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107 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Patterns
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The relationships between pieces or entities of the natural world.
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Theories
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The explanations of processes.
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Secondary Research
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The gathering of data or confirming of facts that are already known.
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Primary Research
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The gathering of information that no one has ever known before, or coming up with new, testable ideas about how nature works.
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Scientific Method
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A process for obtaining knowledge of the natural world, consisting of observations, descriptions, quantifications, posing hypotheses, testing those hypotheses using experiments, and verification, rejection, or revision of the hypotheses, followed by retesting of the new or modified hypotheses.
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Unified Theory
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A few general propositions that characterize a wide domain of phenomena and from whic can be derived an array of models.
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Hypothesis
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A possible explanation for a particular observation or set of observations. (Must be testable)
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Model (include use)
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Abstraction or simplification that expresses structures or relationships. Used to define patterns, summarize processes, and generate hypotheses.
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Experiment
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A test of an idea.
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Manipulative (controlled) Experimets
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Experiments in which a person manipulates the world in a certain way and looks for a pattern in the response.
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Who developed the idea of field experiments?
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R. A. Fisher
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Who developed the idea of controlled experiments that follow the scientific method?
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Francis Bacon
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Artifacts
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Outcomes caused by side effects of experimental manipulation.
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Natural Experiments
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Manipulations caused by some natural occurrence.
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Observational Experiments
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Systematic study of natural variation.
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Who codified the scientific method as a process of falsifying hypotheses and what are its limitations?
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Karl Popper
-Fails to recognize the accumulation of knowledge. -Fails to account for 2nd type of question asked in ecology: how much and in what ways? |
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Habitat
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Kind of environment a population or species generally inhabits. Includes biotic and abiotic factors.
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Microhabitat
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Immediate surroundings of an individual plant.
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Who coined the term "oecology"?
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Ernst Haeckel
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Who is generally considered to be the founder of the filed of plant ecology and created the idea of plant communities?
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Eugenius Warming
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Synecology
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Archaic term for community ecology.
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Autecology
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Archaic term for the study of individual plant species.
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Plant population ecology became a subfield of ecology after who's studies?
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John Harper
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Phenotypic Plasticity
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The ability of an individual to change its phenotype in response to changing conditions.
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Acclimate
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The act of adjusting to reversible conditions.
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Water potential.
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The difference in potential energy between pure water and the water in some system.
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What are the four major components of water potential?
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-Osmotic potential
-Pressure potential -Matric potential -Gravitational potential |
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Osmotic Potential
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Component of water potential that is due to solutes dissolved in the water.
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Pressure Potential
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The function of hydrostatic or pneumatic pressure in the system.
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Matric potential
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Result of cohesive force that binds water to physical objects.
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Gravitational Potential
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Results from the pull of gravity on water.
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Vapor Pressure Deficit
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Difference between water vapor in the leaf and the air.
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Strategies
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Evolutionary solutions.
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Mesophytes
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Plants that live in moderately moist soils and generally experience only an occasional, mild shortage of available water. When soil becomes drier, they close their stomata and wait for conditions to improve. Common in temperate parts of world.
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Mesic Habitat
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Moist Habitat
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Hygrophytes
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Found in permanently moist soils.
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Xerophytes
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Plants that live in regions with frequent or extended droughts.
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Who conducted some of the first studies on seasonal water relations of desert plants?
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Edith Shreve
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Halophytes
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Plants that live in saline soils.
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Water use efficiency
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Ratio of gain of carbon in photosynthesis to loss of water in photosynthesis.
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Why is the loss of H2O greater than the gain of CO2?
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-H2O gradient about steeper than CO2 gradient
-H2O smaller molecule -CO2 must dissolve upon entering |
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Which plants (C3 or C4) have greater water use efficiency and why?
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C4, better at carbon capture
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Which type of plants have highest water use efficiency and why?
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CAM plants, open stomata at night (when cooler) and efficient carbon capture.
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Characteristics of desert plants (5)
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-Seeds germinate only after prolonged rains.
-Plants photosynthesize rapidly -High rates of transpiration -Grow rapidly -Set seed and die at end of rainy season. |
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What strategy do desert plants use to cope with low levels of water throughout much of the year?
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Drought avoidance
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What is the strategy of drought-deciduous plants?
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Lost all or most of leaves during drought season.
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Xeric Environments
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Dry Environments
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Phreatophytes
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Plants that have roots that extend so deeply into the soil that they reach the water table, gaining relatively permanent access to water.
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Root-to-Shoot Ratio
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Ratio of dry mass invested in roots to mass of above-ground tissue.
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Succulents
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Plants that have the capacity to store large amounts of water in their tissues.
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What is one reason for the boundary between broad-leaved and pine-leaves species in northern temperate zones?
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The inability to take up water from frozen ground and thus the high water loss rate from transpiration.
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Guard Cells
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Control the width of stomata and whether they are open or closed.
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What 3 factors affect guard cell behavior?
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-Light
-CO2 concentration -Water availability |
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Amphistomatous
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Have stomata on both sides of leaf.
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Isobilateral
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Have a distinctive, symmetrical internal leaf architecture w/palisade mesophyll tissue on both upper and lower sides of the leaf.
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Sclerophyllous
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Tough and leathery
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Aerenchyma
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Aerated tissues.
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Xylem
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Tissue that carries water through vascular plants.
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Tracheids
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Cells through which water diffuses.
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Xylem Vessel Element
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Cells through which water moves.
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Cavitation
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Breakage of the water column in the xylem capillaries.
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Radiant Energy
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The energy transfered from one object to another by photons.
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Emissivity
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A measure of how efficient a body is at emitting energy.
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Sensible Heat Exchange
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Energy exchange that results in a change in temperature.
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Conduction
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The direct transfer of heat energy from the molecules of warmer object to the molecules of a cooler one.
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Convection
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Heat transport by a volume of liquid moving as a unit.
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Boundary Layer
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Blanket of relatively still air surrounding leaves.
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Characteristic Dimension
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Measurement of a leaf that takes into account both its size and shape and represents its effective width w/respect to fluxes of energy and mass entering and leaving the leaf. Directly proportional to the boundary layer resistance of the leaf.
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Latent Heat Exchange
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Transfer of energy that occurs during evaporation--Process of converting water from a liquid to a gaseous state.
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Activity Limit
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The range of temperatures at which a plant can function normally.
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Lethal Limit
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The range of temperatures at which a plant can remain alive.
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Cold Air Drainage
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The sinking of cold air masses to low-lying spots due to the greater density of cooler air.
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Functional Ecology
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Concerned with how the biochemistry and physiology of individual plants determine their responses to their environments within the structural context of their anatomy and morphology.
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Physiological Ecology
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Focuses on physiological mechanisms underlying whole-plant responses to the environment.
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Photosynthesis
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The set of biochemical processes by which plants acquire energy from sunlight and fix carbon from the atmosphere.
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Light Reactions
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The capture of energy.
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Carbon Fixation
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The formation of carbohydrates.
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Cellular Respiration
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Process by which organic compounds are broken down to release energy.
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Light Compensation Point
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Point at which photosynthetic gains exactly match respiratory losses. (Net CO2 exchange is zero)
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Mesophyll
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Photosynthetic tissue between the upper and lower epidermis of a leaf.
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Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density
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The amount of usable light energy impinging on a leaf per unit time.
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Leaf Conductance
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The rate at which CO2 flows into the leaf at a given concentration difference between ambient and intercellular CO2.
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Flux Equation
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Used to model flow rates.
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Assimilation Rate
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Rate at which CO2 is taken up by the leaf.
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Light Saturation
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The light level at which the maximum photosynthetic rate is reached.
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Nitrogen Use Efficiency
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Maximum photosynthetic rate per gram of nitrogen in the leaf.
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Forbs
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Broad-leaved herbaceous plants.
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Specific Leaf Mass
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Leaf mass per leaf area.
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Photosynthetic Induction
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The necessary start-up time for plants to reach maximum photosynthesis after exposure to bright light.
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Ecotypes
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Genetically distinct populations w/in a single species, adapted to local conditions.
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Cation Exchange Capacity
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Measure of the total ability of the soil colloids to adsorb cations.
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Percentage Base Saturation
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Proportion of the cation exchange capacity that is occupied by exchangeable bases.
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Horizons
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Characteristic layers in the soil.
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O Horizons
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Consist of organic material formed above the mineral soil.(detritus and litter)
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A Horizons
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Surface layer of mineral soil.
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Eluviation
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Leaching
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B Horizons
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Represent the region of maximum illuviation. (Clays, irons, aluminum oxides)
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Illuviation
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Deposition of minerals and colloidal particles leached from elsewhere.
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C Horizon
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Undeveloped mineral material deep in the soil.
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Order of soil horizons from top to bottom:
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O, A, B, C
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Parent Material
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Upper layers of the heterogeneous mass that is left over after the action of weather and other forces on rocks.
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Igneous
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Of volcanic origin.
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Sedimentary
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From deposition and recementation of material derived from other rocks.
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Metamorphic
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Changed by the action of great pressures and temperatures on igneous or sedimentary rocks deep underground.
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Loess
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Glacial till and outwash
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Aeolian
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Wind
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Alluvial
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River and stream
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