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
What is the maximum sustained yield?
Harvest number where there is the greatest potential for growth
MSY = r(K/2)
K = carrying capacity
What does model 1 of population growth assume?
- density independent
- unlimited environment
- non-overlapping generation (pulsed reproduction)
Ex West Nile virus
Needs 4 generations of Mosquitos in one summers to effect people
What is geometric growth?
Density independent, discrete (pulsed) population growth
Nt = No(lamda)^t
No - initial pop.
Lambda - geometric rate of increase (average number of offspring left by an individual during one time interval)
T - number of generations
What does model 2 of population growth assume?
Density independent
Unlimited environment
Overlapping generations (continuous)
What is exponential growth?
Density independent, continuous population growth
Ex eagles
Start with one pair of eggs and reproduce at age 4 and once every 2 years attend
🔺N/🔺T = rN
r = b - m
Why doesn’t exponential growth occur in real life?
Resources are limiting
Intraspecific competition dampens, limits, constrains, restricts pop. growth
What is logistic/sigmoidal growth?
Density dependent, continuous pop. Growth
Nt+1 = Nte^r(1-(Nt/K))
Rate of pop. Growth
dN/dt = rN(1-N/K)
What are the three types of time lags?
Convergent oscillations: eventually stabilizes
Stable limit: never converges to carrying capacity
Boom & bust: significant overshoot
Give an example of a boom and bust population
Reindeer herd 29 individuals introduced to st. Matthew island 1994
Pop. Increased to 6000 and crashed after eating food supply to 41 females and 1 male
Few specimen were shot to gauge condition and the male was accidentally one
What determines the size of a population?
- Biotic potential - maximum rate population can increase assuming Mac birth and min death rate
- Environmental resistance - complex interactions between density independent and density dependent factors
- factors limit population growth without regard to size such as weather and natural disasters
What are four types of environmental resistance?
Intraspecific competition
Inter specific competition
Predation
Mutualism and parasitism
What are the two types of intraspecific competition?
Interference and exploitative
What is interference competition?
Individuals acquire resource at expense of others by directly competing against each other
Clear winner and loser
What is exploitative competition?
Individuals harm each other by taking up resources before others are able to
Indirect species interaction
If both individuals draw from shared/limited supply, then both members weakened
What are the mechanisms of regulation for intraspecific competition?
Intrinsic factors Social interactions Predation Toxic wastes Diseases Habitat selection
What are intrinsic factors?
Cope- changes in endocrine system
- alters secretion: internal growth and sex hormones, external pheromones
- supress growth
- curtail reproduction
- delay sexual maturity
Give an example of intrinsic factor
Redband parrotfish
All born female
Biggest female becomes make
Limits population growth
What are social interactions?
Degree of tolerance between individuals of same species:
- dominance hierarchies
- presaturation and saturation dispersal
- territoriality
What is presaturation dispersal?
Density independent Good condition Any sex High chance of survival Leave when going is good
What is saturation dispersal?
Density dependent
Juveniles and subordinates
Mostly males
Survival chances are low
Define territorial floaters and holders
Holders: have territory
Floaters: have no territory
What is the greatest threat to species richness?
Habitat alteration by human activity
What is the most visible forms of habitat alteration?
Direct (active) habitat removal
Ex wetland drainage
Forest clear cut/slash and burn
Explain the malaria eradication campaign and the problem with it
WHO introduced DDT to Borneo in 1960s
Mosquitos suppressed (2.8 million cases to 17 in 15 years)
Other insects were also suppressed including parasitism wasps that preyed on caterpillars living in thatched roofs
Population of caterpillars exploded - roofs eaten - village wiped out
Dead Mosquitos eaten by geckos, sick, eaten by cats, sick, rat pop. increased and threatened bubonic plague
What is bio accumulation?
Toxin accumulating in individuals magnified up the good chain
What is a community?
Collection of species bound together by the network of influences that species have on each other both within a scale, and between scales
What are the two types of competition in community interactions?
Ecological niche
Competitive exclusion principle
What is an ecological niche?
Environmental factors influence growth, survival reproduction of species
When where and how a species makes it’s living - hyper volume
What are the two types of niches?
Fundamental niche: physical conditions species might live in in the absence of other species interactions
Realized niche: biological interactions such as competition restrict fundamental niche to more narrow range
What is the concept of ecological niche losing favour in the scientific community?
Implies every species have a place in nature compared to different species differentials adapted to same process
Implies limit to how many species may occupy earth at any given time
If this were true them speciation must be density dependent process - a process that all evidence suggests otherwise
What is the competitive exclusion principle?
In presence of a limiting resource, two species with identical niches cannot coexist indefinitely in a homogeneous environment
To prevent:
- resource partitioning (fish using same nests at different times)
- character displacement: physiological and behavioural (habitat segregation of chipmunks)
What is top down control?
Predators control prey population
Ex. Wolves mountain deer population
What is bottom up control?
Prey control predatory population
Ex. Algae and fish
What are coevolutionary populations?
Just looking at predator and prey in isolation to everything else and how they adapt to each other
Give an example of a coevolutionary relationship
Carnivorous sea urchins eat sea lilies
Sea lilies developed les to escape sea urchins
What is aposematic coloration?
Warning coloration - red
What is Batesian mimicry?
Mimic resembles model which is poisonous or unpleasant to eat
Mimic must be less common than model
Ex. Monarch and viceroy butterfly
What is millerian mimicry?
Each morph sympatic with different species in local region
All frogs poisonous - true defence sharing
Ex. Frogs in Peru
What are some forms of individual behaviour for predation/herbivory?
Startle pattern: bright contrasting colour in concealed surfaces that startle predators
Autonomy: ability to lose body part easily without serious consequences (blue tailed skink)
Thanatosis: death feigning behaviour (hognose snake)
What is eviseration?
Throwing up intestines to distract predator
Ex sea cucumber
What is predator satiation?
So many prey at once that all the predators are full
Give an example of an invasive species
Leopoldo trouvé let brought European strain gypsy moths in 1869 to produce silk
Housed then in tree in the back yard
1889 first outbreak in Medford and eradication program began
1900 eradication considered successfully and discontinued
1906 second outbreak and spread so far that eradication is impossible
1966 expands 21/year
What is symbiosis and what are the three types?
Two species live in direct and intimate contact with each other
Commensalism, parasitism, mutualism
What is parasitism?
+/- symbiotic interaction in which one organism derives it’s nourishment from another which is harmed in the process
Endoparasites: live within the body
Ectoparasites: feed on external surface
What is mutualism?
+/+
Obligate: one species lost ability to survive without the other
Facultative: both can survive in their own
What is commensalism?
+/0
No benefits or harm to one species
What are the three types of mutualism?
Behavioural, structural, and physiological
How do coral obtain CO2?
Ocean is rich in HCO3- which cannot diffuse across membranes
H+-ATPase creates H2CO3
Carbonic anhydride breaks into CO2 and water on surface of coral so quickly diffuses across apical ectoderm into internal carbonic anhydrase quickly catalyzes CO2 back into HCO3 preventing backflow
What is facilitation?
Two species live indirectly without intimate contact with each other
What are the types of diversify indices?
Species richness
Shannon-wiener
What is species richness?
Number of species
What is the Shannon wiener equation?
H1= -Epi ln pi
What is the Lincoln-Petersen method?
Mark and recapture
Ni = Kini / ki
Ki - number captured and marked on first visit
ni - number captured on second visit
ki - number recaptured on second vibist that are marked from first
How do you calculate evenness?
H’/lnS
S = species richness
=1 if every species has same abundance
Why is Shannon wiener important?
When H’ is low, more likely rarer species at risk
Habitat loss - habitat lacks diversity of structure, patchiness, or resources thereby preventing rare species obtaining sustainable populations
Change in disturbance regime - more common species may even be part of the problem
What is the dominance pre-emption model?
Geometric distribution
S species - dissimilar competitive ability
Most dominant takes most of resource
Sequential pre-empting of remaining resource
Produces hollow curve - high dominance and lowest evenness
What is the broken stick model?
S species - similar competitive ability
Random, simultaneous breakage of limiting resource
Jostle each other for niche space
Size of resource obtained = abundance of species
Shallow curve
What is the random fraction model?
S species - multiple resources Random, sequential breakage of different limiting resources On average broken niche 75:25 ration Steeper slope Random which species gets bigger piece
What is the difference between the t-test and ANOVA?
T-test: 2 groups of data
ANOVA: more than 2 groups
What is levene’s test for equality of variance?
Are the variants the same
First row assumed they are equal and the second row assumes they are different
What does most for equality of means mean?
Averages
How do you read the graph for a t-test?
If it lies outside 95% confidence limits, it is statistically significant
Define correlation and regression
Regression: cause and effect
Correlation: both dependent on a non-measured third variable
Which variable hoes on the x axis in a correlation?
Doesn’t matter
What do the different values of the pearson correlation coefficient mean?
-1 = perfect negative correlation 0 = no relationship, null hypothesis 1 = perfect positive correlation
What is r square?
Coefficient of determination
Explains strength of cause and effect in a percentage
