Unit 1 - Ecology Flashcards
- circadian
- circannual
- lunar
- daily
- yearly
- changing moon
Taxis Oriental Movement
automatic movement towards or away from a certain sitmulus
Estivation v. Hibernation
Estivation: inactive state resembling deep sleep, protects animals living in hot summer areas from heat and dryness
Hibernation: Animals breathing and heart rate slows and they drop body temp, stop eating and exercizing to save energy in winter
Diurnal
active in the day time
Agnostic behavior
contest involving threats between animals, tests to see which one would win a real fight without doing harm
Tundra
- northeastern limit of plant growth
- treeless + high altitude
- permafrost 1 meter below ground
- prevents root and plant growth - windy/cold = short growing season
Deciduous Forests
- Dense trees
- cold winters and hot summers
- leaves die in winter
epiphytes
plants that live on other plants
neritic zone
shallow regions over the continental shelf
-coral reefs
FRESH WATER BIOMES
- littoral zone
- limnetic zone
- profundal zone
- shallow close to shore
- open surface of water
- deep aphotic regions
oligotrophic
- deep
- nutrient poor
- little life
coeveolution
reciprocal evolutionary adaptions of 2 interacting species
kinesis
change in activity in response to a stimulus
coniferous Forest / Boreal / Taiga
- very big
- many trees
- dryer
- trees adapter by having needles
cognition
process of knowing, includes awareness, reasoning, recollection and judgement
operent conditioning
an animal learns to associate one of its behaviors with a rewards / punishment
associative learning
associate 1 feature of their environment with another
classical conditioning
a learning process that occurs when 2 stimuli are simultaneously paired
fixed action pattern
a sequence of behavioral arts that are unchangable and carried to completion once initiated
-triggered by external sensory called SIGN STIMULUS
Foraging behavior
food-obtaining behavior
optimal foraging model
views foraging behavior as a compromise between benefits of nutrition & costs of gaining food
imprinting
learned behavior during a certain period based on experiences
ex. young animals learn to follow parents
ex. salmon imprint on chemicals in the stream they were born and can trace them
habituation
loss of response to an important stimuli
spatial learning
knowing spaces around to find things
ex. remembering where the path to your nest is
- promiscuous
- monogamous
- no strong pair-bonds
- 1 male + 1 female
polygamous
- polyandry
- polygyny
an individual of 1 sex mates with several individuals of the other sex
- 1 female many males
- 1 male many females
phermones
chemicals used to communicate
altruistic behavior
puts another organisms well being over self interest
ex. infertile workers work on behalf of fertile queen bee
rain shadow
rains on one side of a hill/ mountain and is dry on the other
ex. its hot in the central valley which causes water to evaporate and create fog in other areas
why are lakes sensitive to seasons?
in the winter the water cools and the 4º water sinks to bottom (most dense at 4º) and frozen water rises
in spring and fall everything is the same temp and the water circulates
shrublands / chaparral
grows on poor soil with wind and slopes
- not good enough soil for trees
- adapted to fire
grasslands
good for agriculture
- excellent soil
- grazing animals
savannas / oak woodland
transitional biome
- grassland with scattered trees
- wet season + dry season
- arctic tundra
- alpine tundra
- Alaska
- very high mountain tops
deserts
- low rain fall/ hot
- sparse vegetation
- nocturnal animals
- uniform pattern of dispersion b/c competition for water
tropical forests
- layered vegetation
- close to equator
- lots of animals
- rapid decomposition
- phytoplankton
- zooplankton
- so many, responsible for much of the O2 production
- smallest simplest plant life
- eaten by zoolpankton (animals)
photic zone
light can penetrate
photosynthesis can occur
upwelling
cooler, nutrient rich water, towards surface
oceanic zone
past the continental shelves, can be deep
pelagic zone
open water
benthic zone (benthos)
sea floor
-detritus
wetlands
areas covered with water
-supports many types of plants
estuaries
where fresh and salt water meet
intertidal zone
land meets water
-covered and uncovered throughout day
eutrophic
shallow
high in nutrients
mesotrophic
moderate nutrients
moderate phytoplankton activity
prokaryotes
single celled organisms
archea
prokaryotes that inhabit extreme environments
auto-inducer
a chemical that when sensed by an organism makes it do something
quorum-sensing
a process utilized by bacteria where they all release auto inducers and when enough bacteria are present they can sense the auto inducers and they all complete an action to make it more powerful
indirect indicators of population size
nests, burrows, tracks, poop
demography
study of factors that affect the growth and decline of a population
type 1 curve
low death rate early
type 2 curve
equal chance of death throughout life
type 3 curve
many organisms die young, but those that live live for a while
equation for population size
change in number / change in time = B-D
change in size / change in time = births - deaths
r - select
a population that grows and crashes and can never reach carrying capacity
ex. 50% of the population dies every winter
density dependent factors
- territoriality
- predation
- competition
- waste accumulation
- disease
density independent factors
- freeze
- seasons
- fire
- storms
allee affect
large size is beneficial
ex. protection while huddeling in group
takes 2 wolves to kill/ corner 1 deer
darkness of tadpooles makes the water warmer
aposematic coloration
warning colors and markings
what are the trophic levels?
- quaternary consumers = carnivore
- tritary consumers = carnivore
- secondary consumer = carnivores
- primary consumers = herbivores
- primary producers = autotrophs
batesian mimicry
1 harmless species mimics a harmful one
müllerran mimicry
2+ harmful species mimic each other to “reinforce the point”
1st step in primary succession
nutrients in rock and water let algae grow, bird dropping adds nutrients then fungus + algae = lichen
lichen grows and dies… eventually becomes soil for moss which out competes the lichen
comensalism
relationship that is positive for one organism, neutral for the other
why is intermediate disturbance good?
wipes out some competition and allows other species to grow back
mark recapture
n = number marked * total 2nd catch
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number of recaptured
