KEYSTONE SPECIES
Name one keystone species
Snowshoe Hare, Elephant, Jaguar, Prairie Dog, Wolf, Otter, etc.
The population density is equal to the number of individuals per unit of what?
The keystone species would win this sports accolade every time.
What is MVP?
An animal with no predators
What is an Apex Predator
The name for plankton that are in the kingdom animalia.
What is zooplankton?
Wolves went extinct in this US park during the 1930's.
What is Yellowstone?
The single-letter variable used to denote population size.
What is "N?"
The only non-predatory keystone species we discussed in class.
What is the African elephant?
Producers get their energy from this source.
What is the sun?
The name for autotrophic plankton.
What is Phytoplankton
The primary consumer who's population was controlled by sea otters.
What is sea urchins?
The word for animals that recycle dead and decaying matter.
What is decomposers?
The "domino effect" a keystone species has on its environment.
What is a trophic cascade
A group of animals that occupy similar levels of consumption.
What is a trophic level?
Name one biotic factor that regulates the abundance of zooplankton.
Abundance of food, predators, disease, etc.
The original predator of sea urchins before suffering a mass die-off in 2014.
What is sea stars?
Name one abiotic AND one biotic factor that might contribute to the carrying capacity of a species.
Biotic: Disease, competition, predation, food availability
Abiotic: Pollution, surface area, environmental factors
The abiotic effect that the inclusion of sea otters had on the ecosysyem.
What is "increased carbon dioxide fixation due to more abundant plant life?"
The fourth level of consumers.
What are quaternary consumers?
The definition of plankton.
Any organism unable to move independently of the water current.
Name TWO ways an elephant's physical effect on the landscape is able to increase the health of the ecosystem.
Elephants knock down trees creating new habitats and ecosystems for ground-dwelling animals.
Elephants knock down trees allowing sunlight to reach more grass, promoting growth.
Elephants dig for ground water during the dry seasons creating new watering holes.
The type of growth shown by an S-Curve
What is logistic growth?
How did the introduction of wolves physically alter the landscape of their habitat?
More beavers meant more dammed rivers which lead to more marshlands. Less plant and tree consumption allowed roots to grow larger, preventing erosion from rivers.
The percent of energy transferred as trophic level increases.
What is 10%?
The type of microscope we used in our plankton lab.
What is a dissecting scope?