Studied by 6 people
Animal Behavior
the study of how animals move in their environment, how they socially, how they learn about their environment, and how an animal might achieve cognitive understanding of its environment
Kinesis
the nondirectional movement of an organism or cell in response to a stimulus
Taxis
an innate behavioral response by an organism to a directional stimulus.
Classical conditioning
arbitrary stimulus associated with particular outcome
Operant conditioning
a type of associative learning that’s based on reinforcement or punishment to modify a conditioned behavior
Cognition
process of knowing that involves awareness, reasoning, recollection, judgment
Population growth formula
dN/dT = B - D (dN = change in pop size; dT = change in time; B = birth rate; D = death rate
exponential population growth
ideal conditions; population grows rapidly
Exponential Growth Equation
dN/dT = rN (dN/dT change in population; r = growth rate of pop.; N = population size)
Logistic Growth
population expansion decreases as resources become limited; levels off when carrying capacity is reached
Logistic growth formula
dN/dt = rN((K-N)/K) (dN/dT change in population; r = growth rate of pop.; N = population size; K = carrying capacity)
K-selection
Population close to carrying capacity
Live around K
High prenatal care
Low birth numbers
Good survival of young
Density-dependant
r-selection
Maximize reproductive success
exponential growth
little or no care
high birth numbers
poor survival of young
density independant
Density- dependant factors
factors that affect the population based on density
Predation
disease
competition
territoriality
toxic wastes
physiological factors
Density-independent factors
factors that affect the population size and doesn’t depend on density or size
natural disasters (fire, flood, weather)
Carrying capacity
the number of people, other living organisms, or crops that a region can support without environmental degradation.
when close to it, resources become more partitioned, resulting in niche partitioning
Niche partitioning
decrease in competition over limited resources because each species is accessing the resource in different ways
Mark & Recaptured Method
used to estimate the size of a population
Mark & Recaptured Method Formula
N = MT/R (N = predicted pop. size; M = Marked; T = total # of organisms in second collection; R = # of recaptured that are marked)
Interspecific interactions
interactions between species
Competition (-/-)
the direct or indirect interaction of organisms that leads to a change in fitness when the organisms share the same resource; bad for both species
Predation (+/-)
the preying of one animal on others
Herbivory - (+/-)
the consumption of plant material by animals
Facilitiation - (+/+ or +/0)
create new landscapes or habitats (ex: beaver or sea otters)
Symbiosis
2+ species live in direct contact with one another
Parasitism (+/-)
\n parasites attatches to and harms organisms by draining nutrients
Mutalism - (+/+)
both species benefit (ex: bee and flower)
Commensalism
species 1 benefits, 2 isn’t affected
Keystone species
exert control on community structure by their important ecological niches - increase community diversity (wolves and sea otters)
Facilitating Species
one species positively impacts the fitness of another (intertidal mussels)
Simspon’s Diversity Index
diversity based on species richness & relative abundance; higher diverse communities are more resistant to invasive species
Simpson’s Diversity Index Formula
D = 1- Σ(n/N)^2
