UQ Terrestrial Ecology Flashcards
1
Q
Terra Australis
A
The southern land
2
Q
What is convergent evolution
A
unrelated species showing similar traits (ex: wolf and Tasmanian tiger)
3
Q
What are monotremes
A
Mammals that lay eggs
4
Q
Describe the birth process of marsupials
A
Short gestation period
- young born the size of a bean with barely any features
- weaned in pouch until maturity
5
Q
What are eutharians?
A
Mammals that have young mature in placenta before birth
6
Q
Describe the extinction of Thylacine
A
extinct on mainland 4k years ago and then hunted to extinction on Tasmania 6 years before protection
7
Q
Who introduced dingos?
A
Asians
8
Q
The “Shadeless Forest” refers to
A
“the Bush” - eucalyptus trees
9
Q
What plant was until recently believed to be extinct?
A
Wollemi Pine
10
Q
What is Wallace’s Line? What lies one the west and east sides?
A
Abrupt boundary between asian and Australasian fauna. (pretty much from papa new guinea- and east)
West: eutherians
East: marsupials and monotremes
11
Q
What is divergence
A
Related species that evolve apart due to conditions or random chance
12
Q
Australia has lots of (general)
A
old stuff
unique stuff
sunny days
wide open space
13
Q
Australia doesn’t have (general)
A
tall mountains big rivers people old buildings snow
14
Q
Name the longest straight railway and where is it?
A
Indian-Pacific
Nullarbor plain
15
Q
What is the Southern Oscillation Index?
A
Measure of the cycle between El Nino and La Nina conditons
16
Q
What does El Nino bring to aussie?
A
drought (below avg rainfall)
17
Q
What does La Nina bring to aussie?
A
floods (above avg rainfall)
18
Q
How doe eucalyptus tress orient their leaves and why?
A
Max photosynthesis during cool times when sun is on the horizon, minimizing heat during hottest times of the day (sun overhead)
19
Q
Describe the locomotion of kangaroos
A
They have “pogo stick” leg tendons that maximize leaping.
Tail is used as a “rudder” for quick direction change
During jumping, gut compresses diaphragm for “free breathing”
20
Q
Describe the energy level of locomotion of kangaroos
A
At high speeds less energy is spent in comparison to other animals
It spends more energy moving slow in relation to moving fast
21
Q
What is embryonic Dipause
A
Halting the embryo (at the blastocyst stage) until she can afford to nurture it again
22
Q
How does a kangaroo handle weaning two joeys at different maturity stages?
A
She can produce different milks with different teats
23
Q
Why doesn’t much grow inland of aussie?
A
weather conditions AND it constantly gets trampled by livestock
24
Q
Why is it a good idea to eat kangaroo
A
- less land degradation than livestock
- high reproductive potential
- healthier meat
- animals better suited for aussie conditions
- other stuff like jobs, market, etc.
25
The 3 general parts of the plant
reproductive system, shoot system, root system
26
Give the quick explanation of the history of the universe
Nuclear fission (H into He) in the heart of stars releases energy and creates heaver elements that combine to form compounds forming matter (planets) which are spread through the universe by stellar explosions
27
Explain the Gaia Hypothesis
Earth is a living system that keeps itself stable and out of equilibrium.
28
Scientific definition of life
complex arrow of self replicating, carbon based compounds in liquid water.
29
Why is life carbon based?
Because of carbons bonding properties allowing for more complexity
30
Photosynthesis fixes atmospheric CO2 into _____ sugar
burnable
31
Why is carbon recycled by organisms?
respiration and decomposition
32
1st law of thermodynamics
energy cannot be created or destroyed
33
2nd law of thermodynamics
In energy exchanges in closed systems, the potential energy of the final state will be less than the initial.
34
Entropy increasing means
system move from order to disorder , complex to simple, useful to static
35
How to get out of the law of thermodynamics?
add energy from OUTSIDE the system
36
In general scientific terms:
water provides -
Food provides -
air provides -
```
water = liquid solution for complex carbon chemistry
food = fixed carbon (sugar) for fuel and materials
air = oxygen to burn fuel
```
37
Water, food, and air come together to provide _____ to do _____
energy ; work
38
Mitosis =
| Meiosis =
photocopying
| halving - recombination
39
Difference between prokaryotes and eukaryotes? (list the groups that fall under them)
prokaryotes (bacteria) lack internal compartments
| eukaryotes have organelles (protist, plant, animal, fungi)
40
What organisms dominate life on earth?
bacteria
41
list the general parts of a plants cell
```
nucleus
cytoplasm
cell wall
cell membrane
chloroplasts
mitochondria
vacuole
```
42
Pros and cons of being sessile
Pros
fixed cells that don't expend a lot of energy
local food source
Cons
must take whatever mother nature brings; ultimate defense/survival
reproduction barriers
43
Respiration in plants take place in what organelle
mitochondria
44
Waste products of plants are
CO2 and water
45
What is the plant respiration formula?
C6H12O6 + 6 O2 -> 6 CO2 + 6 H2O + energy
glucose + oxygen -> CO2 + water + energy
46
What is the photosynthesis formula?
6 CO2 + 12 H2O (light)-> C6H12O6 + 6 O2 + 6 H2O
CO2 + water (in light) -> sugar + oxygen + water
47
What system is the plants solar panel?
shoot system
48
T/F: Organisms do not fight entropy
FALSE - constantly "defying" entropy
49
What is the trade-off for having huge photosynthesizing leaves?
Increased surface area for water loss
| More energy needed to produce leaves
50
How does the plants move nutrients and water around?
water and minerals transported by xyelm
- roots use energy absorb nutrients
- water goes down by osmosos
51
Where does plant transpiration happen?
water loss through leaves by stomata
52
How do plants transport sugars?
energy used to pump sugar down the phloem (pressure from build up of sap) to non photosynthesizing parts
-water moves through by osmosis
52
Shoot and roots store resources in the _____ and _____
Pith and outer cortex
53
The vascular tissues of a plant are called ___ and ___ and how are they arranged?
Phloem and xylem and in rings and veins
54
What is the redundant thick walled xylem?
Wood
55
Pores that allow gas exchange
Guard cells
56
What opens and closes stomata and how does it work?
Guard cells
| -open by swelling with osmosis
57
When must stomata be open?
During photosynthesis and xylem movement
58
T/F: the majority of plants live independently
FALSE
59
What is mycorrhizae? What does it do?
Symbiotic relationship between plant roots and fungi. Increases surface area
60
What as an ecological limiting factor?
Scarce resources
61
The three roles in nutrient recycling
Producer - consumer - decomposer
62
The 2 elements most difficult to get
Nitrogen and phosphorous
63
How do plants get their nitrogen?
Nitrogen-fixing bacteria-makes nitrate for plants - root symbiosis
64
Give a plant example of root symbiosis with n-fixing bacteria
Pea plants (legumes)
66
What do n-fixing bacteria use to make nitrate?
Ammonia
67
What do ammonification bacteria do?
turn nitrogen in waste into ammonium
68
What do dentrification bacteria do?
they return nitrogen to the amosphere
69
What are meristems? (name two types) and Where are they located?
areas of the plant that grow/regenerate via mitosis
(apical = heigWhereht) (lateral = width)
-bud where the leaf meets the stem
70
Name the parts of the flower
- sepal
- petal
- Stamen : anther and filament
- Carpel : pistil - stigma - style - ovary
- nectary
71
How do plants avoid self-pollination?
reproductive parts mature at different times
72
T/F: plants with their qty of seeds dispersed are very successful
FALSE - rare for seeds to be dispersed and germinate and grow to maturity
73
What is palaeomagnetism
the study of the magnetic history of rocks
74
What is circumpolar distribution?
Something that is seemingly distributed in a line of circumference of the planet
75
Mid oceanic ridges vs subduction zones
ridges are underwater mountain ranges
| subduction zones are deep ocean trenches
76
What did the super continent Godwana consist of?
Australia, Antartica, Africa, India, New Zealand, New Caledonia, New Guinea, South America
AAA I NNN S
77
What does it mean when Aussi is geologically stable?
no tectonic activity (rather on the rim of Aussie - new guinea and new zealand)
78
What what direction was Aussie "built
| in
From west to east
79
What is a key attribute of the western aussie rocks?
SUPPER OLD
80
What a laterite?
"fossil soils"
| mounds of rock that used to be on valley floors until everything around it eroded
81
What is the Great Artesian Basin?
Water collected underground through porous sandstone that can be collected
81
What is the Great Escarpment
Great chain of mountains in the east
82
Why is extinct volcanic soil prime?
Contains a lot of very nutrient basalt
83
What is Rainshadowing?
The eastern ridges interfere clouds and only have rain on one side
84
The Australian soil is low in nutrients which in turn does what to the ecosystem?
Limits it's productivity
85
5 factors of soil formation
```
Topography
Climate
Age
Parent rock
Organisms
```
87
Why is there usually more vegetation at the bottom of rock mounds
Run off of rocks and nutrients to the surrounding soil
88
What defines Aussie landscapes?
Plants
89
What defines the height of the canopy?
the height of the tallest foliage
90
What is the "life form" of a plant
The form the plant takes on in its mature form (ex: tree, shrub, etc)
91
What is foliage projective cover?
% cover of the canopoy
92
Describe Sclerophyll leaves
thick, rigid and tough hard leaves
made with really woody and fibrous tissue and thick cuticles
drab-green color
pointed down
93
Sclerophyll is an adaptation for... (3 things)
low nutrient soils
fighting herbivores
water strees
94
Describe the Acacias
Shrubs/short trees
flat stem leaves- phyllodes
Nitrogen fixers
95
Describe the Casuarina
- no leaves; photosynthetic stems instead
- nitrogen fixers
- adapted for poor nutrients
96
The photosynthetic stems of the casuarina are called
cladodes
97
What are ericoid leaves? What plants are they found on?
flat, tiny, reduced sclerophyll leaves
| -heath and pea plants
98
Describe xanthorrea
- "grass trees"
| - super adapted to fire and flowers after fire
99
Describe "wet sclerophyll"
Sclerophyll canopy
Rainforest understory
-maintained by fire
100
Describe the difference between dry sclerophyll, wet scleropyll, and rainforest
```
dry = firephilic, no shade, open
wet = moisture, fire facors sclerophylls
rain = fire fearing, closed canopy
```
101
What resets the clock on wet scleropyll
fiyuh
102
The major generalist herbivore of plant biomass
fiyuh
103
The Fire Equation - 3 components of fire
fuel load
wind
temperature
104
Why is sclerophyll good for burning?
highly flamable woody tissue
low rate of decomposition (litter build up)
open canopy allows wind
oils in certain plants
105
Two ways for plants to survive after fire
resprouting
| reseeding
106
Two methods of resprouting
epicormic buds
lignotubers
-both insulated in bark or ground
107
What is serotiny
having seeds protected in woody capsules and opened after exposure to heat
108
What is flash frying?
intense but quick fire to do the job but not penetrate the plant
109
Why reseed after fire?
no competition
space created
fewer predators
110
T/F: Evolution works for the good of the species
FALSE - the individual to give an advantage to them and their offspring
110
Explain the "kill thy neighbor" process in plants with fire
A more fire adapted plant burns others less adapted around it as well and then reseeds it's offspring in the cleared area to make more well adapted plants
111
Describe the aboriginals method of using fire and what was the landscape result?
Used it control burn so nicer grass would come back and attract roos- left the landscape on a mosaic of burn and unburnt patches
112
What is the only element that can be co trolled by us in the fire equation?
Fuel load
114
How do sclerophyll leaves preserve nutrients?
Make durable leaves out of lignin (carbon oxygen and nitrogen ) -> cheap materials.
Longer lasting leaves and ergonomic shape for better investment
Preserves crucial materials like nitrogen and phosphorus
115
Sclerophyll has rainforest ancestry so what sort of condition did it develop an adaptation for?
Low nutrient soils (and possibly defense against herbivores)
116
What is xeromorphy?
plant adaptations for low moisture availibility
117
T/F: Wet sclerophyll has more diversity in terms of sclerophyll forests
FALSE - more types of dry sclerophyll
118
What happens to eucalyptus branches when they become shaded?
The plant drops the "dead weight"
119
T/F: Eucalyptus trees don't benefit from termites
FALSE - termites add decomposition through breaking down the tree and also providing their own waste. they also make holes to shelter other animals who also provide nutrients through waste
120
What does "eucalyptus" mean and what does it refer to?
"well covered" and it refers to the operculum which covers the flower in a bud
121
What is heath?
low growing vegetation on extremely low nutrient soils
122
T/F: Heath lands have heaps of high plant diversity
True
123
What are the 3 different types of heath?
Dry heath - doop porous
Wet - waterlogged heath
Montane - exposed mountain tops, extreme climates, rough soild
124
List the root adaptations for low nutrient soils
teaming up with nitrogen fixing bacteria
mychorrhizae
cluster roots
125
What are cluster roots?
plants that resist mycorrhizae make "root mats"
126
Harsh/variable conditions prevent _______
competitive exclusion
127
Weather =
moving energy (hot rising air, cooling cold air)
128
Describe a low pressure cell
```
warm rising air
YES clouds
brings rain
more energy, strong winds
rotate clockwise
```
129
Describe high pressure cells
cool dry falling air
NO clouds
stable, gentle winds
rotate CCW
130
What is a atm trough?
thin long low pressure cell sandwiched between two high pressure
131
Describe the Hadley Cell
System that sets the dry arid zones at 30 degree latitude (high pressure areas)
(trade winds)
132
What is orographic rainfall?
rain caused by warm air masses (usually from the sea) pushed up by the mountains
133
What is a cold front and where does it come from?
mass of cold dense air that generally causes rain "in front of it"
134
Pressure systems and cold fronts move across aussie from ___ to ____
west to east (takes about 1 week to get all the way across)
135
Describe winter and summer of aussie
wet and dry interpretation
winter - dry cold weather (rain in south)
summer - hot humaid wet weather (rain in north)
136
How did aboriginals interpret seasons?
they based it off the actions of animals and plants
137
La Nina brings ___ and how does it tie in to the movement of low and high pressure systems
Floods
| -high pressure around south america and tahiti "push" low pressures toward aussie
138
El Nino brings ____ and how does it tie into the movement of low and high pressure systems
Air pressure in aussie gets higher and pushes low pressure towards tahiti and south america. brings drought
139
What is the Souther Oscillation Index?
different in air pressure between tahiti and darwin
positive = la nina
negative = el nino
140
T/F: the SOI provieds a forecast of la nina and el nino
FALSE- its unpredictable yo
141
What is Goyder's Line?
A line determining the edge of rainfall suitable for agriculture
142
What is cooperative breeding and what are the upsides? Give an example of an organism
when older offspring help parents out with next round of offspring instead of making their own
-increase survival by having more parents to look after them in the unpredictable environment
-kookaburras, magpies, etc
143
What does pleistocene refers to what?
mega fauna
144
What is the pleistocene world? how long ago was it?
the "ice ages"
| 2 MYA
145
What were the glacials in aussie?
expansion of deserts and forest contractions (instead of ice and snow: sclerophyll formed before the pleistocene period)
146
The extinction of mega fauna came with what and how long ago?
arrival of aboriginals
| 45k years ago
147
What was the alpha predator of the pleistocene period?
The megalania - giant lizard
148
The Pleistocene ages were a time of extreme _____ in aussie
aridity
149
Describe the theory behind extinction of mega fauna and climate
Climate change during the "ice age" of australia caused a lot of stress to the mega fauna and they died out while the surviving species underwent "dwarfing" to cope with the environmental stress
150
T/F: mega fauna extincion happened all at once
FALSE - at different times, possibly correlated to human arrival
151
What is Flannery's Theory
"future eaters"
- aobirignals came and hunted and caused land degradation
- "ecological aftershock" = europeans came and hunted and caused more land degredation
152
Describe what "future eaters" are
human societies that exploit todays resources and mess up the future
153
What is the problem of blaming extinction on the climate? (3 reasons)
- They survive precious "ice ages"
- extinctions werent correlated with a single climate event
- animals didnt survive even though the conditions were ideal or move with to the better areas
154
Explain the significance of the charcoal spike in sediment layers in the years between 38k and 100k eyars ago
evidence of the arrival of aboriginies and "fire stick farming"
155
Relationship between extinction of mega fauna and fuel loads
with the extinction of herbivorous mega fauna less plants eaten so fuel loads for fire built up
156
Flannery argued what about fire stick farming?
Aboriginals used it AFTER the extinctions to bring the fuel load to equilibrium
157
What is parismony?
selecting the most unlikeley explanation
158
Speculation =
untestable hypothesis
159
What climate do the nothofagus antartiuc beech trees reside?
cool temperate rainforests
160
What are characteristics that define a rainforest?
Closed canopy
complex structure
complex floristics (distribution of species)
epiphytes
buttress roots
vines/lianas
broad compound leaves horizontal to the sun
161
What are pioneer species?
smaller trees/shurbs that grow fast and die young
| shade intolerant - come out after a clearing in the canopy occurs to grow and reproduce
162
What are climax species?
slow growing tress that exist as saplings indefinitely until a bigger tree falls down and takes its place
163
What are the essential decomposers that are the only ones that can digest lignin?
Fungi
164
Describe the difference between tropical, sub-tropical, warm temperate rainforests, and cool temeperate
leaf size, canopy layers, and diversity decreases trom tropical to cool
All have high rain cept warm temperate
165
What is the difference between monsoon and dry rainforest?
small microphyll leaves
lap canopy with dry sparse understorey with lots of vines
Still good soil
alright diversity
166
Prominent seed dispersal method in rainforests is
bright fleshy fruits
167
Cauliflory means what?
trees presenting flowers/ fruit to advertise/ give better reach to animals
168
35 MYA vegetation landscape was mainly ____
| Between 20-15 what happens?
rainforest
| -long drying process transition to sclerophyll starts
169
What are stromatolites?
colonies of photosynthetic cyanobacteria that live in high salinity areas
(many fossils of these found)
170
Two ways to know about past vegetation
```
plant fossils (leaves, pollen)
climate proxies (geology, oxygen isotopes, charcoal, chemical composition)
```
171
Vegetation dominant during Jurassic period
cycads, conifers, and ferns
172
When did godwana split from laurasia (what period?)
During cretaceous period
173
What happened in tertiary period in terms of climate?
opened with "greenhouse earth" with no polar ice caps but then started cooling down when the ice caps formed (Antarctica splitting)
174
What changes the global temperature circulation when antartica finally separates form aussie?
circumpolar current change
175
How does new guinea form?
when the aussie plate collides with south ease asia
176
What is the climate result of the formation of new guinea
puts aussie in a rain shadow
177
During the glacial periods, what happened to the sea level?
It went lower
178
What is refugia?
small areas with its own microclimate providing escape from the changing outer climate, has high concentration of endemic species
179
big different between dry rainforest and sclerophyll forest?
sclerophyll is the only one that can tolerate low nutrient soils
180
What seemed to be the most dominant sclerophyll plant before ecualypts?
casurainas
