Exam 1 BIOL-242

Diversity of Life

Cultural Services

Benefit society culturally, culture, or education

Recreation, human benefit, morale

Supporting Services

Anything so fundamental it makes the rest possible

Absolutely crucial for life in the entire ecosystem

Regulating Services

Controls or moderate the quality or amount of stuff

Changing the amount of something

Provisioning Services

Products that humans obtain or harvest

Humans taking things from the environment

Options for a species faced with extinction

1) Find somewhere else

2) Acclimation: survive with what they have

3) Evolve: change in genetics over time

4) Extinction

What makes a species invasive

1) Non-native

2) Outcompete for resources

3) Introduced somehow

Biomagnification

Bioaccumulated toxins/minerals/something moving through a trophic system

Bioaccumulation

Accumulation of something inside an organism

Point Source Pollution

Easy to pinpoint, determine responsibility

Non-Point Source Pollution

Collective pollution without a clear single origin

Net Primary Productivity

Available energy to be absorbed from primary producers

TOTAL amount of biomass available, biomass generated by primary producers for consumers

Gross Primary Productivity

Amount of energy primary producers take in from the sun that is turned into chemical energy

Trophic Efficiency

How efficiently is energy transferred between levels

(Pn/Pn-1)

Production Efficiency

How efficiently assimilated energy is used for growth and respiration

(Pn (biomass energy)/A (respiration + growth/reproduction)

What does a low PE mean

Using respiration to create heat

Endotherm

PE of <10%

What does a high PE mean

Not using respiration to create heat

Ectotherm

PE of > 10%

What process turns atmospheric nitrogen into usable nitrogen

Fixation

What turns usable nitrogen into NO3-

Nitrification

What turns NO3- into atmospheric nitrogen

Denitrification

What is changing the nitrogen between forms in the nitrogen cycle

Bacteria

What processes return carbon to the atmosphere

Respiration

Burning of fossil fuels

What is the largest sink of nitrogen

Atmosphere (78%)

What is the largest sink of carbon

Soil and rocks

Community

Only concerned with now living things and how they interact with one another

Many species interacting with each other

Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis

To keep a good amount of biodiversity we need a good middle ground of frequency of disturbances

Primary Succession

Starting from nothing

No soil, dead things, or biological framework

Islands, “bare rocks:

Secondary Succession

Starting from something

Could be recovering

Yes soil, mudbanks, dead stuff, and biological framework

Niche

An organisms role in an environment, how do organisms survive and reproduce

Fundamental Niche

Every possible condition that an organisms could survive and reproduce in (no competition)

Realized Niche

The actual conditions the organism is living and reproducing in (with competition)

Dominant Species

The bottom of the trophic pyramid

Primary Producers

Occupy the most biomass

Keystone Species

At the top of the trophic pyramid

Occupy the least biomass

Population

Only one species and their interactions with each other

Intraspecific Interactions

Happen within a population

Interspecific Interactions

Happens between many populations

N

Current population size

K

Carrying capacity

G

Growth rate

(can be calculated two ways)

R-selected Organisms

Thrive in unstable environments

Quick reproduction

Lots of offspring

Very dispersive

Shorter lifespans (in general)

Low energy per child

Scarce resources

K-selected Organisms

Thrive in stable environment

Slow reproduction

Few offspring

Lot of energy per child

Not very dispersive

Longer Lifespan

Density Dependent

Resource distribution (competition)

Disease

Predation

Parasites

Density Independent

Temperature

Natural disasters

Climate Change

Pollution

Type 1 Survivorship Curve

All are surviving at birth, till a certain age then they die

ex) humans

Type 2 Survivorship Curve

Constant death rate, have some amount of people dying no matter the age

ex) birds

Type 3 Survivorship Curve

Most die at birth, but the ones that make it live a long life

ex) sea turtles

Ecosystem Services

Things the environment provides to us for free, that are necessary to sustain life

What impacts biodiversity the most

Precipitation and rain

Bottleneck Event

It can begin a process known as the extinction vortex. Without intervention, a species will likely experience global extinction

Ecosystem

All the organisms living in an area as well as the abiotic factors they interact with

First Law of Thermodynamics

Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred or transformed

Second Law of Thermodynamics

Every exchange of energy increases the entropy of the universe

In an ecosystem energy conversions are not completely efficient, some energy is always lost as heat

Trophic Levels

Levels of the energy pyramid are named to describe how organisms within the level acquire energy

Primary Producers

Receive energy from an abiotic source (sun)

Consumers

Eat other organisms for energy

Biological Augmentation

Uses organisms to add essential materials to a degraded ecosystem

Bioremediation

The use of organisms to detoxify ecosystems

Mutualism

Both species benefit

Commensalism

One species benefits while the other is unharmed

Herbivory

Parasitism

Predation

One species is harmed while the other benefits

Aposematic Coloration

Chemical defenses are often paired with bright warning coloration so predators will avoid them

Cryptic Coloration

Camouflage

Batesian Coloration

Harmless species looks or acts like a harmful one, aka dishonest coloration

Mullerian Mimicry

Harmful species resemble each other, aka honest coloration

Competition

Both species are harmed

Semelparous

Reproduce once in their lifetime

Heroparous

Reproduce multiple times in their lifetime

Life History Traits

Comprises the traits that affect its timing of reproduction and lifespan, determined by:

The age at first reproduction (or age of maturity)

How often the organism reproduces in its life

How many offspring are produced per reproductive episode