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Ecology Final
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Community ecology | association of interacting species inhabiting some defined area |
| Types of interactions | intraspecific competition, interspecific competition, predation, herbivory, parasitsm, mutualism, commensialism |
| What are the modes of competition | interference, intraspecific, interspecific |
| Interference competition | direct aggressive interaction between individuals |
| Intraspecific | Competition between individuals of same species |
| Interspecific | competition between individuals of two species, reduces fitness of both |
| Gauss | Classic competition experiment: carrying capacity determined by intraspecific competition when grown alone, when grown together, P caudatam quickly decline (reduced resource supplies increased competition) |
| Gauss's main idea: | When resources decline, intraspecific competition will work against the slower grower |
| Competitive exclusion | local elimination of competing species with same limiting resources |
| What are two species with identical niches that cannot coexist indefinitely | Pumas and lions (one hunts alone, one hunts in packs but eating the same foods) |
| True or false, it is possible for two species to have identical species? | False, it is not possible |
| ecological niche | the total of a species use of biotic and abiotic resources |
| Ecological role | the traits or jobs that an organism does in a community |
| limiting factors | abiotic part of the niche |
| Hutchinson's definition of a niche | n-dimensional hyper volume, n equates the number of environmental factors important to survival and reproduction of a species |
| fundamental niche | hypervolume, the perfect conditions without competition in which an organism could ideally exist |
| realized niche | includes interactions such as competition that may restrict environments where a species may live |
| resource partitioning | differentiation of ecological niches, enabling similar species to coexist in a community |
| Describe warbler feeding zones as an example of resource partitioning | Warbler species who have specialized to eat certain parts of a tree where the whole tree is covered between the species, sizes of the niche varying. The different species could probably eat different parts of the tree but they are most adapted for parts |
| Describe lizards in the Dominican Republic as an example or resource partitioning | The reptiles partition fairly small areas, the lizards that like sunny places like fence posts will need to be faster than the other reptiles and it will also need to be able to digest resources faster so they can escape predators in less protected places |
| Lotka volterra | effect of interspecific competition on population growth of each species, predict coexistence of two species when for both species, interspecific competition is weaker than intraspecific competition |
| Competition coefficients | express the competitive effects of the competing species |
| True or false, coexistence is possible when the zero growth isoclines cross | true |
| True or false, prey display various defensive adaptations | True |
| What are some examples of defensive adaptations? | Camouflage, poison or horns, alarm calls and some morphological and physiological defense adaptations |
| Cryptic coloration | camouflage |
| Give an example for when camouflage can work against an organism | A canyon tree frog blends with granite but won't find food on a rock outcrop |
| Aposematic coloration | Scary colors to ward off predators |
| Batesian mimicry | harmless species mimics a harmful one |
| What are some examples of batesian mimicry? | Hawk mouth larva mimic green parrot snakes, a viceroy butterfly which is tasty has similar coloration to a a monarch which is toxic to predators |
| Mullerian mimicry | Two unpalatable species mimic each other |
| What are examples of mullerian mimicry? | Cuckoo bee and yellow jacket |
| What is an example of an organism exhibiting aposematic coloring? | Poison dart frog and corn snake |
| herbivory | refers to an interaction in which an herbivore eats part of a plant or alga |
| True or false, silica shards are incorporated into grass blades to prevent herbivores from eating them | True |
| parasitism | one organism, the parasite, derives nourishment from another organism, its host, which is harmed in the process |
| endoparasites | parasites that live within the body of their host |
| ectoparasites | parasites that live on the external surface of a host |
| mutualism | interactions between individuals of different species that benefit from partners |
| facultative mutualism | occurs when a species can live without its mutualistic partner |
| obligate mutualism | occurs when a species is dependent on mutualistic relationship |
| abuscular mycorrhizal fungi | AMF, produces arbuscles, site of exchange between plants and fungi, hyphae- fungal filaments and vesicles- energy storage organs |
| Ectomycorrhizae | ECM, forms mantle around roots- important in increasing plant access to phosphorous and other immobile nutrients |
| True or false, plants with greater access to phosphorus may develop roots that are more efficient at extracting and conducting water | true |
| What is lichen composed of? | Algae and fungi |
| Describe the relationship Zooxanthellae and corals | Algae live in the coral and allow it to live, the algae live off waste products of the coral, algae contributes other organic nutrients that the algae needs, when the algae grows too much, the coral will control where its waste products are distributed |
| True or false, crustaceans live symbiotically externally on coral species and clean the outside to allow for continued photosynthesis | True |
| What four levels or organisations can be found on a coral? | Sea stars eat crustaceans which clean the coral by eating whatever grows on it in which algae live |
| How many coral species are protected by crustacean mutualists? | 13 |
| Definition of animal like unicellular organisms | organisms that can move and acquire nutrients from organisms |
| The benefits of mutualism exceed the cost | |
| For a population to be mutualistic | fitness of successful mutualists must be greater than unsuccessful or non-mutualists |
| Proportion of plants energy budget ants save from the destruction by herbivores MUST EXCEED | proportion of the plant's energy budget invested in extra-floral nectar excretion |
| Conditions that may produce higher benefits than costs | low proportion of plant's energy bduget invested in extrafloral nectaries, high probability of attracting ants, low effectiveness of alt. defense, highly effective ant defense |
| commensialism | one species benefits and the other is apparently unaffected |
| What are some examples of distorted types commensialism | cattle egrets and water buffalo and barnacles and scallops |
| Commensal interactions are hard to document in nature, why? | Because any close association is likely affecting both species |
| In the long term, there has to be a benefit for an organism to do that, so commensialism is only short term | |
| In general, a few species in a community exert what type of control on that community's structure | strong |
| Two fundamental features of community structure are | species diversity and feeding (Trophic) relationships |
| species evenness | what will be the number representing certain groups within populations |
| species diversity | is the variety of organisms that make up the community |
| What are the two components of species diversity | species richness and relative abundance |
| species richness | total number or different species in the community |
| (species evenness) | relative abundance of each unique species |
| relative abundance | proportion of each species represents the total individuals in the community, one species/total species |
| Shannon Wiener index | H'=-SUMpi*lnpi |
| H' | value of SW diversity index |
| Pi | proportion of the ith species |
| (ln)Log e | natural logarithm of pi |
| S | number of species in community |
| Define a dominance in species diversity | The one with the highest number of individuals per species |
| How to calculate evenness | Has a low dominance, numbers similar and more taxa |
| Shannon diversity index | H=-[(pAlnpA)+ |
| Diversity for microbes is similar to carrying capacity curve, true or false, | True |
| Where is the unique part of the gene that determines a species? | Internal transcribed spacer regions within the ribosomes |
| Dominant species | those that are the most abundant or have the highest biomass and are often vulnerable to one thing, often hypothesized that it is the most successful in exploiting resources |
| Keystone species | Species who dominate and dictate the environment |
| Ecosystem engineers | Prevent others from moving into their territory and therefore prevent others from accessing food and therefore win. They also influence resource availability by creating new habitats that are used by other organisms. |
| Biomass | total mass of all individuals in a population which is dominating |
| invasive species | typically introduced to a new environment by humans, often lack predators or disease |
| trophic structure | the feeding relationships between organisms in a community |
| food chains | link trophic levels from producers to top carnivores |
| True or false, energy expended for food is the largest amount expended by an organism | true |
| The basic biodiversity at the lowest trophic level supports the health of the entire environment, true or false | true |
| food web | branching food chain with complex trophic interactions |
| Exotic species/predators | |
| Top down forces | predation, parasitism, disease. Higher trophic levels control community structure, changes the structure of the community |
| Bottom up forces | the quality and quantity of food available, lower trophic levels control community structure (always from inorganic to organic), builds a pyramid |
| Direct effects | the impact or influence is between the two parties involved. There is a cause & effect connection not mediated by other organisms or factors |
| Indirect effects | Direct effect between species A and B causes an affect on Species c, tri-trophic interactions, trophic cascades |
| Tri-trophic interactions | variation at one trophic level influences the interaction between the other two, ex: variation in plant quality can influence the interaction between an insect herbivore and its natural enemies |
| Tri-trophic interactions | variation at one trophic level influences the interaction between the other two, ex: variation in plant quality can influence the interaction between an insect herbivore and its natural enemies |
| long term experimental studies have shown that communities vary in their relative degree of bottom up to top down control | |
| biomanipulation | can help restore polluted communities |
| long term experimental studies have shown that communities vary in their relative degree of bottom up to top down control | |
| True or false, humans have changed bottom up and top down control tremendously | True |
| biomanipulation | can help restore polluted communities |
| True or false, humans have changed bottom up and top down control tremendously | True |
| keystone species | have large effects on its community or ecosystem, its removal changes the basic nature of the community |
| True or false, each food chain in a food web is usually only a few links long | True |
| Two hypotheses attempt to explain food chain length, what are they | the energetic hypothesis and the dynamic stability hypothesis |
| energetic hypothesis | length is limited by inefficient energy transfer, most data supports this |
| dynamic stability hypothesis | long food chains are less stable than short ones |
| productivity | a measure of biomass |
| Who was the keystone species in the killer whale story? | Sea lion |
| Foundation species (ecosystem engineers) | cause physical changes in the environment that affect community structure |
| What is a mammal example of a foundation species? | Beaver |
| facilitators | species that have positive effects on survival and reproduction of some other species in the community |
| what are examples of facilitators? | Plants with type three survivorship curves, kelp forests, salt marsh grass |
| how is ecosystem ecology incorporated in bottom up model | presence or absence of mineral nutrients determines community structure, including abundance of primary producers |
| top down and ecosystem ecology | interactions within the community between organisms |
| Clements | super-organisms, monoclimax theory |
| monoclimax theory | all the vegetation within a region will converge to the same vegetation type, which is regulated by climate |
| Gleason | non-equilibrium model |
| Non-equilibrium model | describes communities as constantly changing after disturbances, change is continual, history and random events are important, even if equilibrium is theoretically possible, disturbance is too frequent to allow it |
| disturbance | an event that changes a community, removes organism from it, and alters resource availability, varies in spatial scale, intensity, frequency and type |
| intermediate disturbance hypothesis | moderate levels of disturbance can foster greater diversity than either high or low levels of disturbance |
| high levels of disturbance | exclude many slow growing species |
| low levels of disturbance | allow dominant species to exclude less competitive species, |
| Disturbance and diversity of intertidal zones | ocean waves overturn and move intertidal boulders, killing the algae and barnacles, boulders of different sizes turn over at different frequencies, |
| According to Sousa, on what type of substrate will there be the largest diversity and what type of disturbance hypothesis did it prove? | Mid-sized boulders and intermediate disturbance hypothesis |
| ecological succession | sequence of a community and ecosystem changes after a disturbance, non-seasonal change in species composition as a function of time, usually following disturbance, accompanied by changes in the environment, often directional and sometimes predictable |
| primary succession | occurs where no soil exists when succession begins, example: lava formed island |
| secondary succession | begins in an area where soil remains after a disturbance, example: forest fire |
| fitness | measure of an individuals relative contribution to the gene pool or next generation |
| relative fitness | a genotype's contribution to the next generation in comparison with the contribution of other genotypes for that locus. The most reproductively succesful varients are said to have a relative fitness of 1 and the fitness of other genotypes are ratios |
| What are the three modes of selection? | Directional selection, disruptive selection and stabilizing selection |
| directional selection | occurs most frequently during periods of environmental change when individuals deviating in one direction from the average for some phenotypic character may be favored |
| disruptive selection | environment favors individuals on both extreems of a phenotypic range |
| stabilizing selection | acts against extreme phenotypes and favors more intermediate forms, tending to reduce phenotypic variation |
| frequency-dependent selection | a morph's reproductive success declines if it becomes too common in the population |
| sexual dimorphism | the distinction between males and females on the basis of secondary sexual characteristics |
| sexual selection | selection for traits that may not be adaptive to the environment but do enhance reproductive success |
| intrasexual selection | individuals sucess in competeing for mate |
| intersexual selection | individuals sucess in attracting a mate |
| What determine's an organisms fitness level | number of viable offspring produced |
| Genetic drift is likely to be seen in a population that | has a high migration rate |
| Sexual selection will | select for traits that enhance an individual's chance of mating |
| Behavioral Ecology | Interactions between organisms and the environment mediated by behavior. |
| Sociobiology | Branch of biology concerned with study of social relations (eupopulation ecology). |
| facilitation | environment less suitable for early species but more suitable for late successional species. early successional species die out, eventually resident species are ones that do not change the environment in a way to favor other species |
| tolerance | environment less suitable for early spcies but neither less nor more favorable for later successional species. Eventually resident species are ones able to tolerate environmental change by earlier species and no other species can tolerate conditions |
| inhibition | environment less suitable for all other species, eventually resident species inhibit establishment of all other species, persistent until disturbed |
| Where are succession stages being observed currently in the United States? | Glacier Bay, Alaska |
| True or false, succession is the result of changes induced by vegetation itself, on the glacial moraines, vegetation lowers the soil pH and increases soil nitrogen content | true |
| Human disturbance | humans have the greatest impact on biological communities worldwide, human disturbance to communities usually reduces species diversity, humans also prevent some naturally occurring disturbances which can be important to community structure |
| Two factors controlling biomes | climate and vegitation |
| True or false, Latitude and area are two key factors that affect a community's species diversity | True |
| true or false, species richness generally declines along an equatorial-polar gradient and is especially in the tropics | true |
| Why is the greatest diversity at 30 degrees? | Intermediate disturbance hypothesis |
| Two main climate factors correlated with biodiversity are | solar energy and water availability |
| evapo-transpiration | The most instability in evapotranspiration is where there is the highest species richness but is very unstable |
| species--area curve | quantifies the idea that, all other factors being equal, a larger geographic area has more species |
| community | the collection of different species living close enough to allow for potential interaction |
| interspecific interactions | occur between the different species living in a community, the effect of these interactions on the survival and reproduction of a population can be signified by + and - signs |
| interspecific competition | populations of two species use the same limited resource |
| competitive exclusion principle | the less efficient competitor will be logically eliminated |
| ecological niche | role in an ecosystem, habitat and use of biotic and abiotic resources |
| resource partitioning | slight variations in niche that allow ecologically similar species to coexist, provides circumstantial evidence that competition was a selection factor in evolution |
| describe character displacement | some morphological trait or resource allows closely related sympatric species to avoid competition |
| sympatric speciation | process through which new species evolve from a single ancestral species while inhabiting the same geographic region |
| allopatric speciation | geographic speciation is speciation that occurs when biological populations of the same species become isolated due to geographical changes such as mountain building or social changes such as emigration |
| predation | involves a predator killing and eating prey, +/- |
| cryptic coloration | camouflage, attempt to blend with background |
| aposematic coloration | bright and conspicuous, warns predators not to eat animals with chemical defenses |
| mimicry | may be used by prey to exploit the warning coloration of other species |
| herbivory | herbivore eats parts of plant or alga, +/- |
| parasitism | symbiosis, parasite obtains nourishment from its host |
| disease | pathogens, such as bacteria, viruses, protists, fungi or prions may kill host but always feed on host, +/- |
| mutualism | interactions between species benefit both participants, +/+ |
| commensialism | only one member appears to benefit from the interaction, +/0 |
| coevolution | reciprocal adaptations of two species that involve genetic changes in both interacting populations |
| species diversity | determined by species richness and relative abundance |
| species richness | number of different species present |
| relative abundance | relative numbers of individuals in each species |
| trophic structure | feeding relationships of a community |
| food chain | shows transfer of food energy from one trophic level to the next |
| What are examples of producers in a trophic structure? | Plants |
| What are examples of primary consumers in a trophic structure? | Herbivores |
| What are examples of secondary, tertiary or quarternary consumers in a trophic structure? | Carnivores, omnivores |
| energetic hypothesis | food chains are limited by the inefficiency of energy transfer, only about 10%, from one level to the next |
| dynamic stability hypothesis | suggests that short food chains are more stable than long ones, an environmental disruption that reduces production at lower levels will be magnified at higher trophic levels as food supply is reduced all the way up the chain. |
| True or false, increasing size of animals at successive trophic levels may also limit food chain length, both due to difficulty of eating large animals and the quantity of food required to support large animals | true |
| Experimental data from tree hole communities showed that food chains were longest when food supply (leaf litter) was greatest. Which hypothesis about what limits food chain length do these results support? | The Energetic hypothesis |
| true or false, species in a community that have the highest abundance or largest biomass are major influence on the occurrence and distribution of species | True |
| dominant species | a species may become this due to its competitive use of resources or success at avoiding predation or disease |
| invasive species | these may reach a high biomass due to the lack of natural predators or pathogens |
| keystone species | have a large impact on community structure as a result of its ecological role. |
| True or false, Paine's study of a predatory sea star demonstrated its role in maintaining species richness in an inter-tidal community by reducing the density of mussels, a highly competitive prey species | True |
| facilitators | ecosystem engineers or foundation species influence community structure by changing the physical environment, may positively affect other species by modifying the environment |
| bottom up model structure | nutrients> vegetation > herbivores > predators |
| top down model structure | predators>herbivores>vegetation>nutrients |
| trophic cascade model | increasing predators will decrease herbivores which will increase vegetation which will decrease levels of nutrients |
| Many freshwater lake communities appear to be organized along the top down model. what actions might ecologists take if they wanted to use biomanipulation to control excess algal blooms in a lake with four trophic levels? | The trophic cascade that would be needed to end with a decrease in algae would require an increase in zooplankton, decrease in primary predators and increase in top predators, add more top predators to the lake |
| nonequilibrium model | emphasizes communities are constantly changing as a result of disturbances |
| intermediate disturbance hypothesis | small scale disturbances may enhance environmental patchiness and help maintain species diversity |
| examples of disturbances | fire, drought, storms, overgrazing, human activities that change resource availability, reduce or eliminate some populations and may create opportunities for new species |
| ecological succession | sequential transition in species composition in a community, usually following some disturbance |
| primary succession | if no soil was originally present, series of colonization: autotrophic prokaryote>lichens>mosses>grasses>shrubs>trees |
| secondary succession | occurs when an existing community is disrupted by fire, logging or farming but soil remains intact, herbaceous species may colonize first>woody shrubs>forest trees |
| evapotranspiration | amount of water evaporated from soil and transpired by plants, determined by solar energy, temperature and water availability or just solar radiation and temperature |
| Describe Gleason's individualistic concept of communities | Chance collections of species that are in the same area because of similar environmental requirements, there should be no distinct boundaries, species are distributed independently along env. gradients, most plant communities studied meet thesepredictions |
| Two species, A and B, occupy adjoining environmental patches that differ in several abiotic factors. When species A is experimentally removed from a portion of its patch, species B moves in and thrives. If B is removed, A doesn't colonize, why? | Species A is limited to its range by abiotic factors, and species B is limited to its range because it cannot compete with species A |
| The species richness of a community refers to | The number of different species found in a community |
| The rivet model of communities is most similar to | the integrated hypothesis |
| Through resource partitioning | Slight variations in niche allow closely related species to coexist in the same habitat |
| What are some examples of organisms that exemplify specific trophic levels? | Algae-producer Fungi-decomposer Carnivorous fish larvae-secondary consumer Eagle-tertiary or quaternary consumer |
| Aposometric coloring is most commonly found in | prey species that have chemical defenses |
| A palatable prey species may defend against predation by | Batesian mimicry |
| When one species was removed from a tidepool, the species richness became significantly reduced. The removed species was probably a | keystone species |
| A highly successful parasite will | be able to feed without killing its host |
| Why do most food chains consist of only three to five lengths | According to the energetic hypothesis, the inefficiency of energy transfer from one trophic level to the next limits the number of links that can exist |
| During succession, inhibition by early species may | slow down the successful colonization by other species |
| According to the nonequilibrium model, | chance events such as disturbances play major roles in the structure and composition of communities |
| According to the top-down trophic cascade model of community control, which trophic level would you decrease if you wanted to increase the vegetation level in a community? | tertiary consumers |
| Ecologists survey the tree species in two forest plots of different ages. Plot 1 has 6 species and 95% belong to just 1 species. Plot 2 has 5 different species, and each species makes up 20%, describe plot 2 compared to plot 1? | Greater species diversity and lower species richness |
| Give examples of organisms and their community roles | beaver-engineer Juncus in salt marsh-facilitator sea oetter-keystone predator trees in spruce-hemlock forest- dominant species |
| Two allopatric speceis of Galapagos finches have beaks of similar size. There is a significance differences in beak size when the tow species occur on the same island. What is this an example of? | Character displacement |
| What is character displacement | phenomenon where differences among similar species whose distributions overlap geographically are accentuated in regions where the species co-occur but are minimized or lost where the species’ distributions do not overlap, Driven by competitive exclusion |
| fecundity | term of successful reproduction |
| ecotone | area where biomes grade into eachother |
| interference competition | aggressive actions between individuals |
| intraspecific | among plants, thinning, think crowns of trees block out slight at the same height, competition bw species |
| interspecific | competition for resources between different species, Paramecium is the big example |
| competitive exclusion | it is impossible for two species to have identical niches |
| When is coexistence possible in species? | When zero growth isoclines cross |
| biological adaptation | organism's response to particular environment |
| super organisms | species living within a community compared to organs in a great natural body, all of the compenents of the organisms parts are vital for survival, very abrupt boundaries |
| What scientist was responsible for the continuum model? | Gleason |
| What scientist was responsible for the idea of the super organism? | Clements |
| allelopathy | chemical warfare against competitors |
| exploitative competition | more passive forms of mutually detrimental interaction (think trees competing for water) |
| conegers | 2 species in the same genus |
| replacement series | experimental design for comparing effects of intraspecific and interspecific competition in plants |
| niche overlap | area where organisms may have decreased health |
| Humbolt was responsible for what idea | vegetational zones |
| Scientist who was responsible for mapping 116 types of plants associated with boundaries of the continental US and embraced super organism idea | Kuchler |
| ecosystem | consists of all the organisms living in a community, as well as the abiotic factors with which they interact |
| Two main processes that an ecosytem's dynamics involve | energy flow and chemical cycling |
| True or false, energy flows through the ecosystems while matter cycles within them | true |
| What is the reason for loss of energy between transferring from trophic levels? | Organisms are making organic matter for themselves using photosynthesis and cellular respiration, what is left as net is given to the second trophic level |
| first law of thermodynamics | energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed |
| energy enters an ecosystem as what | solar radiation |
| how is energy lost from organisms? | heat |
| Second law of thermodynamics | every exchange of energy increases the entropy of the universe |
| entropy | disorder |
| In energy conversions, are they completely efficient or not completely efficient? | Not effecient |
| law of conservation of mass | matter cannot be created or destroyed |
| What are continually recycled within the ecosystems | chemical elements |
| In what kind of ecosystem are most nutrients enter as dust or solutes in rain and carried away with water? | Forest ecosystems |
| Are ecosystems open or closed systems? | Open, they absorb energy and mass and release heat and waste products |
| primary producers | autotrophs |
| primary consumers | herbivores |
| secondary consumers | carnivores |
| tertiary and quartnary consumers | carnivores that eat other carnivores |
| Life depends on recycling of chemical elements, true or false | true |
| Nutrient circuits in ecosystems involve biotic and abiotic components and are often called | biogeochemical cycles |
| Gaseous carbon, oxygen, sulfur and nitrogen occur where and cycle globally | in the atmosphere |
| Less mobile elements such as phosphorus, potassium and calcium cycle where | On more local level |
| A model of what includes main reservoirs of elements and processes that transfer elements between reservoirs | nutrient cycling |
| True or false, All elements cycle between organic and inorganic reservoirs | true |
| The western united states are not limited by phosphorous, because there is so much exposed rock, in the eastern united states there isn’t very much exposed rock at all, true or false | True |
| Water is essential to all organisms, 97% of the biosphere’s water is in the oceans, 2 % is in glaciers and polar ice, 1% is in lakes, river and groundwater | |
| Physical properties of soil will allow for purification of water in what processes? | Infiltration process |
| Carbon based organic molecules are essential to | all organisms |
| Carbon reservoirs include what | fossil fuels, soils and sediments, solutes in oceans, plant and animal biomass , and the atmosphere |
| CO2 is taken up and released through what | photosynthesis and respiration; additionally volcanoes and burning of fossil fules, contribute to CO2, |
| True or false, From bottom up, there is no one very large reservoir of carbon, the biggest user of carbon in surface area is the photic zone of the ocean | True |
| True or false, Bacteria are the only organisms who can take atmospheric nitrogen and put it into the food chain by converting it to NO3 and NH4 | True |
| What are nitrogen reservoirs? | Plants |
| Net primary production= | GPP-energy used by primary producers for respiration |
| True or false, Only net primary producers are available to consumers | True |
| Ecosystems vary greatly in NPP and the contribution to the total NPP on earth, tropical environment have what NPP and tundras have what NPP | High, low |
| Standing crop- total biomass of the photosynthetic autotrophs at a given time= | part available for photosynthesis |
| PAR- photosynthetically active radiation- | includes only solar energy with wavelengths of 400-700 nm, |
| True or false, some organisms will use only certain types of the wavelength, | True |
| Why is it that organisms only use certain types of wavelengths? | difference in color, highest efficiency of chlorophyll a and b are the reason that organisms are green, the world is green because energy is most efficient at the ends of the spectrums, not at the middle |
| True or false, Photosystem 2 splits water molecules | True |
| How many types of Chlorophyll are there and what are they called | 4, a-b-c-d |
| Why is the world green? | Energy efficiency of the blue and the red spectrum are higher and therefore this energy is used and the green wavelengths are reflected |
| What are the most productive ecosystems per unit area | Tropical rain forests, estuaries and coral reefs |
| Which ecosystems are the least productive per unit area | Marine ecosystems, but contribute much to global net primary production because of their volume |
| What limits production more than light in lakes and oceans? | Nutrients |
| What is a limiting nutrient | element that must be added for production to increase in an area |
| What are the nutrients that primarily limit production in marine systems? | Nitrogen and Phosphorous |
| Nutrient enrichment experiments confirmed that what element was limiting phytoplankton growth of the shore of Long Island, New York | Nitrogen |
| Structure of chlorophyll a | for every magnesium center there are four nitrogen atoms |
| Photosystem 2 center has anywhere between 40 and 2000 chlorophyll molecules | |
| Where is the nitrogen coming from? | Rock formations, decomposition of matter, burning of fossil fuel, the atmosphere is 71% nitrogen |
| Phosphate is super important in cellular respiration; it is the P in ATP | |
| Nitrifing bacteria | converting gaseous form of N2 to NO3 or NO4 |
| Denitrifing bacteria | decomposers from NO3 and NO4 to N2 |
| The phosphorous cycle | It’s an immobile chemical- involves the movement of phosphorous throughout the biosphere and lithosphere |
| Decomposers (detrivores) play a key role in the general pattern of chemical cycling | |
| Rates at which nutrients cycle in different ecosystems vary greatly, mostly as a result of | differing rates of decomposition |
| The rate of decomposition is controlled by | temperature, moisture, and nutrient availability |
| Rapid decomposition results in relatively low | levels of nutrients in the soil |
| True or false, Vegetation strongly regulates nutrient cycling | True |
| True or false, The Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest has been used to study nutrient cycling in a forest ecosystem since 1963 | True |
| Describe the Hubbard Brook Experimental | Organisms store these nutrients so they can start life and sustain it, Relationship between presences of vegetation, type of soil, role of water, referenced in the mountain top removal, In this experiment,40 to 60% increase in loss of water and nutrients |
| As the human population has grown, our activities have | disrupted the trophic structure, energy glow, and chemical cycling of many ecosystems |
| The large amounts of nutrients that we lease into the atmosphere do what to the environment | Acidify |
| Agriculture removes what from ecosystems nutrients that would ordinarily be cycled back into the soil | Carbon |
| What is the main nutrient lost through agriculture, thus, agriculture greatly affects this cycle | Nitrogen cycle |
| Is there an increase or decrease in biodiversity due to agricultural progresses | Decrease |
| Critical load for a nutrient is the | amount that plants can absorb without damaging the ecosystem |
| When excess nutrients are added to an ecosystem, | the critical load is exceeded |
| Remaining nutrients can contaminate | groundwater as well as freshwater and marine ecosystems |
| Sewage runoff causes what which is excessive algal growth that can greatly harm freshwater ecosystems | cultural eutrophication |
| True or false, Only nutrient loads from the Mississippi River in the Gulf of Mexico can explain year round primary production | True |
| Combustion of fossil fuels is the main cause of | acid precipitation |
| North American and European ecosystems downwind from industrial regions have been damaged | by rain and snow containing nitric and sulfuric acid |
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