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General Ecology
Material for Exam III
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| The interaction of 2 or more species that share a resource could result in... | Competition or Mutualism |
| When the need for demand exceeds supply, what results? | Competition |
| Competitive Exclusion | Competition strong enough to eliminate one species |
| Competitive Replacement | When a new competitior is added to a habitat resulting in the replacement of the species that was eliminated in competitive exclusion |
| Why do many introductions of new species into a habitiat fail? | Because the introduced species is not really adapted well to the new environment |
| Who can adapt more easily: Generalists or Specialists? | Generalists; This may dirsupt the system because the system has not evolved with the new species so an equilibrium can not be reached with it included. |
| Competitive displacement | Generally used as a means to avoid competition; When one species excludes another from a habitat; Aggressive or passive displacement |
| Coexistence | Can occur when the effects of crowding are more severe intraspecifically than interspecifically |
| Mathematical approach to interspecific competition | Alpha and beta are competition coefficients which symbolize the impact of competition and numbers of the competitor (N1 or N2) on population growth of the species of interest |
| Intraspecific competition | K-N/K |
| Interspecific effects | adding alpha N2 or beta N1 |
| 1/K1 | inhibitory effect of another individual of species 1 on its population |
| 1/k2 | inhibitory effect of species 2 on itself |
| Amensalism | One species harmed, one unaffected, generally as by-product of activities of one species |
| Allelopathy | Primarily plant interaction; plants produce some chemical that inhibits others |
| Mutualism | Both species benefit |
| Symbiosis | Close, often obligate relationships |
| Endosymbiothetic theory | Chloroplasts and mitochondria were prokaryotes that entered symbiotic relationship with eukaryotic cells |
| Evidence for endosymbiotic theory | 1. Chloroplasts and mitochondria are similar in size and structure to prokaryotes 2. both are bound by double membrane that perhaps once served as engulfing vesicle 3. have single circular chromosome like prokaryotes 4. have own ribosomes |
| Nonsymbiotic | Not obligate but both benefit |
| Mycorrhizae | Fungus associated with vascular plant roots; often obligatory |
| Pollination | Highly developed systems if animals are used to vector pollen between flowers |
| Community | Populations of several sepecies that coexist in areas characterized by certain abiotic and biotic factors |
| Ecosystem | Community plus habitat |
| Community structure depends on: | 1. Species composition (relative abundance of species present) 2. Physiognomic characters (spatial patterns) 3. temporal change (daily or seasonal cycles) 4. trophic relationships-energy transfer through trophic levels |
| Dominance | character of organisms that most determines the character of the community |
| Chemical ecology | Refers to production, uptake, and interpretation of chemical signals |
| Pheromones | Chemical messengers "external hormones" between members of a species that may attract mates or set territory boundaries |
| Allelochemicals | Messages between species |
| Suppressants | Inhibit growth of other plants 1. antibiotics: those produced by fungi 2. autotoxin-inhibits species producing it |
| Spatial structure | Horizontal and vertical structure |
| Primary autotrophic zone in forest | canopy and heterotrophic zone near the forest floor |
| Production in lake or ocean | In photic zone |
| How are forests subdivided based on height? | trees (canopy); understory (shrubs) ground cover (herbs); litter (ground); subterranean (underground) |
| How can organisms separate niches and avoid competition? | due to differing habitats provided by the strata |
| Synusia | subdivision of plant community; all plants of same life form |
| guild | analogous to synusia for animals; group of species that use similar resources in similar ways |
| circadian rhtyhm | daily cycles of activity based on 24-hour periods; based on biological clock |
| Diurnal | active during day |
| Nocturnal | active at night |
| Lunarphobic | less active in bright moonlight |
| crepuscular | active at twilight |
| Night time conditions | usually cooler, more moist, darker |
| Seasonal change | changes in the environment that lead to changes in community |
| Which are more seasonal: latitudes closer or farther away from the equator? | Farther away |
| Phenology | Scientific study of seasonal change |
| Averages of when seasonal events occur | each 1 degree of latitude results in 4 day delay in spring coming; each 100 feet of elevation delays spring 1 day; each 1 1/4 degree of longitude east delays spring 1 day |
| Ecological niche | Role played by a species of organism in an ecosystem; niche of same species may vary in different places |
| What helps to define niches? | Environments |
| Ecological equivalents | Similar niches are filled in similar ways by different organisms |
| Fundamental niche | niche as an n-dimensional hypervolume; dimensions in 3D world are at right angles |
| Hypervolume | occupied space is > than 3D volume |
| Realized niche | Portion of the fundamental niche realized in nature; explains competition and resource limitation |
| Coevolution | involves changes in both species; can be mutualistic, predator-prey, or other interactions |
| Ecological diversity | Number of species present; species richness |
| What does diversity at a given site depend on? | Local history; time; extreme nature of habitat; resource diversity |
| Edge effect | increased diversity in ecotones; much used in wildlife management |
| What happens if productivity is high? | Habitat is most likely able to support other species may prevent competition and allo coexistience. |
| Species richness | Number of species in the community |
| SCI | sequential comparison index; measures number of species relative to all the total sample size |
| Shannon-Weiner Index | measure of the likelihood that the next individual will be the same species as the last one |
| Simpson index | Measures the probability that both of 2 individuals drawn at random belong to the same species |
| MacArthur-Wilson island biogeography | Explains number of species on islands; results from balance between immigration and extinction rates |
| Producers | Autotrophs; use solar (sometimes chemical) energy to make food (carbohydrates) from simple inorganic materials |
| Consumers | Heterotrophs; Organisms that obtain energy by feeding on other organisms |
| Herbivores | Feed on plants; also known as Primary Consumers |
| Carnivores | Eat other animals; Secondary consumer if animal eats herbivores; Tertiary consumer if animal eats carnivores |
| Respiration | Breaking down food to realease energy involving gases |
| Decomposers | Organisms that break down dead material; generally fungi and bacteria |
| Pyramids | Indicate size of levels of food chains; based on numbers: not as accurate; based on biomass: moderately accurate; based on energy: most accurate |
| Energy flow | <1% of solar radiation striking the earth actually is fixed chemically by photosynthesis |
| How does latitude affect the amount of energy received? | Due to the angle of the sun/ equator gets about 2.4X radiation that the poles receive |
| Biomass | weight of organisms of interest; packets of energy |
| Standing crop | measuring biomass at any one time |
| Gross primary production (GPP) | total energy storage by autotrophs; about equal to the total photosynthesis |
| Net primary production (NPP) | the energy left over after accounting for losses to respiration |
| Production | Accumulation of biomass |
| Productivity | rate of production |
| Gross Primary Productivity | total photosynthesis in a given time frame |
| Secondary production | energy storage by consumers |
| Assimilated energy | Energy stored as consumer biomass |
| Ecologocial efficiency | Ratio of output to input |
| GPP/Sunlight efficiency | very low due to factors of shading, ability of plants to use available wavelengths, and other limiting factors |
| NPP/GPP | amount of conversion to biomass; ranges |
| Herbivore/NPP | efficiency of herbivore harvest of autotroph biomass |
| Assimilation efficiency | assimilation/gross energy intake; energy not lost in digestive processes as unassimilated food |
| Tissue growth efficiency | New biomass/ assimilation; compares energy available for tissue production and energy assimilated but lost to maintenance |
| Reactions | Effects of organisms on habitat |
| Land reactions | soil formation; topography; soil moisture |
| Air reactions | vegetation cover absorbs solar radiation moderating temperature |
| Humidity | Higher within vegetation because wind and heat can't remove it so well |
| Wind velocity | reduced by vegetation |
| Reactions in Freshwater | Organic matter is added by plants and animals |
| Reactions in oceans | Building of reefs by corals remove calcium but provides substrates and cover for other organisms that add their own reaction effects |
| Nutrient cycling | nutrients move through an ecosystem via food chain |
| Biogeochemical cycling | Recycling of nutrients |
| Carbon cycle | Co2 in air or water taken up by plants for photosynthesis |
| Greenhouse effect | Total result of increased atmospheric CO2 which causes global warming |
| Nitrogen cycle | nitrogen is required to build proteins |
| Nitrification | Getting energy from ammonia |
| Nitrogen-fixing organisms | Can convert molecular nitrogen into ammonia; Rhizobium bacteria |
| Phosphorous cycle | P is required for DNA, RNA, ATP; often limiting factor |
| Hydrologocial cycle | cycling of water between ocean (lakes), earth, and atmosphere |
| Aquifer | Flowing groundwater used by humans for wells |
| Reducing atmosphere | no oxygen but excess of hydrogen; early atmosphere probably produced by volcanoes |
| Gaia hypothesis | biosphere is self-regulating entity controlling physical and chemical environment |
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