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98 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is Ecology?
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The study of interactions between organisms and the invironment
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Name two factors that influence the structure and dynamics of biomes.
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Abiotic and Biotic
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Name the specializations or subfields within ecology.
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Organismal, Population, Community, Ecosystem, and Landscape,
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Who is credited with starting the modern environmental movement?
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Rachel Carson
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What is the precautionary principle?
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Humans need to be concerned with how their actions affect the environment.
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What is the biogeographical realm of northern america?
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Nearctic
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Name 6 biogeographic realms.
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Nearctic, neotropical, Ethopian, Palearctic, Oriental, Australian
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What is dispersal?
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The movement of individuals away from centers of high population density or from areas of origin.
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What is a factor of dispersal?
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Natural expansions
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What are some limits of species biotic distribution?
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Habitat selection, Interspecies interactions, predation, competition.
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Name some abiotic factors that may affect the distribution of organisms.
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Temperature, Water, Sunlight, Wind, Rocks and Soil.
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What are four basic components that make up climate?
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Temperature, water, sunlight, and wind.
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Define Macroclimate
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Patterns on a global, regional, and local level.
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Define Microclimate
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very fine patterns such as those encountered by the community of organisms underneath a fallen log.
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Tropics are located in relation to what air fluctuation?
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Rising Air
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What is a biome?
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Major type of ecological association that occupy broad geographic regions of land or water.
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List 6 major biomes.
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Arctic, Coniferous forest, temperate broadleaf forest, tropical forest, temperate grassland, and desert.
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Name the biome that has the hottest temperature and the most rainfall.
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Tropical forest.
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Name the biome that has the least amount of rainfall, and high temperatures.
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Desert.
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Name the biome that has very cold temperatures and little to some rainfall.
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Arctic
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What percent of the earth surface is covered by oceans?
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75%
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Name some aquatic biomes of freshwater.
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Littoral Zone, Limnetic Zone, Photic Zone, Benthic Zone, and Aphotic Zone.
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Name some marine biomes.
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Neritic Zone, Oceanic Zone, Photic and Aphotic zones, benthic zone, and continental shelf.
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What is a lotic system?
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A system of running water.
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Name two types of streams.
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Low land streams and headwater streams.
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What is population ecology?
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The study of populations in relation to the environment.
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What are some factors that have environmental influences?
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Fire, Logging, Society.
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What is a population?
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A group of individuals of a single species living in the same general area.
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What is density?
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Number of individuals per unit area.
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What factors could affect density?
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Immigration, Emigration, Births, Deaths.
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What is dispersion?
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The distribution of individuals in an area that the population occupies
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Name some methods of population sampling.
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Plot, Proxy, Trapping, and Direct Observation.
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What is demography?
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The study of the vital statistics of a population and how they change over time.
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What is a life-table?
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An age specific summary of the survival pattern of a population.
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What is a cohort?
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A group of individuals of the same age.
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What is a survivorship curve?
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A plot of the proportion or numbers in a cohort still alive at each age.
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What are three major types of survivorship curves?
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I - high survival rate at birth, live for a long time then die off.
II- die at a constant rate since birth. III - low survivalship rate at birth. |
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What is a reproductive table?
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An age-specific summary of the reproductive rates in a population.
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What is the focus of the reproductive table?
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Females.
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What is a life history?
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A series of events from birth through reproduction and death.
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Name two major life histories.
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Semelparity and Iteroparity.
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What is semelparity?
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An all or nothing reproduction.
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What is iteroparity?
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A repeated reproduction.
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What is a populations growth rate?
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The Birth rate - Death rate
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what does N stand for?
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Population size
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What is the percapita rate of increase?
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birthrate - deathrate
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What is a J shaped curve indicitive of (in terms of populations)
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An exponential growth, either in recovering populations, or invasive populations.
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What is the logistic model for population?
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Model for populations that includes the carrying capacity of a population.
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What is K?
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The carrying capacity, or the maximum population that an environment can support.
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What is the allee effect?
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When populations become too small to sustain themselves.
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What two factors could have a stablizing effect on a population?
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Immigration and emigration.
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What is a metapopulation?
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Linked population groups through emigration/immigration.
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What is the estimated carrying capacity of the earth?
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10 to 15 billion.
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What is community ecology?
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Study of ecological communities which is an assemblage of populations of various species living close enough for potential interaction.
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Define interspecific interaction.
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Interactions with other organisms in a community.
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Define the interaction that occurs when species compete for a resource that is in short supply.
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Competition
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What is competitive exclusion?
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When competition leads to the exclusion of one species.
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What is aposematic coloration?
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It is the coloration to warn of danger.
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What is cryptic coloration?
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Camouflage
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What is batesian mimicry?
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When the coloration or figure mimics another dangerous figure.
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What is mullerian mimicry?
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When two dangerous species mimic eachother.
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What is an endoparasite
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A parasite that lives on the inside.
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What is an ectoparasite?
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A parasite that lives on the outside.
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What is commensalism?
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One organism benefits, but the other does not.
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What is diversity?
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A measurement of the different kinds of organisms that make up a community.
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What is species richness?
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The number of different species in a community.
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What species abundance?
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The proportion that each species represents of the total community.
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What is a dominant species?
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The most abundant or largest biomass.
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What is the foundation species?
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Ecosystem engineers, activity physically changes the community structure.
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What is disturbance?
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An event that changes a community, removes organisms, and alters resource availability.
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Name two disturbances that could happen to a community.
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Fire, or Flood.
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Name three factors that define disturbance.
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Frequency, Magnitude, and Distribution.
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What is succession?
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The sequence of community and ecosystem changes after a disturbance.
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What is primary succession?
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Starts without soil.
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What is secondary succession?
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After an existing community is removed by disturbance.
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A larger island will have a greater or a lesser species diversity?
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A larger diversity.
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What is the integrated hypothesis?
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Communities are closely linked species that are locked into association.
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What is the individualistic hypothesis?
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Plant communities happened as a change assemblage of species.
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What does a rivet model suggest about species in a community?
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That they are all linked together in a tight web.
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What does the redundancy model of communities suggest about species in a community?
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That if one species were to become lost, another would fill in its niche.
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What are the emphases of ecosystem ecology?
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The energy flow and chemical cycling.
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What two factors limit primary production in ecosystems?
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Chemical and Physical
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How efficient is energy transfer between tropic levels?
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Less than 20%
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What is the first law of thermodynamics?
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That energy can be changed or transferred, but cannot be created nor destroyed.
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What is the second law of thermodynamics?
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That when energy is exchanged if no energy enters or leaves system, the potential energy of the state will always be less than the initial.
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What is detritus?
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Non-living organic material
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What is GPP?
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Gross Primary Production, or total of primary production in ecosystem.
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What is NPP?
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Net Primary Production, or the GPP minus the energy used for respiration.
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What is Actual Evapotranspiration?
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The amount of water annually transpired by plants and evaporated from a landscape.
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What is production efficiency?
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The fraction of energy stored in food not used for respiration.
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What is the exception to the pyramid rule of tropic levels?
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The exception is in certain aquatic systems where biomass of primary consumers is greater than producers due to rapid turnover time.
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What is the green world hypothesis?
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That terrestrial herbivores consume relatively little plant biomass because they are held in check.
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What are some factors that are checking herbivores?
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Plant defenses, nutrient limitations, abiotic factors, intraspecific competition, interspecific competition, seasonal limitations.
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What is an organic nutrient?
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Material associated with biomass and detritus.
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What is inorganic nutrient?
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Material dissolved in water, soil, or air not associated with biomass or detritus.
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What are the four important cycles in global ecosystems?
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Carbon, Oxygen, Sulfur, and nitrogen.
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What is the major cause of acid rain?
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The combustion of fossil fuels and their release of sulfur and nitrogen into the atmosphere.
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What is biomagnification?
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The concetration of certain toxins in successive levels of a food web.
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