Ecology Exam 2 (Set 1)

What are pools/reservoirs?

Places on earth where water is stored

What are the 7 types of pools/reservoirs?

• Atmosphere

• Ice

• Oceans

• Lakes

• Rivers

• Groundwater

• Soil

What are fluxes/movements?

Ways water moves on earth

What are the 4 main fluxes/movements?

• infiltration

• sheet flow

• percolation

• collection in aquifers

What are lotic systems?

aquatic ecosystems of flowing water

What are lentic systems?

aquatic ecosystems of still water

What is the river continuum? what are the 4 components of it?

Ecological and hydrological changes that occur along the course of a lotic system

Components:

• O2 concentration

• Temperature differences

• Nutrient avaliability

• Energy sources

What is autochthonous energy?

energy derived from photosynthesis within an aquatic system

What is allochthonous energy?

energy derived from organic materials and from the terrestrial system, within an aquatic system

What are the 3 lake zones (from shallowest to deepest?)

• Littoral

• Pelagic

• Benthic

What are the 3 temperature gradients in freshwater systems?

• Epilimnion

  • surface; warm

• Hypolimnion

  • deep; cold

• Thermocline

  • boundary between the two, with rapid temp changes

What is a watershed?

Area of land that collects, stores, and releases water to a common point, such as a river, lake, or stream

What was Darwins perspective on behavior?

Expression of emotion, to some degree, is a heritable trait

What are 3 factors regarding behavioral contribution to fitness?

• Behaviors with high heritability respond to natural selection more rapidly

• every behavior has a fitness cost and a benefit

• selection favors behaviors for which the benefits outweigh the costs

What is stimulus response?

A behavior directly caused by a specific stimulus

What is communication? what are the 2 types of communication, and the 4 means of communication?

Any action by one individual that alters the probability of behavior in another

Types:

• Discrete

  • “clear” signals/messages (ex. growling to show anger)

• Graded

  • behavior that changes according to intensity of the organism (ex. an animal getting progressively more agitated)

Means:

• Tactile

• Auditory

• Olfactory

• Visual

Is animal communication complex?

Yes; animals express some degree of complex language, even if we do not understand them.

• ex. prairie dogs have calls for expressing many things (anger, alarms, friendly calls, etc), that can be more specific than we would expect (ex. specific alarm calls for specific species, or even specific characteristics, such as different colors of domestic dog coats)

What is batemans principle?

Males experience greater variance in reproductive success than females

• the pressures in reproduction are much more significant for males than females

What is s*xual selection?

a form of natural selection that operates on traits that enhance competitive ability of one s*x for access to another

What is s*xual dimorphism?

size, coloration, or morphology differences between males and females

What is the balance hypothesis?

male traits are exaggerated by female choice until the overall fitness cost of having those traits is too high

• Ex. irish elk had extreme exaggeration of antler size (larger=preferred by females) which ultimately impacted their fitness, causing population decline until they went extinct

What is the truth in advertising hypothesis?

the quality of the male’s external features is an indication to females of the male’s genetic quality

What is a mating system? what are the 3 main components?

the set of relationships between males and females during reproduction

• number of mates an individual copulates with in a breeding season

• the contribution of males and females to parental care

• how long the relationship between the male and the female lasts

What are the 4 primary mating system types?

Monogamy

• one male mates with one female

Serial monogamy

• monogamy that lasts for only one breeding season

Polygyny

• males mate with more than one female

Polyandry

• females mate with more than one male

What are the 3 plant mating systems?

Outcrossing

• mating among different individuals

Autogamy

• self-fertilization

Apomixis

• asexual reproduction

What is the difference between migration and dispersal?

dispersal is one-way, while migration includes moving back

What is habitat?

abiotic and biotic characteristics of where an organism lives

What is microhabitat?

subset of a habitat that differs in some important characteristic(s) from the main habitat

What is home range?

the portion of the habitat used by an organism on a daily or seasonal basis.

What is territory?

Exclusive use of part/all of the home range of an organism

What are the 3 main components of social systems?

• group size + composition

• their mating system

• degree of cooperation among individuals

What is altruistic behavior?

Any behavior that increases the fitness of others and decreases the fitness of the altruist

What is inclusive fitness?

the relative ability to transfer one’s genes, or copies of them, into the next generation

What is haplodiploidy (in relation to inclusive fitness)?

Females diploid, males haploid.

• females are more closely related to their sisters than their offspring, so they are more likely to save their sisters than their offspring.

What is intraspecific variation?

Differences in individuals of the same species

• product of genetic and environmental processes

What 3 processes create genetic variation?

• mutation

• sexual reproduction

• crossing over

What 2 processes maintain genetic variation?

• Trait dominance

• Natural selection

What 4 processes decrease genetic variation?

• Directional selection

• Stabilizing selection

• genetic drift

• inbreeding

What are the 3 most important aspects of environmental discontinuity?

• the magnitude of the differences between patches

• the relative sizes of patches

• the degree to which the patches are isolated

What is an ecotone?

A boundary between ecosystem types

• can be abrupt (ex. riverbank to a river) or gradual (ex. altitude change)

What is Course-grained environmental variation?

• Patch size is larger than the organism’s mobility

• An organism experiences one or a few environments over their lifetime

What is Fine-grained environmental variation?

• Patch size is smaller than the organism’s mobility range

• An organism is exposed to many environments

What is a subspecies/ecotype?

A genetically distinct population that is adapted to local environmental conditions

• can still interbreed with the main population

What is Phenotypic plasticity?

development of different phenotypes in different environments by the same genotype

What is Demography?

the quantitative description of a population and its characteristics.

What is a Population?

a group of individuals of a species inhabiting a particular area.

• boundaries of this “particular area” are not always easily defined

• boundaries usually based on differences in Connectivity among patches, Habitat types, The number of individuals, Reproductive rate, etc.

What is a Deme?

The evolutionary population unit; a group of randomly mating individuals

What are the 3 quantifiable characteristics of population?

• Abundance of individuals

• spatial distribution of individuals

• demographics of individuals

What is Absolute population size?

actual or estimated size of a population based on counts of individuals

What is Relative population size?

Index of size that can be compared from one time/place to another.

What are area based counts most commonly used for?

estimations of abundance of immobile organisms

What are quadrats?

Sampling areas of specific size

What are mark-recapture studies used for?

estimating abundance of mobile organisms

What are the 4 assumptions of mark-recapture studies?

• The population is closed (no one leaves, enters, dies, or is born)

• All individuals have the same probability of getting caught

• Marks are not lost

• Marks do not affect catchability

What are the 3 types of spatial distribution?

Random

• neutral interaction among individuals; random distribution of resources

Clumped

• positive interaction among individuals; attraction to common resources

Regular

• Aggressive interaction among individuals; territoriality

• 
  

What are the 4 demographic characteristics of population?

• age/ stage structure

• sex structure

• reproductive rate

• survival patterns

What are life tables?

tables that show how survival and reproductive rates vary with age, size, or life cycle stage.

What is a cohort life table?

life table that follows the fate of a group of individuals all born at the same time (a cohort).

what is a static life table?

life table that follows survival and reproduction of individuals of different ages during a single time period.

What is a Survivorship curve?

a plot of the # of individuals from a cohort that will survive to reach different ages.