Week #7 Flashcards by Charissa S

What is predation?

Consumption of prey by its predator

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T/F - Predation is a strong selective pressure?

True

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T/F - Features that decrease predation strongly favored

True

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What are things that can restrict a niche?

Other species, predators, pollinators, and herbivores

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T/F - 90% of plant material ends up with decomposers, not herbivores

True

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What are some chemical defenses for plants?

Tough fibers, high cellulose content, oils, toxins, poison

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T/F - Herbivores can coevolve to continue eating poisonous plants?

True, ex. bamboo lemurs that eat bamboo shoots with enough cyanide to kill humans

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What is another example of herbivores and chemical defenses?

Monarch butterflies and birds. Monarch butterflies eat poisonous plants as caterpillars, which get birds sick when they eat the grown monarchs

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What is aposematism?

The advertising by an animal to potential predators that it is not worth attacking or eating | done through colors, odors, sounds, or other perceivable characteristics

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What are examples of aposematic coloration?

Strawberry poison dart frog and striped skunk (uses coloration to warn predators of unpleasant odor it produces)

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What is camouflage?

Cryptic colored animals who are usually nonpoisonous blend in with their surroundings to avoid predators | they do not usually live in groups

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What are the two types of mimicry?

Batesian and Mullerian

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What is Batesian mimicry?

HarmLESS species imitates the warning signal of a harmFUL species | think about a harmLESS black and yellow moth imitating a harmFUL black and yellow moth

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What is Müllerian mimicry?

Related/unrelated poisonous species that share a predator share the same warning signals | think about a harmFUL black and yellow moth shares other harmFUL black and yellow moth pattern

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What are some other prey defenses?

Grouping (school of fish), spraying toxins (Bombadier beetles), intimidation (puffer fish), quills (porcupine)

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What are the three types of symbiosis?

Commensalism, Parasitism, Mutualism

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What is commensalism?

One species benefits while the other is neutral | ex. remora and sharks

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What is parasitism?

One benefits but the other suffers

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What are the types of parasitism?

Endoparasites, Ectoparasites, Parasitoidism, Endosymbiont

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What are endoparasites?

Live within host body, always cause harm

What are ectoparasites?

Live on surface of host

What is parasitoidism?

Eggs are deposited on host’s body, egg grows up while host is alive and feeds on host’s tissues

What is an endosymbiont?

They live inside another but host can benefit from the parasite or is unharmed

What is mutualism?

Both species benefit | ex. acacia trees and ants or clownfish and sea anemones

What are the four ways biological communities are characterized by species?

Richness, Abundance, Relative abundance, and Diversity

What is species richness?

the # of species present

What is species abundance?

the # of individuals per species

What is species relative abundance?

How common or rare species are relative to another

What is species diversity?

species richness and evenness of species' abundances

T/F - Community composition changes gradually across landscapes

True

What is evapotranspiration (ET)?

the release of water into the atmosphere as water vapor, by evaporation, transpiration, and precipitation

T/F - The more evapotranspiration, the more species richness

True

What are the 3 types of species with a large impact?

Dominant, keystone, foundation

What is a dominant species?

Most abundant

What is a keystone species?

Key to maintaining biodiversity within an ecosystem and to upholding an ecological community’s structure (most influential when it comes to trophic levels) | ex. starfish keep mussel pop. low

What is a foundation species?

Have the greatest influence on a community's overall structure (usually primary producers)| ex. kelp, beavers (dams)

How do you calculate energy use?

Subtract all used and lost energy, then take 10% of what's left

What are the two factors that make up ecosystems?

Abiotic and Biotic

What is an ecosystem?

All organisms and the environment in which they live in and interact

T/F - The abiotic geochemical cycles keep cycling and nutrients are recycled within them?

True

What are the 4 main abiotic geochemical cycles?

Water, Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorus

What is the nitrogen cycle?

nitrogen moves through the environment by being converted into different chemical forms, primarily through the processes of nitrogen fixation (converting atmospheric nitrogen into usable forms by bacteria), nitrification (bacteria converting ammonia into nitrate), assimilation (plants absorbing nitrate from the soil), ammonification (decomposition of organic matter releasing ammonia), and denitrification (bacteria converting nitrate back into atmospheric nitrogen)

What is nitrification?

The biological oxidation of ammonia or ammonium to nitrite followed by the oxidation of the nitrite to nitrate. The transformation of ammonia to nitrite is usually the rate limiting step of nitrification. Nitrification is an important step in the nitrogen cycle in soil.

T/F - Energy is recycled in ecosystems

False - it is never recycled and must always be replenished

How does energy exist in ecosystems?

Through heat, light, chemical-bond energy, and motion

What is the 1st Law of Thermodynamics?

Energy is neither created nor destroyed; changes forms

What is the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics?

Some chemical-bond or light energy converted to heat (entropy) | heat transfers from hot to cold | entropy always increases

T/F - Earth is a closed system for energy?

False - Earth is an open system for energy, since it gains energy from the sun and loses energy (by radiation) to space from the night side

What is the major source of energy?

The sun !!