Help
Options
Didn't know it?
click below
click below
Knew it?
click below
click below
Don't Know
Remaining cards (0)
Know
retry
shuffle
restart
0:00
Embed Code - If you would like this activity on your web page, copy the script below and paste it into your web page.
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Normal Size Small Size show me how
ecology final (4)
ecology final (4) questions
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What kind of soil N and soil P patterns do we see over successional time in Glacier Bay? What are some explanations for these patterns? | N: increased as biologically driven soil formation happened P: decreased as it was weathered from the parent material |
| Be able to effectively compare and contrast the three different models of succession proposed by Connel and Slayter (1977) | tolerance: initial stages not limited to pioneer species, does not facilitate later species inhibition: early colonizers make the land less suitable for future inhabitants facilitation: early species make the landscape better for later species |
| According to our text what sorts of model(s) of succession are most often seen in the real world? | |
| Where might an N-fixing plant fit into the facilitation model of succession? | it fixes nitrogen into the soil, making it easier for future plants to grow |
| Given Slide 16, is the Sycamore Creek ecosystem resilient? What are some potential reasons that this may be true? | yes, despite frequent disturbance and wipeouts, the ecosystem continues to bounce back repeatedly. |
| For the Glacier Bay, Piedmont Plateau, and Sycamore Creek ecosystems which appeared to have the quickest and slowest rates of succession? | Sycamore creek had the fastest and glacier bay had the slowest. The creek had only a few days, and the glacier had to come back from no soil. |
| How did Silvertown (1987) test the hypothesis that climax communities are stable? What did he find? How could you use the results from Doddet al. (1995) to criticize Silvertown? | It had been studied for 150 years and had seen that the final grass community was stable, Dodd says that the populations change frequently even though the communities are stable, so it depends on the size/resolution of study |
| What are examples of natural fractals? | ferns |
| What were the patterns of change at the Cadiz Township and the Veluwe region? What were the factors driving these changes? | increasing human interference and habitat fragmentation |
| What effects of habitat fragmentation on rodents were observed by Diffendorfer et. al. (1995)? | animals move further in fragmented landscapes |
| How does lake position in a landscape affect chemical responses to drought at the Experimental Lakes Area in Ontario Canada? | upper lake water levels dropped more than lower levels and concentrated ions increased for lower lakes |
| Provide characteristics of young and old soils from the Tucson Mountains | young: little clay and CaCO3, no B horizon old: more clay layers and hardpan CaCO3 |
| What are the relationships of patch size (area) and isolation to Glanville fritillary butterfly density? What are the consequences for intraspecific competition? | population sizes increased with patch area population density decreased as area increased |
| Provide three examples of humans acting as ecosystem engineers | building cities, building highways, cultivating farmland |
| Provide examples of three other organisms that act as ecosystem engineers | kangaroo rats dig burrows, beavers build dams, african elephants knock down trees |
| Compare the fire histories of Southern California and Baja California. What are some consequences of these patterns? | South Cali: more fire suppression, more biomass accumulation, bigger fires Baja: more frequent, smaller fires |
| Describe fundamental changes that have occurred at the Kissimmee River over the last 50 years. | refilling of the river, caused high O2 fish dominated, native vegetation returned |
| How do nutrients and energy differ in how they move through systems? | nutrients move from organism to organism with minimal loss and energy moves with loss |
| What are unique characteristics of the N, P and C cycles? | P: released via rock weathering N: must be fixed for use by plants C: moves between terrestrial and atmosphere through photosynthesis and respiration |
| hy are the nutrients C, N and P vital to organisms? | P: cell membranes, DNA, bones and teeth N: macromolecules, chlorophyll, hemoglobin C: organic building block |
| What are the major compartments, pathways, and rates of cycling for P, N, and C? Is the size of any of the compartments changing due to anthropogenic effects? | P: marine substrates,~10 million years, fertilization runoff N: atmospheric, from sky to earth, crop rotation, industrial n-fixation terrestrial n-compartment increasing |
| What happens to the pH of H2O when CO2 dissolves in H2O? | lowers, or becomes more acidic |
| What are the consequences of anthropogenic alteration of nutrient cycles in aquatic and terrestrial systems? | they either drastically increase or decrease, damaging the environments with imbalance |
| Name at least three major influences on decomposition rates. How does each of these affect decomposition rates? | temperature: warmer temps decompose faster moisture: wetter decomposes faster chemical properties of detritus: higher N means faster decomposition |
| Why are rates of nitrogen cycling important? | speed of fixation changes nutrient availability for plants |
| What is the relationship between C/N, lignin and rates of nutrient cycling? | lignin decomposes slower and N speeds up decomposition** |
| What are the nutrient retentive characteristics of Sycamore Creek Arizona? Why? How does this affect productivity? | macroinvertebrates decrease nutrient cycle time which increases primary productivity because there is more N available |
| What did McNaughton et al. (1988) identify as the relationship between grazing and nutrient cycling on the Serengeti? | positive, more grazing=more turnover |
| According to Likens and Borman (1970) what is a major effect of clearcut logging? | NO3 losses increase, P exports are sporadic |
| Compare the trophic cascade hypothesis to the keystone species hypothesis | trophic cascade: top down alteration of abundance, each species indirectly impacts the others keystone species: one species keeps the others from dominating |
| Name the two factors that most strongly affect the rates of primary productivity in terrestrial environments. | temperature, moisture |
| What are the most powerful controls of primary productivity in marine and freshwater environments? | nutrients and essential elements |
| What unusual factor did McNaughton find was a strong positive influence on primary productivity on the Serengeti? | ungulate grazing |
| Why did Bowman find that P was more limiting to productivity in wet alpine meadows than in dry meadows? | because P is more limiting in wet environments, including lakes. |
| How did a high abundance of piscivores decrease the primary productivity, and cause a trophic cascade, for a lake studied by Carpenter and Kitchell? | it ended up increasing phytoplankton consumers, lowering phytoplankton numbers and productivity |
| What did Lindeman (1942) claim TLTE was across trophic levels? | 10% |
| How does the ratio of organism 14N to 15N change as biomass moves up a food web? | math |
| Which photosynthetic pathway(s) tend to be poor in 13C? | organisms that eat C3 plants |
| What does the term δ13Ch mean? | idk math |
| Describe the indirect commensal interaction of beavers and Chrysomela confluens | leaves growing on beaver stumps had better nutrients for the bugs |
| To what did Paine (1966, 1971) attribute the increased diversity in Gulf of California compared to Mukkaw Bay? | higher predation pressure reducing excessively dominant prey |
| What is the relationship between predators and diversity according to Paine (1966, 1971)? What reason did he give? Use the word competition in your answer. | higher predation of excessively dominant species reduces competition for other prey, fostering diversity |
| Describe the experiment Paine conducted to test his hypothesis | he removed the top predator, which caused richness to decline |
| Describe Lubchenko’s experiment and the interactions between the unpalatable and preferred algal species | the unpalateable algae was less competitive than the palatable, so the snails helped maintain diversity in algae |
| Describe the Eel River food web. | ifsh fry eaten by top predator, reduces fish for roaches, increases midge production, increased feeding on algal populations by midges |
| Be able to distinguish a dominant species from a keystone species | dominant: most numerous keystone: most disproportionately impactful |
| Be able to describe how a cleaner wrasse (a non-consumer) acts as a keystone species | they remove parasites that kill species, improving richness |
| Describe how ant seed dispersers act as mutualistic a keystone in the fynbos, and how this is being affected by exotic ants | ants spread seeds in safe places, but exotic ants have displaced natives, resulting in lower seed spreading and reduction of population |
| What was Preston trying to demonstrate, with respect to abundance and richness, with the lognormal distribution | general patterns of commonness and rarity in species |
| Describe Jordan’s (1985) findings in the Amazon, use the word community type in your answer | the community types that happened had a large number of species and these species cause unique plant communities. |
| How did Sousa (1979) demonstrate the intermediate disturbance hypothesis? | the frequent disturbance of the boulders meant that only a resilient species could thrive, while an infrequently moved boulder only allowed a couple species to thrive |
| How do pocket gophers affect prairie diversity? | nutrient transport |
| Does the intermediate disturbance hypothesis hold for most systems? | no, there is no correlation for most species, only some |
| How does urbanization affect bird diversity, particularly native bird diversity | decreases at all levels of disturbance and homogenizes bird communities because of over disturbing them |
Created by:
user-2010958
Popular Ecology sets