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Ecology
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Ecology | The study of organisms and how they interact with their environment including biotic and abiotic factors. |
| Ecology can be divided into 6 levels of greater inclusiveness: | Organism, population, community, ecosystem, biome, biosphere |
| The abiotic component of environment consists of nonliving physical and chemical factors including: | Temperature, water, light availability, wind, substrate, pH, periodic disturbances |
| Biotic factors | Pertain to living organisms in the environment. |
| Abiotic factors | Physical factors like temperature and light availability. |
| Why is light availability so important? | If light is 1 meter below the surface, 45% of red light (used for photosynthesis) is lost. 3% of blue light is lost. |
| Why is wind important? | Increased wind speed equals greater transpiration. |
| Organismal | Behavior, physiology, and appearance of organisms in their environment. |
| Population | All members of one species in a given area. |
| Community | The interaction of different species in a given area. |
| Ecosystem | Community plus abiotic factors. |
| Biomes | Major ecosystems classified according to prevalent vegetation. |
| Biosphere | The sum of the planet's communities and ecosystems. |
| Species | A group of potentially interbreeding organisms that may or may not live in the same area. |
| Biome are correlated to ___ and ___. | Latitude, climate |
| Name 9 biomes. | Polar and high mountain ice, tundra, taiga, temperate deciduous forests, tropical forests, desert, grassland, savannah, chaparral |
| Climate | Composed of abiotic factors; temperature, precipitation, and wind. |
| Latitude | A measure of distance north or south of the equator that is expressed in degrees. |
| Antarctica is located where? | South Pole |
| Tundra | Vast treeless plains of the arctic region. Extremely cold temperatures and permafrost. |
| What are the predominant vegetation of Tundra? | Shrubby plants with shallow root systems. |
| What are some mammals found in the Tundra biome? | Caribou, musk oxen, arctic hares, wolves, arctic foxes, and occasionally grizzly or polar bears. |
| Taiga | Occurs in the mountains of the Northern Hemisphere. Receives heavy snowfall during winter. Coniferous forests. |
| What are some examples of animals living in the Taiga biome? | Squirrels, beavers, deer, moose, lynxes, bears, chipmunks, snowshoe hares, and numerous species of birds. |
| Temperate deciduous forest | Soils are rich in microbiota. |
| What are some examples of animals in the temperate deciduous forest? | White-tailed deer, black bear, snakes, frogs, and salamanders. |
| Tropical forests | Comprise of the most species-rich of the land biomes. They comprise less than 2% of the earth's surface yet are home to nearly half of its species. |
| What attributes to the unusually high number of species to the climate? | There are 2 seasons-- wet and dry. High amounts of rainfall contribute to the diversity and there is vertical stratification that increases the niches available to the fauna. |
| ___ is a limiting factor in deserts. | Water |
| A desert receives less than ___ centimeters of rain annually. | 30 |
| The ___ of central N. America, Russia, and parts of Africa are climatic zones in between forest and desert where fire and grazing animals prevent the spread of trees. | Grasslands |
| Savannas | Tropical grasslands that have patches of thorny trees. Receive most of their rainfall during the wet season. |
| The open ocean accounts for ___ of the earth's surface and is believed to contain ___ of the world's net productivity. | 75%, 41.5% |
| Two types of aquatic biomes are: | Freshwater biomes (less that 1% salt), marine biomes (approx. 3% salt) |
| Freshwater biomes include: | Ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, and wetlands |
| Marine biomes include: | Estuaries, intertidal zones, coral reefs, oceanic pelagic zones, and benthic zones |
| Biomes of the open ocean are called ___. | Oceanic pelagic |
| Areas where habitats overlap are called ___. | Ecotones |
| The organisms that live in freshwater biomes are adapted for ___ in a ___ environment. | Osmoregulation, low-salt |
| Organisms that live in a marine biome are adapted for ___ in a ___ environment. | Osmoregulation, high-salt |
| Oligotrophic lake | Deep and nutrient-poor, and the phytoplankton are relatively unproductive. |
| Eutrophic lake | Shallow and nutrient-rich, resulting in productive phytoplankton. |
| Swamps are characterized by ___ (plants that grow only in water). | Hydrophytes |
| Estuaries | Where salt and fresh water mingle. |
| The organisms that live in estuaries are resistant to ___. | Osmotic pressure |
| Intertidal zone | Area where land meets ocean. |
| Coral reefs | Found in warm tropical waters in the neritic zone. Ocean current renew supply of nutrients to the reefs and light permits photosynthesis. |
| Nutrient concentrations in the coral reefs are ___. | Low |
| Phytoplankton are most productive in: | The photic zone |
| Population ecology | The behaviors of individuals and entire populations. |
| Birth and life-history strategies have evolved low ___/___ ratios. | Cost, benefit |
| Hypothetical populations with unlimited resources display ___. | Exponential population growth |
| Birth strategy | The number of timing of offspring production. |
| Life-history strategy | The characteristics of an organism that pertain to their schedule of growth, reproduction, and death. |
| Exponential growth | The growth trajectory of a population with unlimited resources. |
| Logistic growth model | Charts a population undergoing limited size increase. |
| Carrying capacity | (K) The maximum population size supported by the available resources. |
| Inflection point | The point on a logistic curve at which the rate of change of the slope of the curve begins to decline. |
| K-selected | High-density populations that have adaptations that enable them to survive and reproduce with few resources. |
| r-selected | Low-density populations that have adaptations for allowing rapid reproduction. |
| Density-dependent | Include resources such as food or nesting sites. The magnitude of the effects of these factors depends on the population size. |
| Intraspecific competition | Competition occurring within a species. |
| Community ecology | Examines interactions between populations and their environments. |
| Predators include: | Parasites and parasitoids |
| Adaptations from predation: | Camouflage, aposematic coloration, mimicry |
| Three different levels of focus: | Individual, population, community |
| Interspecific competition | Competition between different species. |
| Two examples of evolution: | Small mammals/birds, edible fruit of plants/mammals |
| Parasitoids | Generally insects that lay eggs on living hosts; larvae feed on and kill host. |
| Aposematic | Warning coloration |
| ___ mimicry is when one species imitates another harmful species in colorations and ___ mimicry is when two unpalatable aposematically colored species resemble each other. | Batesian, Mullerian |
| +/- Interaction | When one individual benefits and other is harmed. |
| Competitive exclusion is considered a ___ interaction because the species are negatively affected. | -/- |
| Competitive exclusion | Describes the elimination of one species by another. |
| Gause, G.F. | A soviet biologist who demonstrated that competitive exclusion could occur through his studies involving species of Paramecium. |
| Joseph H. Connel | A marine biologist who studied the competitive interactions of barnacle species in the intertidal zone. |
| Character displacement | The occurrence of characteristics that are more divergent in co-occurring populations that in geographically separated populations. |
| Four types of interspecific interaction: | Predation, competitive exclusion, mutualism, commensalism |
| Mutualism | An association between two or more species that benefits the organism. |
| Commensalism | One species benefits and the other is unaffected. |
| Primary producers | Form the base of the tropic structure of organisms. An autotrophic organism that uses light to synthesize new organic material from carbon dioxide. |
| Trophic levels | Feeding levels used to categorize organisms according to their source of nutrition. |
| Food web | Presents a more accurate representation of trophic interaction than the food chain. |
| Ecosystem | The biological community in an area and the physical environment with which it interacts. |
| Two major ecosystem-level processes: | Flow of energy, cycle of materials |
| Cycle of materials | The amount of materials on the planet is finite. These materials are constantly being recycled by organisms. |
| The movement of energy through an ecosystem is ___, and the movement of matter through an ecosystem is ___. | Unidirectional, cyclic |
| Detritivores | Obtain energy from nonliving things. |
| Primary productivity | A measure of the incorporation of energy (usually solar) into bodies of organisms. |
| The transfer of energy from trophic level to trophic level is ___. | 10% |
| Gross primary productivity | The total energy captured in an ecosystem. |
| Net primary productivity | GPP - respiration rate. The more efficient a plant is at conserving energy, the greater its net primary productivity. |
| Biomass | The quantitative estimate of the total amount of living material. |
| The ___ has the greatest total productivity. The ___ have the highest productivity-to-area ratio. | Open ocean, rain forests |
| Biome | A geographical region characterized by a distinctive landscape and community. |
| Carbon cycle | Carbon dioxide is converted to glucose by photosynthesis, and glucose is converted to carbon dioxide by respiration. |
| Hydrologic cycle | The sun's energy drives water evaporation. The water then condenses to form precipitation. |
| Sulfur cycle | Volcanoes and factories emit sulfur oxides. Sulfur oxides are incorporated into vegetation, which decomposes, thereby completing the cycle. |
| What are the 6 fundamental elements used by living organisms? | SPONCH; Sulfur, phosphorus, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen |
| Plant transpiration | The evaporation of water by plants through leaves. |
| Explain the role of sulfur oxides in trees and other photosynthetic organisms. | Trees and other photosynthetic organisms absorb sulfur oxides and incorporate them into organic matter. Dead organic matter may be converted to sulfates by bacteria. |
| Explain the role of sulfur oxides by burning of fossil fuels. | Burning of fossil fuels releases large amounts of sulfur oxides into the atmosphere, resulting in acid rain. |
| Explain the role of sulfur oxides in the ocean. | Certain kinds of algae contain large concentrations of sulfur. When the algae decompose, they release sulfur compounds that may be available for absorption by terrestrial plants. |
| What illustrates the carbon cycle in its simplest form? | Carbon dioxide combines with water to form sugar and oxygen. |
| Phosphorus cycle | Inorganic phosphorus enters ecosystems from the weathering of rocks. Plants take it up and convert it to an organic form. |
| Nitrogen cycle | Nitrogen fixing bacteria convert N2 into ammonium (NH4+), which plants use. |
| What percent of the earth's atmosphere is nitrogen? | 75% |
| This nitrogen-fixing bacteria of the genus ___ live as symbionts in nodules on the roots of legumes. | Rhizobium |
| Nitrifying bacteria | Convert ammonium into nitrites (NO2-) and nitrates (NO3-). |
| Denitrifying bacteria | Convert nitrates into atmospheric N2. |
| Eutrophication | The nutrient enrichment of a lake or a stream that causes a change in the lake's community. |
| Given an example of eutrophication and explain. | Lake Erie. Phosphate-rich detergents killed the algae and the detritivores deplete the oxygen supply further. |
| Give an example of contamination of food chains. | Chemical DDT |
| Give some examples of negative human impact. | Ozone depletion, acid rain, greenhouse effect |
| DDT | Fat-soluble pesticide used for controlling insect populations after WWII. This has a low rate of biological breakdown and can remain in the environment long after it is sprayed. Because it is fat-soluble, it accumulates in the fatty tissues of organisms. |
| Biological magnification | Describes the process in which substances become concentrated with each higher trophic level. |
| Ozone layer | Atmospheric layer within the stratosphere and contains O3, an unstable form of oxygen. |
| Explain CFC impact to the ozone layer. | CFCs present in aerosol deodorant and other substances release chlorine ions that react with ozone, breaking down to oxygen. |
| Acid rain | Occurs when sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides react with water in the air to form strong acids. |
| What impact does acid rain have on aquatic ecosystems? | Negative. It raises the pH and can kill life. |
| Greenhouse effect | The warming of Earth due to the trapping of heat by gases in the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, and methane. |
| Species diversity | Number of species in a community. |
| The two species-rich ecosystems that are affected by the current mass extinction are: | Tropical rainforests and the coral reef |
| Autotrophs | Organisms that rely on other organisms to obtain food. |
| Two primary causes of destruction of tropical rainforests are: | The use of tropical wood for construction and eating S. American beef from cattle raised in the tropics. |
| Approximately ___ of all marine species live on coral reefs. ___ of the reefs have been effectively lost. | 24%, 27% |
| Zooxanthellae | Mutualistic symbionts in the dermal tissue of many corals. Coral bleaching is when the coral expels its zooxanthellae when water temperature increases one or two degrees. |
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