BIOL1030: Ecosystem Ecology, Conservation Biology, and Ecology in the Anthropocene

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering fundamental concepts, formulas, and terminology from BIOL1030 Lectures 7, 8, and 9 (Ecosystem Ecology, Conservation Biology, and Ecology in the Anthropocene).

Ecosystem

A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

First Law of Thermodynamics

The physical law stating that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed from one form to another.

Second Law of Thermodynamics

The physical law stating that every energy transfer or transformation increases the entropy of the universe, causing usable energy to be lost as heat.

Conservation of Mass

The principle stating that matter cannot be created or destroyed; as a result, chemical elements and nutrients cycle continuously through ecosystems.

Primary Production

The amount of light energy converted into chemical energy by autotrophs (plants, algae, and photosynthetic bacteria) during a given time period.

Gross Primary Production (GPP)

The total amount of chemical energy produced by primary producers through photosynthesis in a given time period.

Net Primary Production (NPP)

The energy captured by autotrophs that remains after accounting for cellular respiration ($NPP = GPP - R$), representing the energy available to higher trophic levels.

Respiration ($R$)

The chemical energy consumed by primary producers to support their own cellular metabolism and cellular maintenance.

Limiting Nutrient

The specific chemical element (commonly nitrogen or phosphorus) in shortest supply relative to biological demand, whose addition is required for primary production to increase.

Trophic Efficiency

The percentage of energy transferred from one trophic level to the next, which typically ranges between $5\%$ and $20\%$ in natural ecosystems.

10% Rule

An ecological generalization stating that approximately $10\%$ of energy is transferred across consecutive trophic levels, with the remainder lost through heat, cellular respiration, and unconsumed biomass.

Bottom-Up Control

A mechanism of community and ecosystem regulation in which biomass and population sizes at higher trophic levels are driven by nutrient supply and primary producer availability.

Top-Down Control

A mechanism of community and ecosystem regulation where predators and higher-level consumers limit the population sizes and biomass of lower trophic levels.

Detritus

Non-living organic material that settles within an ecosystem, consisting of dead plants, fallen leaves, wood, and animal remains.

Detritivores

Heterotrophic animals (such as earthworms, beetles, and termites) that obtain nutrients by ingesting and physically breaking down dead organic matter.

Decomposers

Microorganisms, mainly fungi and bacteria, that chemically digest dead organic material externally and absorb soluble nutrients, releasing inorganic compounds back to the environment.

Tea Bag Index

A standardized scientific protocol used to measure terrestrial decomposition rates by burying pre-weighed tea bags in soil for a set duration (typically three months) to determine mass loss.

Ecosystem Engineers

Species that physically alter, create, or maintain structural components of their environment, thereby modulating resource availability and ecosystem functioning (e.g., digging marsupials such as bettongs and bilbies).

Restoration Ecology

The scientific discipline applying ecological principles to repair, restore, and rehabilitate ecosystems degraded or destroyed by human activities.

Conservation Biology

The integrative discipline dedicated to surveying, understanding, and protecting global biodiversity and halting human-caused population declines and extinctions.

Small-Population Approach

A conservation biology framework that focuses on the intrinsic vulnerabilities of small populations, particularly demographic stochasticity, inbreeding depression, and the extinction vortex.

Declining-Population Approach

A conservation biology framework that identifies, diagnoses, and reverses the external environmental drivers causing a species to experience rapid numerical decline.

Extinction Vortex

A downward demographic and genetic spiral in which small population size leads to inbreeding and loss of genetic variation, reducing individual fitness and accelerating further population collapse.

Effective Population Size ($N_e$)

An estimate of the size of an ideal population that would lose genetic diversity at the same rate as the real population; it is typically much smaller than the actual census count.

Demographic Stochasticity

Random, chance variations in birth and death rates that cause unpredictable fluctuations in small populations, potentially driving them to extinction.

Genetic Rescue

The targeted introduction of unrelated individuals from another population to boost genetic diversity, alleviate inbreeding depression, and increase population fitness (as observed in Mt Buller mountain pygmy possums).

Population Viability Analysis (PVA)

A demographic mathematical modeling process used to forecast the extinction probability of a population over specified future time horizons.

Finite Population Growth Rate ($\lambda$)

The factor by which a population multiplies from one time step to the next, calculated as $\lambda = S_a + (F \times S_j)$, where $\lambda > 1$ denotes growth and $\lambda < 1$ denotes decline.

Winter Blind Spot

The observational bias in ecology caused by collecting over $85\%$ of demographic data during the breeding season, obscuring high rates of mortality that take place during non-breeding winter months.

Habitat Fragmentation

The disruption of continuous native vegetation into smaller, disconnected spatial fragments, increasing edge effects and limiting dispersal.

Metapopulation

A set of spatially distinct local populations occupying habitat patches that interact through occasional dispersal, migration, and recolonization events.

Anthropocene

The contemporary geological epoch wherein human activities exert the dominant influence on Earth's climate, biogeochemical cycles, and biological ecosystems.

Bioaccumulation

The gradual buildup and retention of a toxic chemical within the biological tissues of an organism over the course of its lifespan.

Biomagnification

The progressive bioaccumulation-driven increase in chemical contaminant concentration per unit biomass across successive trophic levels of a food web.

Urban Adapters

Species that successfully persist and thrive in anthropogenic environments by exploiting urban waste, altered microclimates, artificial nest structures, and reduced predation.

The Anthropause

The global reduction in modern human mobility, traffic, and industrial activity associated with COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, which exposed rapid behavioral and physiological responses in wildlife.

Citizen Science

The structured participation of the general public in collecting, processing, and analyzing ecological and scientific datasets alongside researchers.

One Health

A holistic, cross-disciplinary ecological framework recognizing that human physical and mental wellbeing is intrinsically linked to animal health and intact, functioning ecosystems.

The Luxury Effect

The documented urban phenomenon in which higher-income residential areas support significantly higher plant canopy cover, vegetation diversity, and animal biodiversity than less affluent areas.

Ecosystem Services

The critical ecological processes and environmental resources that natural ecosystems provide directly or indirectly to sustain human life and societal well-being.