Behavior and Ecology
The study of how organisms interact with each other and their environment.
What is ecology?
Organisms that capture light energy and convert it into chemical energy stored in glucose.
What is autotroph?
A population is specifically defined by individuals capable of interbreeding and producing this type of offspring.
What is fertile offspring?
A population experiencing no environmental resistance will grow according to this model.
What is exponential growth?
Community structure depends on both the number of species and their relative abundance; this combined measure is called this.
What is species diversity?
Immediate cause of behavior
What is proximate cause?
Organisms that obtain energy by consuming other organisms in a food web.
What is heterotroph?
When individuals aggregate in patches due to resource availability, this type of spatial pattern is observed.
What is clumped distribution?
As resources become limited, population growth slows and stabilizes following this model.
What is logistic growth?
Two species competing for the same limiting resource will experience this type of interaction.
What is competition?
Evolutionary reason for behavior
What is ultimate cause?
When energy moves between trophic levels, only about this percentage is transferred.
What is 10 percent?
Population size increases through births and immigration and decreases through deaths and this process.
What is emigration?
The parameter K represents the environmental limit on population size, also known as this.
What is carrying capacity?
A symbiotic relationship in which one organism benefits and the other is unaffected is known as this.
What is commensalism?
Chemical signals released between members of the same species to trigger responses
What is intraspecific signaling?
Mammals maintain a stable internal body temperature using metabolic heat.
What is endotherm?
The equation dN/dt = B − D represents this general population parameter.
What is growth rate?
Density-dependent factors regulate populations more strongly as population size increases because of this type of limitation.
What is resource limitation?
A species whose removal disproportionately alters community structure despite low abundance is described as this.
What is keystone species?
For a behavior to evolve through natural selection, it must be variable, increase fitness, and have this property
What is heritable?
During energy transfer in ecosystems, much of the energy is lost in this form.
What is heat?
Dividing population growth by total population size yields this standardized measure of growth.
What is per capita rate?
Under ideal conditions, the highest possible per capita growth rate of a population is referred to as this.
What is r max?
Changes in top predator populations that indirectly affect lower trophic levels and nutrient cycling describe this phenomenon.
What is trophic cascade?