Intro to Ecology
Describe ecosystem ecology
How do nutrients
and energy (abiotic factors) move
between organisms and their
environment?
Focus on organisms
Nitrogens affecting forest community (correct) vs nitrogen going into the town's water (no)
Describe population vs community ecology
Community Ecology: how do members of different species interact?
Population Ecology: How do the numbers of organisms in a population change over time?
Define these three biotic interactions
1. Competition
2. Predation
Give an example for each
Competition: Both - (-/-)
Predation One +, one - (+/-)
Name the four components of climate
Hint: (these are all abiotic...)
1) temperature
2)Moisture
3)Light
4)wind
what are the three domain classifications?
Bacteria
Eukarya
Archaea
Describe what a Rain Shadow is and how it occurs
wet/warm air coming off the water up the mountain (windward side), the temperature drops and moisture drops, the cold dry air is driven down the mountain and is sucking up and stealing moisture (leeward side)
Different motor: the prevailing winds!
(the sun is the "motor" for hadley cells)
Describe Fecundity
a. Number of female offspring produced per female
b. Age-specific fecundity average number of female offspring
produced per female for a given age-class
What is the difference between interspecific competition vs. intraspecific competition
Intraspecific is competition between individuals of the same species, while interspecific is competition between individuals of different species.
Why is there so much variation for climate (ex: warm tropics and cold poles)
The tilt of the earth on it's axis...the directness of the sun's rays
NOT BECAUSE EARTH IS NEARER IN SUMMER THAN WINTER
"the farther you are from the equator the more extreme the winter-summer differences are"
What are the NPK nutrients?
Why are they important?
Nitrogen Phosphorous Potassium
MOST IMPORTANT:
Interactions: How organisms interact
with their environment
The scientific study of the interactions that determine the distribution and abundance of organisms
Describe the term "Survivorship"
a. Proportion of offspring in a cohort that survives to a given
age (age 0 → X)
b. Don’t confuse with survival, which is between any ages
c. Survivorship always goes down with increased age
d. Survivorship curves show pattern of survival for populations
Define niche in ecological terms, how is it a part of interspecific competition?
Niche – the set of
habitat conditions
required for an
organism’s existence
Referring to Human Age Pyramid/Age Structure...
In Sweden in 2000: 1.5 children/woman
Is this population growing or shrinking?
vs
India: 3/3 children/woman
Is this population growing or shrinking?
Sweden: Population is shrinking
India: growing
What does the xylem transport?
What does the phloem transport?
xylem: water
Phloem: sugars
Describe how the Hadley cell works
Sun most direct at equator: HOT!
b) Warm air rises
c) Warm air holds more moisture than cold air
d) As air cools, drops moisture
e) Cold air forced out by
rising warm air
f) Cold, dry air sinks
g) Dry air spreads over surface,
sucks up moisture, and
warms
Describe Logistic growth
a. Growth rate decreases as population size increases
b. Growth depends on 3 things
1) r (per capita growth rate)
2) N (population size)
3) K (carrying capacity)
c. Growth rate is density dependent
Diversity tends to be greater at ______ latitudes
Why?
Diversity tends to be greater at lower latitudes
a. There is a lot of Energy at tropics
b. And lots of Moisture,
c. This means lots of Productivity
d. So, lots of Resources in an accommodating environment
e. This leads to lots of Competition
f. Leads to Niche Differentiation (reduce -/-)
g. Niche differentiation increases Speciation
Why is growth rate declining?
(Referring to the global human population projection)
-Humans not maximizing the number of offspring that they can produce
-The death rate has decreased, but fertility has also decreased
-from around 5.0 to around 2.4 children/woman
-Birth control came out in 1970...look what happened to the population dynamics
Name 2 different plant hormones
Auxin
cytokinins
Gibberellins
Abscisic Acid
Ethylene
Name the types of Biomes (from the equator out)
(try to name all six: extra 200 pts if you can describe the temperature/precipitation of each)
Types of Biomes (from equator out)
1. Tropical rain forest
2. Subtropical desert
3. Temperate grassland
4. Temperate forest
5. Boreal forest (taiga)
6. Arctic tundra (desert)
Describe Exponential Growth
a. Population growth is a function of r & N
b. Constant growth rate does NOT depend on N
c. Growth rate is density independent
d. Most likely to occur
1) After new colonization
2) Recovering from pop. reduction
EX: Case study: Australian rabbits
1. Richness – simply: how many species are there?
2. Evenness - incorporates relative abundance of
each species (99% is 1 species = not very diverse)
What kind of fruit is a banana? (Think about the fruit lab and dichotomous key)
Remember Dr. Long and Nelson said this will be on the next lab quiz
Bananas are berries!
What is bryophyta? Anthophyta?
DR. LONG SAID THERE MAY BE LIFE CYCLES ON THE FINAL... PLEASE REVIEW THOSE ON YOUR OWN
Bryophyta: moss
Anthophyta: flowering plants