Ecology
This subfield of ecology studies how to manage biodiversity in human dominated ecosystems
What is reconciliation ecology?
This allows an organism’s physiology, morphology, & behavior to match to the environment it lives in.
What is an adaptation?
This is the theoretical area where you could find a given organism
What is the fundamental niche?
This biome has the highest biodiversity of any region on the planet.
What are the tropics?
This organism doesn't drink water - instead using respiratory moisture condensed in nasal passages and highly concentrated urine to gain water
The Kangaroo rat
This describes how populations change in time/space
What is population dynamics?
This is the process by which individuals in a population that are best suited to the environment increase in frequency relative to less well-suited forms, over a number of generations
What is natural selection?
This physical characteristic defines where you can find amphibians
What is water?
This weather pattern is responsible for higher precipitation in the tropics and deserts at the 30 degree north/south latitudes.
What are Hadley Cells?
This native amphibian’s ecological niche shrank dramatically after non-native trout were introduced into Sierra Nevada alpine lakes, where the fish preyed on its tadpoles and competed for resources.
What is the mountain yellow-legged frog?
Magnitude, timing, frequency, duration, and rate of change are components of this
What is the natural flow regime?
This term refers to the competitive dominance of an individual or species within an ecosystem, and relates to the number of offspring they leave behind to the next generation.
What is fitness?
A koala, which feeds almost exclusively on eucalyptus leaves, is an example of this type of species, adapted to a narrow ecological niche.
What is a specialist?
The rotation of the earth is responsible for this atmospheric circulatory pattern
What is the Coriolis effect?
On California’s Channel Islands, the near-extirpation of Bald Eagles due to DDT led to the arrival of this raptor, which preyed on Island Foxes and disrupted the ecosystem’s balance.
What is the Golden Eagle?
This refers to when the impact of certain factors on a population (like disease, competition, or predation) depends on how crowded the population is
What is density dependence?
Polyploidy is an evolutionary mistake that occurs when the genome is accidentally duplicated by plants during reproduction, and results in an entirely new species as soon as the offspring is produced. This is an example of this type of evolutionary force.
What is a mutation?
A species' niche is often smaller in nature than in theory due to limiting factors like predation or competition. This narrower version is called the ____.
Realized niche
Warm air cools as it rises, and as water cools, it condenses, leading to rain. What is formed by this on the eastern slope of coastal mountain ranges?
What is a rainshadow?
Mist-nets, roost-site captures, radiotelemetry, and acoustic surveillance are ways to monitor this type of organism
Bats
A question like “How has the population of bighorn sheep changed over the past 10 years?” is an example of this kind of scientific question, based on observable data.
What is an empirical question?
This theory of speciation states that most organisms remain static and unchanging for long periods of time, followed by the very abrupt and rapid evolution of new species over very short time periods.
What is punctuated equilibrium?
When two individuals of the same species compete for nesting sites, it’s called this type of interaction.
What is an intraspecific interaction?
This type of precipitation, caused by moist air rising and cooling as it moves up the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, helps sustain the lush environment necessary for giant sequoia forests.
What is Adiabatic rainfall?
74% of this type organism is expected to be extinct in California by the year 2100 due to dams, hatcheries, habitat loss, and harvest.
Salmonids (or salmon, trout, char)