Principles of Ecology
The term for each of the levels in a food web or pyramid
What is a trophic level?
Much of Charles Darwin's inspiration for his theory of evolution came from these islands
What are the Galapagos Islands?
Rapid reproduction rates under ideal conditions with seemingly unlimited resources is known as this
What is exponential growth?
The benefits that nature provides to human civilization for free
What are ecosystem services?
A conservation strategy where local people promote their natural resources to visitors as a way to make money while protecting the environment
What is ecotourism?
The three types of symbiosis
What is mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism?
What is bayesian mimicry?
The term for mechanisms that control and limit population growth in nature
What are limiting factors?
The process where toxic substances accumulate and concentrate in the tissues of organisms as they move up the food web
What is biomagnification?
The two major views on conservation
What are pragmatism and preservationism?
Some organisms are known as 'self-feeders', whereas other organisms are considered 'other-feeders'
What are autotrophs and heterotrophs?
After a mass extinction (or upon colonizing new island environments), the surviving species often undergo this process
What is adaptive radiation?
The process of colonization and gradually increasing diversity in a community following a natural disaster
What is secondary succession?
The three main types of biodiversity
What are species, ecosystem, and genetic diversity?
Organisms that attract a lot of attention and public support for conservation efforts, such as whales or panda bears, are referred to as these
What are charismatic megafauna?
Besides producers, these organisms fulfill the most critical role in the food web
What are decomposers?
These are the three isolating mechanisms that lead to reproductive isolation
What are geographic, behavioral, and temporal isolation?
Algal blooms from fertilizer runoff that lead to dead zones are a result of this process involving limiting nutrients
What is eutrophication?
The four major threats to biodiversity
What are habitat fragmentation/alteration, overexploitation, pollution, and invasive species?
The four endangered species in the Upper Gulf that CEDO is actively trying to conserve
What are the Totoaba, Least Tern, Yuma Clapper Rail, and Vaquita
The three community interactions that can be considered biotic factors
What are predation, competition, and symbiosis?
Darwin's theory of evolution was largely based on these four key pieces of evidence
What is the fossil record, geographic distribution of living species, homologous body structures, and similarities in early development?
Each of the limiting factors that curb the growth of a population
What are predation, competition, parasites/disease, natural disasters, and human disturbances?
The different types of ecosystem services
What are provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services?
The 'Red Queen Hypothesis' can be described as this
What is 'organisms must continually evolve, or succumb to their predators and parasites that will'