Week 12 Flashcards
Innate behaviour
Behaviour that is developmentally fixed
Fixed action pattern
A sequence of unlearned acts directly linked to a simple stimulus, more complex signals and responses
Learned behaviour
Behaviour that is modified based on experience
Imprinting
The formation at a specific stage in life of a long lasting behavioural response
More complex learning
Spatial learning, associative learning and problem solving
Behaviours are part of the
Phenotype
Carrying capacity
The maximum population size that can be supported by the available resources
Competition (-/-)
The interaction can be detrimental to both species, members of the two species compete for a resource
Competitive exclusion
In a simple competition one species may drive the other to local extinction
Natural selection may favour
The avoidance of competition
Predation, herbivory, parasitism and disease (+/-)
The interaction is beneficial to one species and detrimental to the other
Predation
Members of one species (predators) eat members of another species
Parasitism
Member of one species (parasites) live in or on members of another species (hosts) while feeding on the hosts
Disease
Microscopic parasitism
Detailed explanation of predation
Natural selection favours traits that allow prey to avoid predators, predation may prevent a prey population from reaching its carrying capacity, predation may reduce competition among prey populations
Mutualism (+/+)
The interaction is beneficial to both species
Commensalism (+/0)
One species benefits from the interaction and the other species is unaffected by it
Symbiosis
A long term intimate association of organisms of two different species
Trophic levels
Primary producers are eaten by primary consumers who are eaten by secondary consumers who are eaten by tertiary consumers who are eaten by quaternary consumers
Biotic
Related to living organisms
Abiotic
Not related to living organisms
Niche
The sum of a species use of the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment
Biomass
The amount of organic matter in a group of organisms
Primary production
The rate at which new biomass is generated in an ecosystem
Nitrogen fixing bacteria
Critical step to the nitrogen cycle without it it doesn’t work
Limiting nutrient
The nutrient that must be added to increase primary production in an ecosystem (usually nitrogen or phosphorus)
Life
Response to the environment, exchange of materials with the environment, metabolism, growth and reproduction
Viruses
Obligate parasites they can’t survive on their own
What makes up a virus
Capsid (outside shell)
Genetic material (inside capsid)
Capsid
Made out of protein (each circle on the capsid represents one protein molecule)
Genetic material
Inside the capsid (in viruses some of them use DNA or RNA as their genetic material )
Virus process
The capsid will allow the genetic material to get into the cell when it gets in contact with the target cell, the dna will transcribe into mRNA which translates into capsid proteins, the viral DNA keeps replicating as the DNA sees the virus DNA as normal DNA, self assembly of new virus particles keep adding up until they burst in your body
Viroid
A circular RNA molecule that infects certain plants
Prion
An infectious misfolded protein, this molecule tends to misfold any similar protein that it comes in contact with
Widely accepted hypothesis about prion
A normal protein is misfolded (has an abnormal tertiary structure)
Cancer
The cell cycle is controlled particularly in a multicellular organism, several genes are involved in various aspects of this control, a mutation in one of these genes may result in uncontrolled cell division, daughter cell inherits this uncontrolled cell division, cell tends to be unspecialized
Benign tumour
The cells that are growing out of control remain in the same location
Metastasis
If the cells spread in the body starting new tumours it is considered a cancer
Why is cancer difficult to treat
The cancerous cells are part of the body
Herbivory
Members of one species (herbivores) eat parts of plants or algae
