Midterm 2 Flashcards
Why are urban forests so important?
Urban forests are critically important to the maintenance of biodiversity, the water quality, and the overall health and quality of life for all species living in that space
Describe Brown’s Woods.
After the land was cleared for a gravel pit, it was restored. There are characteristics of an artificial community. It is an example of progress/problems created by attempts at forest restoration.
Describe North Campus Ravine.
It is behind the MacDonald institute. It is the home to the European buckthorn and a non-native beetle.
Describe the Arboretum.
It was built on a mandate to promote education, research, and outreach. It consists of Victoria Woods and Wild Goose Woods. It is an Urban Forest Island.
Describe the Dairy Bush/Dairy Bush Field.
Old field environment is slated for re-purposing and residential development. The field is full of new, small trees. Dairy Bush was the second experimental forest plantation. Many of the trees are not native to North America. Some invasive species, such as garlic mustard.
What is biodiversity?
The variability among living organisms from all sources including terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and ecological complexes of which they are part (diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems)
What is species richness?
The number of species present in a defined area (community or ecosystem)
How is sampling intensity determined?
Sampling intensity is determined by plotting the new number of species observed (complete when the curve is saturated)
What is structure?
Vertical arrangement and spatial organizations of the plants
What is physiognomy?
Growth form of a community; Defined by the dominant vegetation layer and most abundant species
What is alpha diversity?
The number of species at a local scale (or within a habitat); also called species richness
What is point diversity?
Diversity of microhabitats
What is gamma diversity?
Diversity of multiple woodlots
What is phenology?
Study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events
What is succession?
The woodlot community changes over time (temporal variation); predictable and orderly changes in the composition/structure of an ecological community through time
What is old field succession?
A change in community structure after a cultivated field, pasture, clearing, or roadside has been abandoned or left undisturbed
What is traditional ecological knowledge?
Finely tuned yet adaptive form of knowledge about the environment that is acquired through extensive observation of a species or an area
What is ethnoecology?
The study of how people interact with (and understand) all aspects of the natural environment, including plants, animals, landforms, forest types, and soils (ethnobotany = plants, ethnozoology = animals)
What is species abundance?
How common a species is in a defined area and can be measured as % cover, biomass, or frequency of individuals per species
What is relative abundance?
The comparison of the species abundance within a defined area and relates to the “evenness” of distribution of individuals among species in a community; Shannon Diversity Index (how abundant each species is relative to the abundance of other species in habitat)
What does abiotic mean?
Physical/chemical features of an environment (ex. light, temperature, water, atmospheric gases and soil factors)
What does biotic mean?
Living things that live within and shape an ecosystem (ex. producers, consumers and decomposers)
What is a population?
Collection of individuals of a single species within a defined area at a specified point in time
What does population ecology consist of?
Population size, population density, patterns of dispersion, age distributions and population growth
What is a community?
Collection of species (each with its own population) living in a given area at a particular point in time
What does community ecology consist of?
Structure and dynamics of animal/plant communities
What is an ecosystem?
Community of organisms that interact with each other and environmental (abiotic) factors
What does ecosystem ecology consist of?
Investigating processes that influence the composition and distribution of organisms
What is variation?
Differences among individuals within a population
What is diversity?
Number of species in an area/taxon/clade. Also called species richness
What is disparity?
How different species are from each other
What determines global biodiversity?
Global biodiversity is the net outcome of 2 opposing processes: Diversification through speciation, and loss of diversity through extinction
What is speciation?
The formation of new species
What is cladogenesis?
An ancestral species splitting or branching into 2 descendant species (i.e. speciation)
How do new species form?
A barrier to gene flow allows one species to split into two (Allopatric speciation and sympatric speciation)
What is allopatric speciation?
“different place”; Species is split due to a geographic barrier or because some individuals move to a separate place
What is sympatric speciation?
“same place”; Species is split by reproductive separation without any geographic barrier
What is endemism?
A species evolved here and it is only found in this region
What is range expansion?
It evolved elsewhere (relatively nearby) and then expanded its range to also include this area
What is range shift?
It evolved elsewhere and used to be found elsewhere, but its range shifted to include only the current distribution and not the former distribution