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ecology exam 2
questions
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Distinguish "habitat" and "niche" | habitat: place where a species lives niche: species contribution |
| Distinguish realized "niche" and "fundamental niche" | realized niche: actual space a population can live fundamental niche: the theoretical space a population could live |
| How does leaf pubescence coincide with the spatial distribution of species in Encelia? What gradient(s) were the species distributed across? | no pubescence: cool coastal climates slight pubescence: warmer, drier conditions high pubescence: desert conditions |
| What are the ecological reasons for regular, random, and clumped distributions? | regular: intraspecies competition, drive away other organisms random: uniform distribution of resources, organisms could live anywhere clumped: clumped distribution of resources, intraspecies cooperation |
| How does creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) move from clumped to random to regular distributions? | as the bush matures, it kills the other bushes nearby until they are spaced regularly |
| What were the distributions of aggressive and non-aggressive bees in a tropical dry forest in Costa Rica described by Hubbell and Johnson (1977)? | aggressive bees were regular, non aggressive was random |
| How are populations distributed at large scales? | clumped |
| Describe Whittaker’s research on North American tree distribution. What gradient did he use? What did he find? | used a moisture gradient, species were clumped with increasing densities near edges |
| Darwin proposed that sexual selection will continue until what happens? | until balanced by other sources of natural selection |
| Distinguish the biological concepts: male and female | male: smaller, less costly gametes, reproduction limited by mate access female: larger more energetically costly gametes, reproduction limited by resource access |
| What are potential effects of “moose moaning? | inciting male fighting and protesting courting advances |
| How do male scorpionflies demonstrate inter and intrasexual selection? | inter: females choose males with larger corpses intra: males compete with each other to get the biggest corpses |
| With respect to the previous concept, how did Endler (1995) demonstrate this with guppies? | inter: females choose guppy with brightest colors intra: the males balance between bright female attraction and bright predator attraction |
| What are two characteristics of eusociality? | cooperative brood care overlapping generations strict castes |
| Kin selection predicts that cooperative breeding should only exist if individuals in the non-breeding caste were closely related. How is this insured with eusocial Hymenoptera species and African naked voles? | there is only one breeding female (queen) and the males are all haploid |
| How is kin selection demonstrated with African lions? | the females are all closely related and help take care of all cubs, while males are not related |
| What wavelengths of light, shorter or longer, have higher energy? | shorter |
| What occurs during the light reactions? | photons transferred into chlorophyll and splits H2O making O2, triggering electron transport chains |
| What occurs during the carbon fixation reactions? | ATP and NADPH used to capture CO2, converted into sugars with calvin benson cycle |
| Compare C3, C4 and CAM photosynthesis. Which photosynthetic pathway is the most efficient in terms of water loss? Which path is the most efficient in low light intensities? What are some example species from each? | CAM: most water efficient, cacti C3: most light efficient, cool climate plants and algae C4: corn, sorgum, sugar cane |
| Why do scientists think that the C3 pathway is a holdover from when atmospheric CO2 concentrations were higher? | it uses a lot of CO2 |
| What are some distinct energy and nutrient acquisition problems faced by herbivores, detritivores and carnivores? | herbivores: plants don't have much energy or nutrient content carnivores: have to use a lot of energy for their food detritivores: |
| Be able to recognize (and draw) the three functional response curves | whiteboard (chapter 7) |
| When does optimal foraging theory predict that a predator will include a second prey item in its diet? | because it will make the energy lost to energy gained ratio become smaller |
| Why is relative humidity important to evaporatively cooling individuals? | higher humidity will make it difficult for an individual to cool themselves |
| Low relative humidity is probably equivalent to what kind of water vapor deficit? Would these conditions be beneficial or problematic for an organism that needed to evaporatively cool? | beneficial |
| What are three factors that contribute to plant water potential? Describe how these factors actually affect the water potential of a giant sequoia and allow it to get water to its highest branches | solute: reduction matric: reduction by cohesion and adhesion to capillary walls Pressure: reduction by pull on water column |
| What are the major pathways used by plants and animals to acquire water? | drinking |
| By which major pathways do plants and animals lose water? | evaporation/sweating and transpiration |
| How do Artemisia frigida and Digitaria adscendens acclimate to drought? | larger root systems |
| Be able to list 3 water conserving strategies/adaptations used by plants and animals | waterproof outer layers, large root systems, times stomatal openings |
| How are camels like saguaros with respect to water conservation strategies? Give me four similarities | storing water, intake massive amounts, reduce sun profile, protective layers from sun |
| Why do cicadas and scorpions have unique water conservation strategies? | Scorpions: low metabolic rates and active at night Cicadas: high metabolic rate and daytime activity |
| What are the problems faced by hypoosmotic organisms in marine environments? | keeping their insides different solute levels than the outside environment |
| Which marine animals are isosmotic, hypoosmotic and hyperosmotic? | iso: arthropods and mollusks Hyper: sharks hypo: marine bony fish |
| What issues are faced by hypoosmotic and hyperosmotic aquatic organisms? | hypo: must intake a lot of water and excrete solute hyper: must keep the water out and intake a lot of solute |
| What occurs when δDo/oo > 0? | heavier isotope is enriched |
| Understand the importance of microclimatic characteristics such as elevation, slope, and substrate color | changes the physical characteristics of the organisms that live there |
| Why are mountainous (high altitude) areas colder? After all they are closer to the sun. | thinner atmosphere |
| Give three reasons (physical laws) why water has a stabilizing effect on climate | high specific heat: stays relatively stable in temperature high enthalpy of vaporization: pulls energy from its system when it evaporates and cools it high enthalpy of fusion: gives large energy amounts when freezing (warms the environment) |
| Where are temperature fluctuations greatest, at the soil surface, below the surface, or above the surface | at the soil surface |
| Why is the latent heat of evaporation important for evaporative coolers like you and me? | otherwise we would overheat and die |
| What are the most important components of the heat balance equation for plants, and endothermic and ectothermic animals. | thermal neutral zone and homeothermy |
| At a molecular/enzymatic level why is temperature important? | low temps = low reaction rates, high temps destroy shape |
| Describe some unique hot/cold adaptive strategies for hummingbirds, rainbow trout and grasshoppers | torpor at night, two different enzyme forms, differing pigmentations |
| How do desert plants reduce heat storage? | reflective leaves, high heat loss to wind, orient leaves parallel to sunlight |
| How alpine plants stay warm? | dark pigmentation, compact growth, ground-hugging growth, leaves perpendicular to sunlight |
| Which species have the widest thermal neutral zones? | arctic species |
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