Module 7, 8.1 & (8.2 unfinished) Flashcards
What is the phylogenetic hierarchy?
This is the organization of living organisms:
Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus
Ecology is defined by what environmental factors and relationships?
External factors in the environment that influence survival, growth, and/or reproduction including abiotic habitat and biotic interactions.
Relationships or interactions with physical aspects of the environment and members of the same or different species.
Ecology was coined by German zoologist ____ _____ and derived from the Greek ____ meaning house.
Ernest Haeckel; Oikos
True or false? Darwin’s theory of natural selection was critical in the emergence of ecology as a science.
True
What are the four main principles to the theory of natural selection?
Variation, overproduction (leads to competition), adaptation, decent with modification, and survival of the fittest (reproductive fitness)
It took _______ theory to give impetus for ecology to develop formally as a science.
evolutionary
What is the relationship between ecology and evolution that produces modern biodiversity?
Coevolution and convergent evolution
Give an example of coevolution and convergent evolution.
Coevolution: North American cheetah and Pronghorn in the Pleistocene
convergent evolution: Smilodon vs Marsupials independently evolved saber-teeth to hunt megafauna
Describe coevolution.
When two species exert reciprocal selection pressures and the responses are inherited
Define convergent evolution.
The process where organisms not closely related independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments or ecological conditions
Define ecosystem.
An environment in which organisms carry out their “struggle for existence”; a collection of parts that function as an integrated whole
Ecosystems include ______ and _____ factors.
biotic and abiotic
Describe trophic cascades.
Trickle down effect when a trophic level is reduced or removed.
Ex) how wolves change rivers
What are the seven levels of the ecological hierarchy?
Individual, population, community (an interacting group of various species in a common location), ecosystem, landscape, biome, biosphere
Ecosystem ecology emphasizes ______ and _______.
energy flow and chemical cycling
What historic crises had to take place in order to aid the rapid development of ecology as a theoretically based science?
environmental crises of the 1900s
Define conservation biology.
Study of human influences on biodiversity; applied ecology
What is individual-level ecology?
Science that is concerned with causes and consequences of individual behaviours and traits involved interactions
Movement behaviour, habitat, and resource selection are examples of what level of ecological analysis?
Individual-level
In what way do individual interaction and population theory combine in the r-K continuum?
Larger, more competitive offspring vs more, highly reproductive, less competitive offspring
Slow growing and rapid growing population rates, respectively
What is the trade-off associated with the r-K continuum?
If more energy is allocated to reproduce, less will be available for maintenance, growth, defence, and hence survival
Ex) the more energy put into cone production the less energy for width growth
Natural selection favours individuals that produce the _______ number of reproducing offspring in a lifetime.
maximum
Life history depends on what seven factors?
Degree of parental care/investment, age at first reproduction, longevity, # of offspring per reproductive event, size of offspring at birth, Gender allocation (more males or females), and habitat
What is an example of antagonistic pleiotropy in humans?
in males the higher testosterone that benefits reproduction creates a higher risk of cancer
How does predation lead to adaptations?
Interactions in the form of selective pressures lead to behaviours or physical traits better adapted for hunting or escape
What is mutualism?
Interspecific interaction that benefits both species; also called mutualistic symbiosis
Obligate mutualists….
cannot live without each other
Define interspecific competition.
The major force behind species divergence and specialization; a relationship that affects the populations of two or more species adversely
What is competitive exclusion?
The competitive exclusion principle states that “complete competitors” cannot coexist
Complete competitors are two species that live in the same place and have exactly the same ecological requirements
A specie’s ______ niche is the full range of conditions and resources under which it can survive and reproduce.
fundamental
The _____ niche is the portion of the fundamental niche that the species actually exploits
realized
What is character displacement?
a shift in feeding niche that subsequently affects a specie’s morphology, behaviour, or physiology
Describe predator-prey coevolution.
The exploitive ability of predators and the defense of prey combined create parallel adaptations
What is apparent competition?
Interaction between two prey species, where the presence of one prey has a negative effect on the other
Define keystone species.
A species that affects community structure disproportionately to their abundance
