer 7

interactions between individuals (or individual species) with their environment, usually studies behaviour or physiology of individuals
i.e. study of a lion or an eagle in their habitat

Question 8

Population ecology

Answer 8

processes that influence population structure and dynamics, such as birth and mortality rates (lots of numbers)
i.e. how hunting affects grizzly bear population

Question 9

Community Ecology

Answer 9

interactions between species or factors that influence structures of communities (diversity)

Question 10

Ecosystem Ecology

Answer 10

how organisms and chemical and physical processes interact
energy flow and nutrient cycling are focuses
i.e how a wildfire affect soil nutrient cycling in forests

Question 11

Landscape Ecology

Answer 11

how landscape patterns influence ecological processes and vice versa
human-altered landscape are focused
i.e. effects of roads on animal movement

Question 12

Macroecology

Answer 12

processes at large spatial scales, like a region, a continent or several continents
focuses on organismal abundance, distribution and diversity
i.e how conifers are distributed

Question 13

Global Ecology

Answer 13

processes at the global scale, all life in our planet
global climate change is a key study

Question 14

Collaboration

Answer 14

Larger scale branches of ecology (macro and global) require a lot of collaboration between numerous disciplines (stats, data science, physics etc.)

Question 15

Temporal Scales

Answer 15

measurement in time

Question 16

Spatial Scales

Answer 16

Location
local scale, landscape scale

Question 17

Ecosystem

Answer 17

arbitrarily defined geographic volume containing interacting biotic and abiotic factors, connected to other ecosystems
i.e BC rainforest, deep ocean floor, urban environment, tropical beach shore

Question 18

abiotic factors

Answer 18

non living parts of ecosystems
- water, light, temperature, air, salinity, heavy metals

Question 19

biotic factors

Answer 19

living parts of ecosystems
- plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, unicellular eukaryotes

Question 20

How are ecosystems connected

Answer 20

Series of inputs and outputs
i.e a lake is connected to glaciers, the lake provides moisture to the forest, habitat and drinking water to animals

Question 21

Scientific Method

Answer 21

1. Observation
2. Question
3. Hypothesis
4. Prediction
5. Experiment / Test prediction
6. Result (analysis)
7. (Conclusion)