Lecture 14b- Ecological Niche and Geographic Range

Flashcards covering fundamental and realized niches, geographic ranges, limiting factors, dispersal, biological invasions, and ecological niche modeling principles.

As one zooms in to finer scales, what environmental factors progressively determine the distribution of Clematis fremonti?

Climate, topography, soil chemistry, and soil texture.

How is the fundamental niche of a species defined?

The range of physical conditions and resources over which a species can persist.

What is the realized niche of a species, and how does it relate to the fundamental niche?

It is smaller than the fundamental niche and represents the range of physical conditions and resources over which a species can persist in the presence of interspecific interactions, such as predators, pathogens, competitors, and mutualists.

In southern Florida, what invasive bee was documented pollinating the invasive orchid Cyrtopodium polyphyllum?

Centris nitida, an invasive oil-collecting bee.

What is a geographic range, and what factors determine it?

It is the actual spatial distribution of a population, determined by physical conditions and resources (fundamental niche), biotic interactions (realized niche), and dispersal.

How is dispersal defined in the context of species distributions?

The movement of individuals from one area to another.

What climatic extremes define the geographic distribution limits for the sugar maple in North America?

Cold winters ($<-18^\circ\text{C}$), hot summers ($>24^\circ\text{C}$), and summer drought.

What distinct soil characteristics differentiate the habitats of black maple, red maple, and silver maple?

Black maple prefers drier soils high in calcium; red maple thrives in moist, well-drained soils; and silver maple grows in wet, swampy soils or dry, poor soils.

How did the geographic range of the European Starling change in North America following its introduction?

Starting in the northeastern United States in $1918$, it spread westward and southward through $1926$ and $1949$, eventually occupying virtually the entire contiguous United States and southern Canada in the present day.

Based on this range expansion map, in what country and year did the spread of Africanized Honey Bees begin in the Americas?

Brazil in $1957$.

What invasive predator is shown here, and what was its impact on the native birds of Guam between 1963 and 1986?

The Brown Tree Snake, which expanded across the entire island of Guam and decimated the native Guam bird populations until they virtually vanished.

According to the diagram, what are the four sequential steps of ecological niche modeling?

1. Map the locations where the species has been recorded (known occurrences in native distribution). 2. Graph the physical conditions found in these locations to create an ecological envelope. 3. Map the locations where those conditions occur to predict the species' distribution in its native region. 4. Map the locations where those conditions occur in an introduced region to predict potential distribution.

What climate variables are captured in the 19 bioclim layers from WorldClim used in ecological niche modeling?

Mean temperature, hottest temperature, seasonality, and precipitation.

What are three primary applications of ecological niche modeling?

Predicting invasive ranges, projecting distributions under climate change, and locating rare species.

In the study by Lozier, Aniello, and Hickerson (2009), what did ecological niche modeling using Sasquatch sightings and footprints reveal?

The model produced a bioclimatic distribution nearly identical to that of the black bear, illustrating that without rigorous data validation, niche models can produce misleading predictions.

Which two invasive plant species had their potential distributions in North America predicted using ecological niche models based on their native Asian ranges?

Hydrilla verticillata and Lespedeza cuneata.