Biodiversity/ Island Biogeography
Describe how an ecosystem could be diverse?
Different types of species present, different resources available, different habitats etc. to meet a wide array of species' needs.
Which comes first, primary or secondary succession?
Primary
What are the 4 Types of Ecosystem Services?
Regulating, Provisioning, Supporting, Cultural
Ecosystem disruptions can be divided into two categories:
Short-term (hurricane, forest fire, tsunami etc.)
Long-term (glacial period, warming period)
A species with longer legs outrunning a predator more successfully than a species with shorter legs is an example of which evolutionary process?
Adaptation
(Bonus points if you said selective pressure).
What is ecological tolerance?
Specific environmental range where a species thrives before injury or death. Generalist species typically high higher ecological tolerances to stress than specialist.
What are the differences between primary and secondary succession?
Primary occurs after a major landscape alteration that cleared out plants (glacial period), soil and rocks. Primary needs to start from scratch and re-form soil.
Secondary could have happened after a lesser event (forest fires hurricane etc.), that wiped out plants. Soil is still intact.
Doing yoga outside on the beach is an example of which ecosystem service?
Cultural-the physical, emotional and mental benefits that nature provides
If a beaver is removed from an ecosystem, what effect will that have on the ecosystem?
Beavers are keystone species that provide vital services to ecosystems, therefore the removal of such a significant species will have a cascading/negative effect of the ecosystem, in which other species may decline.
What might affect the distribution or "range shift" of a species?
-An introduction of a new predator species
- Climate change-Altering temperatures/precipitation patterns
-A change in the distribution of the species’ food source
-Human disturbances
Is a koala eating a particular species of plant in its very niche, specific habitat considered a generalist or specialist species?
During the last Ice Age, glaciers covered large portions of North America. When they receded, in many places all they left behind were large deposits of rock. What likely happened next?
Lichens and moss formed soil
Supporting-without which, all the other ecosystem services would not exist.
Mayflies that hatch in clean water only, and provide scientists with vital information about water quality are categorized as what type of species?
An indicator species.
What causes a species to go extinct?
When rapid change exceeds a population's adaptive capacity (the rate of the threat occurs faster than the rate at which the species can adapt).
What is the Theory of Island Biogeography?
Areas of land (human made fragments or physical islands) that are more isolated, or farther away and smaller than the mainland will have less species diversity.
What type of ecosystem would you expect to recover the fastest after a disturbance has occurred?
Antibiotics, timber for housing, a glass of clean drinking water and wool to make clothing are all examples of which ecosystem service?
Provisioning-anything tangible from the earth, that you can hold.
What are the three timescales that earth's processes can fall under?
Episodic, Periodic, and Random Processes
How do populations respond to changes in the environment?
Genetic Adaptation, Migration and Range Shift, Acclimation and Immediate Adjustments, Local Extinction/Decline
Describe the Bottleneck Effect
A major event or disaster causing devastation to an area, in which only certain species survived. Those specific, species will then reproduce to create future populations that are less biodiverse.
Identify TWO examples of primary succession AND TWO examples of secondary succession.
primary - glacial retreat and volcanic eruption
secondary - forest fire and abandoned agricultural field
Provide a specific example for the Regulating Ecosystem Service
Climate regulation, flood control, erosion control, water purification, disease and pest management, pollination,
Earths rotational path around the sun falls under which category of natural processes?
Periodic
What are the mechanisms of Natural Selection leading to species adaptation in response to threats?
Variation in traits, selective pressure, differential reproduction, and population adaptation.