Untitled Deck Flashcards
What does anthropogenic refer to?
Human-induced changes on the natural environment
What are the scales of biodiversity?
Genetic, species, ecosystem
What is species richness?
The number of species in a given area
What is species diversity?
The number and relative abundance of species in a biological community.
What happens to a species lacking in genetic diversity?
Increases the risk of extinction of a population through inbreeding depression
What are the benefits to a genetically diverse species?
Allows species to adapt to future environmental changes and avoid inbreeding
What is a population bottleneck?
A type of genetic drift in which population size is sharply reduced due to some catastrophic event
What are provisioning services?
Products obtained from ecosystems
What are regulating services?
The use of nonverbal cues to control the flow of communication (the benefits obtained from the regulation of ecosystem processes)
What are cultural services?
The relationship between humans and environments, considering culture as a key to understanding the evolutionary process
What are supporting services?
Supporting services are the most basic natural cycles that nature needs to function.
What is slash and burn agriculture?
A farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden.
What are examples of ecological services provided by wetlands?
Protecting and improving water quality, providing fish and wildlife habitats, storing floodwaters and maintaining surface water flow during dry periods.
What are examples of ecological services provided by grasslands?
Disperse seeds, mitigate drought and floods, cycle and move nutrients, detoxify and decompose waste, control agricultural pests, maintain biodiversity, generate and preserve soils and renew their fertility, contribute to climate stability.
What are examples of ecological services provided by forests?
Food, fuel, and fire
What are ecosystem services?
There are four categories of ecosystem services: provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting.
What are the results of human disruptions to ecosystem services?
Anthropogenic activities can disrupt ecosystem services, potentially resulting in economic and ecological consequences.
What are the impacts of human activity on wetlands and mangroves?
Wetlands provide a variety of ecological services, including water purification, flood protection, water filtration, and habitat.
What is the Equilibrium Theory of Island Biogeography?
Extinction is higher on small islands than on larger islands
What are immigration rates on islands?
Immigration is higher on near islands than on distant islands (in relation to the mainland)
What are characteristics of invasive species?
A species must adapt to the new area easily, reproduce quickly, and harm property, the economy, or the native plants and animals of the region.
Why are small populations susceptible to extinction?
Small populations tend to lose genetic diversity more quickly than large populations due to genetic drift
What is island biogeography?
The study of the ecological relationships and distribution of organisms on islands, and of these organisms’ community structures.
What is the role of island biogeography in evolution?
Many island species have evolved to be specialists versus generalists because of the limited resources, such as food and territory, on most islands.
What is the range of tolerance?
The limits to the abiotic conditions that a species can tolerate
Which aquatic biomes have the greatest range of salinity?
Estuaries and the ocean
What is ecological tolerance?
The range of conditions in which a species can survive
How can sudden or gradual environmental changes affect species?
Slow down evolution and harm habitats
What is climate change?
A change in global or regional climate patterns
What is the intermediate disturbance hypothesis?
The hypothesis that ecosystems experiencing intermediate levels of disturbance are more diverse than those with high or low disturbance levels
What are the five foundations of natural selection?
Variation, Inheritance, Selection, Time, and Adaptation.
What is adaptive radiation?
An evolutionary pattern in which many species evolve from a single ancestral species
What is selective pressure?
When the environment pushes an individual or population to adapt or evolve
What is coevolution?
Process by which two species evolve in response to changes in each other
What are indicator species?
Species that serve as early warnings that a community or ecosystem is being degraded.
What is a keystone species?
A species that influences the survival of many other species in an ecosystem
What is succession?
A series of predictable and orderly changes within an ecosystem over time.
What is primary succession?
An ecological succession that begins in an area where no biotic community previously existed
What is secondary succession?
Succession following a disturbance that destroys a community without destroying the soil
What are pioneer species?
First species to populate an area during primary succession
What is an example of pioneer species?
Mosses and lichens
How does biodiversity typically change as succession progresses?
Species diversity commonly increases with succession
Why are mosses and lichens so important to succession?
Promote soil formation by accelerating physical and chemical weathering, by trapping wind-blown organic and inorganic material, and by contributing directly to undecomposed organic matter.
What are early successional species?
Species that occur only or primarily during early stages of succession
What are mid-successional species?
Species that take over after early successional species and live longer and grow more slowly.
What are late successional species?
Species that occur only or primarily in, or are dominant in late stages in succession.
What is an example of early successional species?
Weedy areas, grasslands, old fields or pastures, shrub thickets (e.g. dogwood or alder), and young forest.
What is an example of late successional species?
Douglas-fir and grand fir are the primary late successional tree species
