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What is BECPO
Biosphere, Ecosystem, Community, Population, Organism
What are examples of abiotic factors?
Precipitation, temperature, sun, wind
What are examples of biotic factors?
Plants, animals, fungi, bacteria
What is a biome?
Major ecosystem type
What are examples of biomes?
Desert, rainforest, tundra, grassland
What is a habitat?
Where an organism lives
What is a niche?
The role a species plays; habitat, activity patterns, and resources it uses
What are Autotrophs?
producers; “self-feeder”
What are heterotrophs?
Consumers; “other feeder”
What is a food chain?
Pathway along which food energy is transferred between trophic levels
What are food webs?
Feeding relationships of various organisms in the ecosystem
What are the trophic pyramid levels (low to high)?
Producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer (decomposer eats everything)
How much energy is passed on to higher trophic levels?
10%
What is behavior?
What an animal does, and how it does it; genetic and environmental factors
What is ethology?
Study of behavior
What is proximate cause?
HOW a behavior occurs or is modified (animal physiology)
What is ultimate cause?
WHY a behavior occurs, in terms of natural selection (how it helps with reproduction)
What is innate behaviors?
Fixed action patterns triggered by sign stimulus; “built-in”
What are fixed action patterns?
Sequence of unlearned acts that are unchangeable and usually carried to completion
What is kinesis?
Random movement in response to a change in the environment; usually observed in simpler invertebrates
What is taxis?
Oriented movement from a certain stimulus
What is phototaxis?
Response movement from a LIGHT
What is chemotaxis?
Response movement from a CHEMICALS
What is geotaxis?
Response movement from a GRAVITY
What is rheotaxis?
Response movement from water flow/current
What is migration?
Regular, long-distance changes in location using environmental cues (sun, stars, Earth’s magnetic field, landmarks)
What are examples of auditory communication?
Dolphin clicks and whistles
What are examples of visual communication?
Animal coloration (warning or mating)
What are examples of tactile communication?
Physical human interactions (handshakes, hugs)
What are examples of pheromone communication?
Bees/ant pheromones
What are examples of dancing communication?
Honeybee waggle dance
What are learned behaviors?
Behaviors that are modified based on specific experiences
What is imprinting?
Long-lasting response on individual/object, formed during early stages of life
What is an example of imprinting?
Baby geese imprinting on the mother and following her around
What are the 2 Associative Learning types?
Classical and Operant learning
What is classical conditioning?
random stimulus associated with a particular outcome
What is an example of classical conditioning?
Pavlov’s Dog Experiment
What is operant conditioning?
Trial and error learning
What is an example of operant conditioning?
Coyote trying to eat a porcupine and getting quilled
What is social learning?
Learning by observing others
What is an example of social learning?
People observing each other to learn
What is optimal foraging theory?
Natural selection favors the most reward for the minimal risk/energy; “cost/benefit analysis”
What factors are involved in foraging?
Reward (food), risk (predation, injury), energy
What is sexual dimorphism?
Males and females vary in size and appearance
What is reproductive success?
Species' ability to pass on its genes to the next generation; ability to produce viable offspring
What are the competitions between sexes?
“female choice” and “male competition”
What is a monogamy?
Male and female pair
What is promiscuity?
mating with multiple partners all the time
What is polyandry?
many males, one female
What is polygyny?
many females, one male
What is altruism?
A behavior that reduces an individual’s fitness, but increases the fitness of others in the population
What is kin selection?
Increasing reproductive success of relatives
What is reciprocal altruism?
Altruism between unrelated individuals; “I help you now, you help me later”
What factors influence population growth?
Birth/Death rate, immigration/emmigration
When does population growth rate = 0
birth rate = death rate
What conditions allow for exponential growth?
Abundant food, lots of space, little/no predators
What type of curve is exponential growth?
J-curve
What condition causes logistic growth?
limited food, smaller space, lots of predators
What type of curve is logistic growth?
S-curve
What is carrying capacity (K)?
Maximum stable population in an environment
What biotic factors influence K?
predation, disease, food availability, competition
What abiotic factors influence K?
Precipitation, temperature, sun
What are characteristics of type 1 survivorship curve?
Low death rate, many individuals live to old age
What are examples of organisms with type 1 survivorship?
humans, elephants
What are characteristics of type 2 survivorship curve?
Moderate death rate, individuals die at all ages
What are examples of organisms with type 2 survivorship?
Birds, squirrels
What are characteristics of type 3 survivorship curve?
High death rate, many individuals die young and few live to old age
What are examples of organisms with type 3 survivorship?
Trees, frogs
What are r-selected species characteristics?
Many babies, little/no parental care
What are K-selected species characteristics?
Few babies, lots of parental care
What is Semelparity reproduction?
Many offspring produced at once, individual often dies after; “Big bang reproduction”
What is Iteroparity reproduction?
Few offspring multiple times in life; “Repeated reproduction”
What are Density-Dependent Factors?
Disease, competition, predation
What are Density-Independent Factors?
Fires, floods, droughts
What is a community?
Populations of different species interacting with each other
What is a fundamental niche?
Potential niche that species occupies
What is a realized niche?
Actual niche that species occupies
What is competitive exclusion principle
Two species cannot coexist in a community with identical niches; “One will win”
What is Resource partitioning
Differences in niches that allow species to coexist
What are the 5 predation defenses?
Camouflage, thorns/toxins, aposematic color, Batesian, Mullerian
What is Batesian Mimicry?
Harmless species mimics harmful species colors; Coral Snake and Scarlet King Snake
What is Mullerian Mimicry?
Bad tasting species resemble each other in order to be avoided; Cuckoo Bee and Yellowjacket
What is a Dominant species?
Species with the highest biomass in community
What is a Keystone species?
A species that plays a crucial role in the ecosystem
What is bottom up regulation?
Lower trophic levels control the biomass of upper trophic levels; phytoplankton in the ocean
What is top down regulation?
Higher tropic levels control biomass of lower tropic levels; Gray wolves in Yellowstone
What is a trophic cascade?
Predators suppress the abundance or alter the behavior of their prey
What is primary succession?
Volcanic island/Glaciers; soil is not intact; pioneer species
What is neutralism?
0,0
What is commensalism?
+,0
What is mutualism?
+,+
What is competition?
-,-
What is predation/parasitism?
+,-
What are generalists?
Eat many things
What are specialists?
Eat one/few things
What is nitrogen fixation?
Atmospheric nitrogen gets converted into NH3 (ammonia) via bacteria
What is ammonification?
Nitrogen compounds gets converted into NH4 (ammonium)
What is nitrification?
ammonia and ammonium gets converted into nitrates and nitrites
What is denitrification?
nitrogen compounds gets converted back to atmospheric nitrogen
Why is nitrogen cycle important?
Forms proteins and nucleic acids
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