Midterm 2 Flashcards
Define natural history
Study of plants or animals, leaving more towards observational rather then experimental methods of study; published more in magazines than journals
Define ecology
Scientific study of the interactions (abiotic and biotic) that determine distribution and abundance in organisms
What is the concept of multiple scales?
Static and dynamos and their interactions
What are the three levels of static scales?
Bottom: fine resolution
Middle: see the while
Top: see more than the whole
What is the dynamic aspect of multiple scales?
Each scale has it’s own heart beat
The higher the frequency the higher the activity
What is the activity at the lowest level of scales?
Lowest: competition, symbiosis, our effects on it
Middle: storm damage, wave energy (weeks, months, or years)
Top: ocean scale, effecting other reefs, warming ocean temperatures, bleaching coral
What are the two types of interactions between the scales?
Perturbation amplification: impact gets magnified as it travels down scales
Perturbation damping: impact get dampened going up the scale
How is the atmosphere broken up?
Broken up into cells
Polar cells, ferrel cells, and Hadley cells
Where does it rain in the atmosphere?
Rains wherever air is moving up
As you get further from the upwards air it gets drier
What are the types of environments at the different cells?
Polar cell: tundra, coniferous forest
Ferrel cell: cool desert and grassland, temperate deciduous and rain forests
Hadley cell: warm desert and grassland, savanna, tropical deciduous and rain forest
Why do tree lines exist?
Caused by the length of the winter season
Longer the season the less moisture in the air
Why do trees drop their leaves?
Don’t want to lose internal moisture
How are camels and saguaros alike?
Reduce heat gain
Water storage
Reduce water loss
What do the terms pubescence, reflective, and subtracking/parabolic mean in terms of plants?
Pubescence: create dead air space around plant
Reflective: reflect heat to core reproductive organs
Sun tracking/parabolic: follow the sun
What are the three climate scales?
Global
Regional/landscape
Local
Why is water blue?
Sun rays refract into water and blue rays are absorbed the most
Why are nocturnal fish mostly red?
The moon is the only source of light
The red allows them not to be seen by predators at night
What is the thermaline?
Seperates warm and cold habitats
What causes Langmuir streaks?
Infrared is absorbed very quickly and will heat the surface and this increases in death in midsummer as the days get longer. The wind causes barrels of water to rotate creating the streaks of mucous by bringing algae to the surface
Define epilimion and hypolimation
Epilimation: warm water
Hypolimation: cold water
What occurs to lakes in the fall and early spring?
There is less light and rays so the lake becomes all the same temperature. When the wind blows the currents go all the way to the bottom, reoxygenating the lake
This causes poor visibility
What occurs in lakes in the winter?
The lake freezes over and everything in he water settles making it’s incredibly clear
What are the two food webs of lakes?
1st benthic-based macrophytic: plants at the side of the lake
2nd pelagic-based microphytic: small plants in open water
What type of stress does the back reef undergo?
High stress environment needs to be robust against wave E, exposure, and extreme changes in salinity
Limits herbivores, carnivores
Has robust benthics (massive corals, calcareous algae)
What type of stress does the reef crest undergo?
Moderate stress
Same predation and herbivore but not enough to affect benthic growth densities
Competition between benthic for space dominate
What type of stress does the fore reef undergo?
Low stress
Top down predication and herbivore control benthic macroalgae vs coral dominance
How does stress affect environment?
Differences in environmental stress levels correspond with changes in what mechanisms limit species distribution
Define species richness and pop. Abundance
Species richness: number of different species
Pop. Abundance: number of individuals in a species
What are spatial borders?
Geographic range where population is found
Abundance/range = density
Define population dispersion
How a species is distributed in space
Index of dispersion
How do you fine the index of dispersion and what are the different results?
Variants/mean
>1 clumped
What occurs with clumped distribution?
Intraspecific aggregation (schooling) Habitat selection (predator avoidance, food) Interspecific competition
What occurs with dispersed/even distribution?
Intraspecific competition Limited resources (habitat selection/territoriality)
What occurs with random distribution?
Accumulative multiple effects
Even distribution of habitat
What is taken into account for age structures?
Normally only females of a population
What are bookkeeping devices and what are the two types?
Track populations patterns of survival
- Cohort life table:
- large number of individuals born at the same time
- track through time
- good to use for species with short life duration - Static life table:
- record age at death of large number of individuals
- need graveyard
What is environmentalism?
Social movement based on various backgrounds (eg. Activism, stewardship, vegetarianism) whose collective goal is to reduce humanities ecological foot print
What is survivorship?
Proportion of individuals born who survive to age X
Ix = nx/no
Nx - abundance
What are the three types of survivorship curves?
Type 1: put a lot of energy into raising their young
Type 2: some effort (straight line down)
Type 3: produce large amount of offspring but do not invest anything in them
What is fecundity?
Average number of female babies born to a female mother in each age group
What is given when you multiply survivorship with fecundity?
Average number of females born in each age group adjusted for survivorship
What is the net reproductive rate?
Average number of female offspring produced per female during her lifespan (Ro)
>1 - population increasing
=1 - population stable
What is generation time?
Mean length of a generation
I.e time between birth of parents and birth if their offspring
T = net reproductive rate / (age class x lxmx)
What is the rate of increase?
Per capita growth rate
Instantaneous rate of change of population size
r= ln(Ro)/T