Ecology and relationships
What type of interaction between organisms is one that will purposefully not kill the host in order to utilize their resources:
Parasitism
An asteroid lands and burns half of a community. What is this an example of?
________ are inherited characteristics or behaviors that enable an organism to survive and reproduce successfully. They are environment specific.
Adaptations
________ states that energy transfer between trophic levels is not high and is why only 3-4 tropic levels have be present.
10% rule
What is the largest reservoir of carbon?
Sedimentary rock
What do community ecologists study?
Interactions between species that may change species composition in an area over time.
______ is the total amount of carbon fixed by autotrophs per unit area per year.
Gross Primary Production (GPP)
You are studying the cell of an organism and determine they do not have a nucleus, what is a possible domain for this organism?
Archaea or Bacteria
Domains include archaea, Bacteria, and eukarya
What are the definitions of fundamental vs realized niche:
Fundamental niche: niche in the absence of competition
Realized niche: niche used when competition occurs
Name the 8 levels of the systematic hierarchy starting with Domain:
Domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species
Give an example of what a population ecologist would study?
Ex: A population ecologist might study how the size of a snail population changes over time including how many individuals are born/die each year, how many males, or females are present
List two examples of climate change impacts:
- Changing geographic ranges for many organisms (urchins and other water residing organisms having to migrate to cooler waters)
- Coral bleaching
- Change in timing for seasonal events (first frost/first blooming of specific plants necessary for many animals)
The differential survival and reproduction of organisms in an environment, based on the set of traits they exhibit.
Natural selection
Primary succession: removes all biomass from an environment and leaves it completely barren
- Ex: volcano explosion (forms new land and kills anything from before)
Secondary succession: may remove some biomass
- Ex: fire, tornado
A control experiment is important in a scientific experiment because ______.
It is the standard treatment that is used as a basis of comparison for other treatments.
Give an example of mutualism, competition, commensalism, and parasitism
Mutualism: Cleaner birds help clean an alligators mouth. Alligator would normally have trouble with bacteria eating leftovers between teeth, and cleaner birds get a food source
Competition: a squirrel and a chipmunk both compete to obtain nuts from a nearby tree. Neither gets everything they want.
Commensalism: 1 benefits and the other isn’t impacted: Follicular mites in eyebrows. We aren’t impacted by their presence
Parasitism: a tick sucks the blood from a small dog. The dog then develops a disease from the interaction. Tick benefits, dog is hurt.
List 2 human impacts on the water, nitrogen, and carbon cycle
Water: Agricultural fields (erosion), Irrigation, Asphalt
Nitrogen: Agriculture (legumes: nitrogen fixation), fertilizers, burning fossil fuels
Carbon: Burning fossil fuels, land use changes (removing plants)
What is the competitive exclusion principle?
Two species cannot survive and reproduce indefinitely in the same area if they have the same niche.
Describe resource partitioning:
Use of resources in different ways or at different times.
ex: 2 birds utilize similar resources, one is active at night and one is active during the day so they never compete with one another
Give 3 examples of behavioral prey defenses:
Spraying chemicals, hiding, acting aggressive, playing dead, etc
Give the definitions of asymmetrical and symmetrical competition and give an example:
Asymmetrical competition: reduction in fitness is more in one species than the other
Symmetrical competition: both species have equal decreases in fitness
- Ammonification
- Nitrification
- Fixation
- Lightning
- Denitrification
Ammonification: organic N -> NH4+
Nitrification: NH4+ -> NO3-
Fixation: N2 -> NH4+
Lightning: N2 -> NO3-
Denitrification: NO3- -> N2
List all similarities and differences between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells:
Prokaryotic and eukaryotic: have: cell membrane, fluid inside called cytosol, have ribosomes, and genetic information
Prokaryotic only: singular (Circular) chromosome, lack a nucleus, DNA concentrated in nucleoid, are smaller and have no organelles
Eukaryotic only: multiple (linear) chromosomes, have a nucleus, Have organelles, larger in size
Describe what species richness and evenness are and how they impact diversity:
Richness: number of species that are present in A community
Evenness: all species present are relatively similar in their abundance.
Diversity: Impacted by both richness and evenness
In South America, several species of poisonous frogs all have the same bright colors and bold patterns on their bodies. This is an example of:
Mullerian mimicry