12864749
Description
Flashcards by abby Radske, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by abby Radske
over 6 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| Competition | relationship where multiple organisms seek the same limited resources Intra specific competition & Inter specific competition |
| Intra specific competition: | among members of same species high population density = increased competition |
| Inter specific competition: | among members of 2 or more species can lead to either competitive exclusion or to species coexistence |
| Fundamental Niche | what you theoretically could access |
| Realized Niche | what you actually access considering other factors such as competition |
| resource partitioning | species divide shared resources by specializing in different ways ex. one species is active at night, another in the daytime ex. one species eats small seeds, another eats large seeds |
| character displacement | competing species evolve physical characteristics that reflect their reliance on the portion of the resource they use ex. birds that eat larger seeds evolve larger bills the competition is reduced when two species become more different |
| Predation | process by which individuals of one species (predators) capture, kill, and consume other individuals (prey) |
| Parasitism | a relationship in which one organism (parasite) depends on another (host) for nourishment or another benefit |
| Herbivory | exploitation in which animals feed on the tissues of plants |
| Coevolution | hosts and parasites become locked in a duel of escalating adaptations each evolves new responses to the other it may not be beneficial to the parasite to kill its host |
| Symbiosis | mutualism in which the organisms live in close physical contact microbes within digestive tracts |
| amensalism | a relationship in which one organism is harmed while the other is unaffected |
| commensalism | a relationship in which one organism benefits, while the other is unaffected |
| How do Algal Blooms Grow? | the phytoplankton (algae and cyanobacteria) are eaten by zooplankton, then the zooplankton is eaten by the fish zebra muscle introduced : it eats the algae and zooplankton, the fish starves because the zebra muscle eats by filtering water, it increases sunlight proliferation so the sunlight now enters deeper in the water the cyanobacteria has no predators, this removes competition and predation these two facts allow it to thrive and take over the lake, which = algal blooms |
| What does an Algal Bloom Cause? | once the algal bloom multiplies so much that the competition caused the water column to be over exploited the population begins to die once the algal bloom dies, all of the organisms die and sink to the bottom as organic matter (carbon) as food for heterotrophs the heterotrophic aerobic microbial community will consume all of the organic matter as well as the oxygen oxygen consumption > oxygen production will cause the oxygen in the lake to decrease until the water becomes anoxic |
| How does the Ecosystem become Anoxic? | the algal bloom of cyanobacteria is a huge biomass when it dies, it becomes a store of organic matter it is being oxidized (burned) into CO2 because microbes are harvesting energy, this costs oxygen, and it becomes the limiting reagent |
| Consequences of Anoxic Ecosystems | 1) fish die, amongst other aerobic organisms 2) anaerobic organisms will take over, they literally stink this creates H2S, which is toxic 3) loss of recreational use, loss of drinking use, gives rashes |
| Autotrophs | "self feeders" organisms that capture solar energy for photosynthesis to produce sugars eg. green plants, cyanobacteria, algae |
| Chemosynthetic Bacteria | use the geothermal energy in hot springs or deep sea vent to produce food |
| Primary Consumers | organisms that consume producers herbivores consume plants eg. Deer, grasshoppers |
| Secondary Consumers | organisms that prey on primary consumers carnivores consume animals eg. wolves, rodents |
| Tertiary Consumers | predators at the highest trophic level consume secondary consumers, are also carnivores hawks, owls |
| Omnivores | consumers that eat both plants and animals |
| Detritivores | scavenge waste products or dead bodies eg. millipedes |
| Decomposers | break down leaf litter and other non-living material eg. fungi, bacteria |
| energy & biomass at different trophic levels | decrease at higher trophic levels less and less energy is available in each successive trophic level each Level contains only 10% of the energy of the trophic level below it |
| Keystone Species | a species that has a strong impact on the community eg. consequences of eliminating wolves in north America = increase in population of herbivores = consequences on vegetation = topdown effect |
| Trophic Cascade | the addition or removal of top predators and involving reciprocal changes in the relative populations of predator and prey through a food chain, which often results in dramatic changes in ecosystem eg. adding wolves again because herbivores were running wild and killing off too many primary producers |
| Ecosystem Engineers | physically modify the environment eg. beavers, fungus |
| how communities respond to disturbances? | communities can experience many types of disturbances : removal of a keystone species, spread of invasive species, human impacts Resistance: community of organisms resists change, and remans stable Resilience: a community changes in response to a disturbance, but later changes back to original state |
| What happens if there are Severe Disturbances? | Succession : the predictable series of changes in a community following a disturbance Primary Succession: disturbance eliminates all vegetation/soil life Secondary Succession: a disturbance dramatically alters, but does not destroy all local organisms |
| Pioneer Species | the first species to arrive in a primary succession area (ex. lichens) contributes to soil formation lichens change the rock physically by anchoring to the rock and creating fissures, & by releasing chemicals that change rock |
| Climax Community | the community resulting from a successful secondary succession the remaining organisms form building blocks for the next population of species |
| Invasive Species | non-native organisms that spread widely and become dominant in a community have major ecological effects |
| Ways to Control Invasive Species | - Remove them manually - Toxic chemicals - Drying them out - depriving of oxygen - Stressing them |
| Ecological Restoration | returning an area to unchanged conditions it is difficult, time-consuming, expensive best to protect natural systems from degradation in the first place |
| Biome | Major, widely separated regions of similar communities recognized by plant type, and vegetation structure |
| Ecoregion | a particular representative of a biome; an example of it |
| Climatographs | shows an areas mean monthly temperature and precipitation similar biomes occupy similar latitudes |
| Tundra | little precipitation extremely cold weathers permafrost: permanently frozen soils few animals: polar bears, caribou low vegetation and few trees canada, russia, Scandinavia |
| Boreal Forest (taiga) (northern coniferous forest) | cool and dry climate (long winters, short cool summers) poor and acidic soils few evergreen tree species moose, wolves, bears, migratory birds canada, alaska, russia, Scandinavia |
| Temperate Deciduous Forest | deciduous trees lose their leaves each fall and remain dormant during winter mid latitude forests in Europe, eastern china, eastern North America fertile soils, oak, birch, maple trees |
| Temperate Grasslands | More extreme temperature difference between winter and summer less precipitation most used for agriculture, prairie dogs, antelope |
| Temperate Rainforest | Coastal Pacific region lots of precipitation coniferous trees, cedar, spruce, hemlock moisture-loving animals fertile soil provides lumbar and paper |
| Tropical Rainforests | year-round rain and warm temp. dark and damp lush vegetation \variety of animal and tree species, in low numbers Central America, South America etc |
| Tropical Dry Forest | wet and dry seasons warm, but less rainfall converted to agriculture india, africa, South America, Australia |
| Savannah | grassland with some trees precipitation only during rainy season water holes zebras, gazelles, giraffes, lions, hyenas africa, South America, Australia, india |
| Desert | very low precipitation Sahara: bare sand dunes Sonoran: heavily vegetated nocturnal animals plants have thick skins or spines |
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