Ecology Final Material

Front 1

conservation biology

Back 1

applying the principles of ecology to evaluating the loss, maintenance, and restoration of biodiversity

Front 2

ecosystem services

Back 2

natural processes that support human activities

Front 3

taxonomic homogenization

Back 3

reduction of biodiversity by spread of nonnatives and generalists and the decline of native specialists

Front 4

habitat degradation

Back 4

changes that reduce the quality of the habitat for many (but not all) species

Front 5

habitat fragmentation

Back 5

breaking up of continuous habitat into habitat patches amid human dominated landscapes

Front 6

habitat loss

Back 6

conversion of an ecosystem to another use

Front 7

invasive species

Back 7

non-native introduced species that thrive and have a large effect on native communities

Front 8

biocontrol agents

Back 8

specialist herbivores used to control the spread of invasive plant species

Front 9

overexploitation

Back 9

hunting, fishing, wood cutting
can be maintained by regulating how much can be taken

Front 10

pollution

Back 10

cause direct toxicity to organisms, alters growth, changes community consumption
emissions of industrial wastes, overapplication of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides , ozone, acid rain

Front 11

extinction vortex

Back 11

as populations shrink in size they become more susceptible to extinction (usually started by a disturbance)

Front 12

population viability analysis

Back 12

a population demographic model
finds the probability of population persistence under various scenarios

Front 13

captive breeding

Back 13

process of removing some or all individuals in populations to optimal conditions (zoo) to increase pop size

Front 14

surrogate species

Back 14

conservation strategy of protecting surrogate species because it also protects other species in imperiled habitat (overlaps) especially when info for some is unknown

Front 15

flagship species

Back 15

conservation strategy of charismatic organism that people will want to protect (panda)

Front 16

umbrella species

Back 16

conservation strategy of protecting species (usually predators) with large home ranges requiring substantial habitat therefore protecting other species with similar habitat

Front 17

focal species

Back 17

one of a group of species whose ecological requirements differ from other species therefore ensuring as many diff species as possible get protection

Front 18

biogeography

Back 18

study of variation in species composition and diversity among geographic locations

Front 19

regional scale

Back 19

geographic area where climate is roughly uniform and species dispersal is bound to that region

Front 20

local scale

Back 20

a community
particular biotic/abiotic habitats for species

Front 21

alpha diversity

Back 21

local scale species diversity

Front 22

gamma diversity

Back 22

regional scale
regional species pool (all species within a region)
tropics have higher gamma diversity

Front 23

beta diversity

Back 23

turnover of species at regional scale as species move between communities
connects local and regional scales

Front 24

landscape diversity

Back 24

topographic and environmental features of a region influences the relationship between levels of diversity

Front 25

continental drift

Back 25

plates of earth's crust move or drift through action of currents deep within molten rock mantle

Front 26

vicariance

Back 26

evolutionary separation of species due to a barrier (such as continental drift)

Front 27

vicariance

Back 27

evolutionary separation of species due to a barrier (such as continental drift)

Front 28

endemic species

Back 28

species that occur nowhere else on earth

Front 29

saturation point

Back 29

limit on diversity because of species interactions and physical conditions

Front 30

hot spots

Back 30

areas of high species richness according to longitudes (despite latitudes)

Front 31

3 reasons speciation and extinction rates are different at diff latitudes

Back 31

greater land mass, evolutionary history hypothesis, productivity hypothesis

Front 32

evolutionary history hypothesis

Back 32

tropics more climatically stable so have longer histories and longer time for evolution to occur
higher latitudes have larger disturbances (ice age)

Front 33

productivity hypothesis

Back 33

species diversity higher in tropics because productivity (energy) is higher

Front 34

species-area relationship

Back 34

species richness increases with increase in size of area samples

Front 35

theory of island biogeography

Back 35

island species richness depends on immigration and extinction
larger islands have lower extinction rates
islands closer to the mainland have higher immigration

Front 36

turnover

Back 36

replacement of species by another over time

Front 37

primary production

Back 37

chemical energy generated by autotrophs derived from light from sun and fixation of CO2 in photosynthesis and chemosynthesis
measured by carbon

Front 38

primary productivity

Back 38

rate of primary production

Front 39

GPP

Back 39

gross primary productivity
total amount of carbon fixed by autotrophs in an ecosystem

Front 40

LAI

Back 40

leaf area index
leaf area per unit of ground area
influences GPP
varies among biomes (higher in tropics low in tundra)

Front 41

NPP

Back 41

net primary production
ultimate source of energy for all organisms in an ecosystem
energy fixed by plants available for growth, defense, and reproduction, and energy available for consumption by herbivores and detrivores
NPP=GPP-plant respiration

Front 42

NEE

Back 42

Net ecosystem exchange
CO2 exchange through repiration
used to estimate NPP

Front 43

eddy covariance

Back 43

modeling to measure NPP
intensive measurements of CO2 and microclimate in and through plant communities
measures NEE including heterotrophic respiration

Front 44

remote sensing

Back 44

measures NPP
reflectance of specific solar wavelengths from aircraft or satellite

Front 45

autochthonous

Back 45

energy is produced within the ecosystem

Front 46

allochthonous

Back 46

energy comes from outside of the system

Front 47

dead zones

Back 47

large amounts of N (from agriculture) trigger blooms of NPP is estuaries followed by decomposition and consumption of oxygen (high fish/zooplankton mortality)

Front 48

secondary production

Back 48

energy derived from consumption of organic compounds that were produced by other organisms
heterotrophic production

Front 49

herbivores

Back 49

consume plant and algae

Front 50

carnivores

Back 50

consume other live animals

Front 51

detritivores

Back 51

consume dead organic matter (detritus)

Front 52

omnivores

Back 52

consume both plants and animals and sometime detritus

Front 53

net secondary production

Back 53

ingestion-respiration-egestion(urine and feces)
depends on 'quality' of heterotroph's food (digestibility and nutrient content) and physiology

Front 54

trophic levels

Back 54

feeding category based on the number of feeding steps by which it is separated from autotrophs

Front 55

detritus

Back 55

dead organic matter

Front 56

decomposition

Back 56

process of detritivores (bacteria and fungi) consume detritus

Front 57

trophic efficiency

Back 57

measure of transfer of energy between trophic levels
how much energy occurs at one level / energy at the level immediately below it

Front 58

consumption efficiency

Back 58

proportion of available energy that is consumed.

Front 59

assimilation efficiency

Back 59

proportion of ingested food that is assimilated

Front 60

production efficiency

Back 60

proportion of assimilated food that goes into new consumer biomass

Front 61

trophic cascade

Back 61

series of trophic interactions that result in change in species composition and indirect change in NPP

Front 62

bioaccumulation

Back 62

chemical compounds become more concentrated over organism's lifetime because they don't get metabolized or excreted

Front 63

biomagnification

Back 63

occurs when chemical concentrations increase in animals at higher trophic levels

Front 64

food webs

Back 64

diagrams that show E flow in ecosystems by showing connection between organisms and the food they consume

Front 65

interaction strength

Back 65

measure of the effect of one species population on the size of another species population

Front 66

indirect "trampoline" effect

Back 66

competition, facilitation
add to the net interaction among species

Front 67

nutrients

Back 67

specific chemical elements for metabolism and growth

Front 68

biogeochemistry

Back 68

study of physical, chemical, and biological factors that influence the movements and transformations of elements

Front 69

minerals

Back 69

solid substances with characteristic chemical properties

Front 70

rocks

Back 70

collection of different minerals

Front 71

mechanical weathering

Back 71

physical breakdown of rocks into smaller particles

Front 72

chemical weathering

Back 72

chemical breakdown of soil into nutrients and other elements

Front 73

soil

Back 73

mix of mineral particles, solid organic matter, water containing organic matter, minerals, gases, and organisms

Front 74

soil solution

Back 74

water containing organic matter, minerals, and gases

Front 75

sand

Back 75

coarse particles

Front 76

silt

Back 76

medium sized particles

Front 77

clay

Back 77

fine particles

Front 78

soil texture

Back 78

size of soil particles (sand, silt, clay)

Front 79

cation exchange capacity

Back 79

ability of a soil to hold and exchange cations, determined by the clay content of the soil

Front 80

water holding capacity

Back 80

how much water soil holds depending on its texture (clay impenetrable, sand water flows through)

Front 81

parent material

Back 81

rock or mineral material that was broken down by weathering to form a soil (bedrock, loess, till)

Front 82

bedrock

Back 82

underlying rock that is weathered into soil

Front 83

loess

Back 83

sediment from glaciers

Front 84

till

Back 84

sediment from wind

Front 85

horizons

Back 85

layers of soil distinguished by color, texture, and permeability.

Front 86

nitrogen fixation

Back 86

process of converting N2 into a biologically useful form

Front 87

nitrogenase

Back 87

enzyme that only occurs in certain bacteria that fixes nitrogen

Front 88

nodules

Back 88

special root structures that provide N-fixing bacteria with a habitat

Front 89

aerosols

Back 89

fine dust, suspended soil, liquid, and gaseous particles in atmosphere.

Front 90

atmospheric deposition

Back 90

when particulate matter falls to earth by gravity or with precipitation

Front 91

decomposition

Back 91

breakdown of complex organic matter from detritus by detritivores for energy and nutrient consumption

Front 92

litter

Back 92

undecomposed organic matter on soil surface

Front 93

fragmentation

Back 93

progressive breakup of detritus into smaller bits associated with consumption of litter by detritivores

Front 94

mineralization

Back 94

conversion of organic forms of nutrients to inorganic forms

Front 95

microbial immobilization

Back 95

uptake of nutrients following mineralization

Front 96

nitrification

Back 96

NH4+ converted to NO3- by chemoautotrophic bacteria
aerobic conditions (terrestrial)

Front 97

denitrification

Back 97

some bacteria use NO3- as an electron acceptor to convert it into N2 and N2O in anoxic conditions

Front 98

nutrient cycling

Back 98

movement of nutrients within ecosystems as they undergo biological, chemical, and physical transformations

Front 99

mean residence time

Back 99

aka turnover rate
amount of time a molecule of an element spends in a pool (plant or soil)

Front 100

occlusion

Back 100

soluble P combines with iron, calcium, or aluminum to form insoluble compounds that are unavailable as nutrients

Front 101

catchments

Back 101

aka watershed
terrestrial area that is drained by a single stream

Front 102

nutrient spiraling

Back 102

cyclic movement of nutrients between organisms and the physical environment

Front 103

oligotrophic

Back 103

nutrient poor lake
low primary productivity
(alpine lakes)

Front 104

Eutrophic

Back 104

nutrient rich lakes
high primary productivity

Front 105

mesotrophic

Back 105

lakes with intermediate nutrient levels

Front 106

eutrophication

Back 106

ecosystem changes from nutrient poor to nutrient rich
in lakes due to accumulation of sediments

Front 107

flux

Back 107

rate of movements of elements between pools

Front 108

pools

Back 108

where elements occur