Population Ecology Flashcards

1
Q

What does ecology mean?

A

The study of the interrelationships between organisms and their enviornment.

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2
Q

Who is the Father of Ecology, meteorology, geography, and biogeography?

A

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859)

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3
Q

What is ecology concerned with?

A

The scientific definition of ecology, mathematical ecology, and biogeography.

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4
Q

What is the order of how living things are organized?

A

Biosphere to ecosystems to communities to populations to organisms to organ systems to organs to tissues to cells to molecules to atoms.

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5
Q

Can ecology be studied from a number of different perspectives?

A

Yes

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6
Q

What is a population?

A

A group of individuals in the same area at the same time that are all members of the same species.

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7
Q

Do populations exist alone?

A

No

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8
Q

What is a community?

A

A grouping of populations of different species interacting with one another in the same enviornment.

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9
Q

Most population ecologists study what?

A

Communities

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10
Q

Can a community just be a tree?

A

Yes

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11
Q

Do most ecologists study ecosystems?

A

Yes

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12
Q

What is the definition of an ecosystem?

A

An ecosystem is a very large naturally occurring community of living species occupying a major habitat and associated nonliving aspects.

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13
Q

What is the largest entity ecologists study?

A

The biosphere, or Earth

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14
Q

Healthy ecosystems include what to sustain the ecosystem?

A

Plants, fungi, animals, bacteria, protists, viruses, minerals, water, sunlight, and etc

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15
Q

What are the two other names for the biosphere?

A

Ecosphere or Earth

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16
Q

What are the four sorts of data must we collect for population ecology?

A

Size, density, distribution, and ages of individuals

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17
Q

Is Earth’s human population well sustainable?

A

Yes

18
Q

What does size mean?

A

Number of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same geographical area at the same time.

19
Q

What does density mean?

A

The number of individuals per unit area or volume.

20
Q

What does distribution mean?

A

The pattern of distribution of the individuals within the population.

21
Q

What are the two things distribution is affected by?

A

Physical resources and behavioral adaptations of the organisms.

22
Q

What is uniform distribution?

A

Occurs often where individuals must compete for a limiting resource

23
Q

What is the least common distribution pattern?

A

Uniform distribution

24
Q

What is clumped distribution?

A

When prime living conditions are not found uniformly throughout a habitat

25
Q

What is the most common distribution pattern?

A

Clumped distribution

26
Q

What is random distribution?

A

When prime living conditions are found throughout the habitat.

27
Q

What is age structure?

A

The relative proportion of individuals of each age.

28
Q

A growing population has what?

A

Higher proportion at lower end

29
Q

A shrinking population has what?

A

Higher proportion at upper end

30
Q

The red-cockaded woodpeckers at
The Nature Conservancy’s Piney Grove Reserve has what population?

A

A growing population

31
Q

If rate of growth remains constant, the speed of the population growth will get what?

A

Faster and faster

32
Q

What is environmental resistance?

A

Any environmental force that prevents a population from growing at its maximum potential.

33
Q

Environmental resistances include what?

A

“Push-back” against population growth
Limiting factors
Will slow population growth until it stops, and may decline
Limited resources such as starvation, disease

34
Q

What are the two types of environmental resistance?

A

Density dependent and density independent

35
Q

What is a limiting factor?

A

Environmental aspects that determine where an organism lives.

36
Q

Any environmental factor that is sufficiently in short supply becomes what?

A

The prime environmental resistance to population growth.

37
Q

Density-dependent environmental resistance is what?

A

When an environmental resistance only provides resistance when the population sufficiently large.

38
Q

What are examples of density dependent controls?

A

Disease, predation, housing/habitat shortages, starvation (famine)
Leads to lower reproductive rates
Self-regulating for most species

39
Q

Game hunters are crucial when what is low and what is it part of?

A

Predation and density dependent resistance

40
Q

Density independent environmental resistance includes what?

A

When population size does not matter and they are not usually useful regulators of population growth

41
Q

What are examples of density independent environmental resistances?

A

Fire, hurricanes, tsunamis, floods, drought, volcanoes, natural disasters