Mod 4 Flashcards
What are abiotic factors?
non-living components
what are examples of abiotic factors?
temperature, water salinity, sun availability, pH
what are biotic factors?
living components of an ecosystem
examples of biotic factors in an ecosystem
food availability, mating availability, predation, plants, animals, bacteria
Which of the following are heterotrophs and autotrophs? (producers, consumers, decomposers)
producer - autotrophs
consumer - heterotroph
decomposers - heterotroph
Intraspecific interactions
- among species
interspecific interactions
- between different species
examples of intraspecific interactions
e.g. mating, collaboration, competition
examples of interspecific positive/neutral relationship
mutualism, commensalism
examples of interspecific detrimental relationship
predation, parasitism, competition
Explain what a commensalism relationship is and provide an example.
Commensalism refers to a relationship between two species in which one species benefit while the other species is unharmed.
e.g. the shark and remona where the remona catches food scraps from the shark which remains unharmed.
Explain what a mutualism relationship is and provide an example.
Mutualism is a relationship between two species where both partners benefit.
e.g. clown fish and the sea anemone where the anemone protects the fish against it’s predators and the clown fish excretes nutrients into the anemone’s algae.
Explain what a parasitism relationship is and provide an example.
Parasitism is a relationship in which one organism (the parasite) benefits from another organism (the host) while leaving the host organism adversely affected.
- parasite can either be an ectoparasite (live off the outside of the host) or endoparasite (live internally in the host)
e.g. tape worm and human body. The tape worm (the parasite) lives inside the human body (the host), fuelling on the nutrients of the human body whereas the human body experiences abdominal pain and weight loss, to name a few.
allelopathy
plant releases specific biochemicals (allelochemicals) that influence, either detrimentally or beneficially, the growth of other individual plants around it
symbiosis
relationship between two biological species
e.g. mutualism, commensalism, parasitism
infectious disease
caused by pathogens
non infectious disease
caused by environmental, genetic, nutritional
transect mapping
- line or point transects/intervals
- determines distribution
- for sessile (do not move/slow) organisms
quadrat sampling
- square area or quadrat
- abundance
- sessile organisms
total population using quadrats
(avg number per quadrat X total area) / area of quadrat
capture-mark-recapture
- captured, marked, released, resampled to check how many marked
- abundance
- mobile organisms
The Quaternary Megafauna Extinction (QME)
- 50 000 yrs ago
- theory 1: last ice age
- theory 2: human caused
aboriginal rock painting
- insight into environmental changes and human adaptation
- visualisation of clothing, hunting, rituals
rock structure and formation
- law of superposition: oldest at bottom, youngest at top
ice core drilling
- ice samples contain info on abiotic and biotic factors in past ecosystem
- composition of atmosphere, pollen and microorganisms, temperature
radiometric dating
- based on half life of radioactive isotopes
gas analysis
- concentration of CO2 in atmosphere
- gaseous particles from atmosphere trapped in ice core
Australia in Gondwana
warmer wetter climate
sclerophyll plants
e.g. eukalyptus, banksia, bottle-brush
- thin, small, waxy cuticle, resistant to drying out
- adapted to poor soil and dry conditions
reasons for changes in past ecosystems
- habitat change
- climate change
- invasive species
