Population Ecology Flashcards
Organize biosphere, biome, ecosystem, community, population, and organism from broadest to smallest level of biological organization
Biosphere- Biome- Ecosystem- Community- Population- Organism/Individual
Ecology
Interactions between organisms and the environment
Three different types of dispersion
examples
Uniform - penguins, plants that undergo allelopathy
Random - dandelions and other plants that have wind-dispersed seeds, oyster larvae
Clumped - plants that drop their seeds straight to the ground, animals that live in groups, sea stars, bald eagles
Two methods of quantifying a population
determine what type of organisms would be suited for qualification
- Quadrat Analysis
-plants, sedentary animals - Mark-release-recapture
- birds, snails, butterflies, large mammals, amphibians, fish fins
Biotic factors
examples
Living components of an ecosystem
ex. plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, protists
Abiotic factors
examples
Non-living or physical components of an ecosystem
ex. temp, water, sunlight, atmosphere, wind, rocks, soil, pH
Producers
autotrophs
convert the energy from sunlight or inorganic chemical compounds to synthesize organic molecules
photoautotrophs, chemoautotrophs
Consumers (herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores)
heterotrophs- are animals that depend upon producers for food
herbivores - only eat plant material
omnivores - eat variety of food sources plants, animals, algae (bears, crows, humans)
carnivores - eat other animals (lions, tigers, eagles, wolves)
Decomposers (detritivore)
heterotrophs - play a critical role in keeping ecosystems healthy
when they break down dead materials and waste they release nutrients that can be recycled and used as building blocks by primary producers (fungi, cockroaches, wasps, bacteria)
detritivores - earthworms , dung flies, mites, sea stars - consume the dead decomposing material created by decomposers
Demography
Study of vital statistics of a population and how they change over time
Death rates, birth rates, and life expectancies are of particular interest to demographers
Describe what a life table is
Age-specific summary of survival pattern of a population
best made by following the fate of a cohort, a group of individuals of the same age
Types of survivorship curves
examples
Type 1- humans
Type 2 - bird species
Type 3 - trees, marine invertebrates and most fish
Differentiate between semelparity and iteroparity
semelparity - reproduce once
iteroparity - reproduce repeatedly
Semelparity
examples
Big-bang reproduction
-reproduce once and die
ex. pacific salmon, bamboo, grain crops like wheat
Iteroparity
examples
Repeated reproduction
produce offspring repeatedly
ex. humans, all birds