Population Ecology Cont. (W7-L2)

Question 1

What is community Ecology?

Answer 1

Collection of species found in one place, study of how they interact and exist

Question 2

What is Macro-ecology?

Answer 2

study of whether the principles of community ecology be applied across regions

Question 3

What determines the number of species in a community?

Answer 3

The number of niches and neutral Theory

Question 4

What is the intermediate disturbance hypothesis?

Answer 4

places where we see the most diversity is where there is a cycle of intermediate disturbance

ex. wildfires good

Question 5

What is neutral Theory?

Answer 5

Two species are so similar that they can occupy the same niche for a long period of time

ex. trees

Question 6

What factors impact the biodiversity of islands?

Answer 6

Area of the island
Distance from source population
Length of time (how long has the island existed?)

Question 7

What equation represents biodiversity?

Answer 7

Area x 10 = Biodiversity x 2

Logarithmic relationship

Question 8

What is the theory of biogeography?

Answer 8

Theory that there is a dynamic system between extinction and colonization rates that determines the number of species on an island

Question 9

What is nestedness?

Answer 9

Small areas contain a predictable subset of species found in large areas

Question 10

What is the hypothesis for why the tropics are so much more biodiverse?

Answer 10

1. More resources (more niches)
2. Lower seasonality (allows more generalists)
3. Historical Hypothesis (not certain if this is true, but Wallace predicted that the regions were not as impacted by ice age stuff, “more ancient”)

Question 11

What are the main “rules” of biogeography in the Tropics?

Answer 11

1. More species in the tropics
2. Species in the tropics are rarer
3. Species in the tropics have smaller ranges