Plant Ecology Exam 1

Ways to restore degraded habitat

Large mammal enclosures

plant competitor removal

native seed additions

leaf litter manipulator

What factors influence tree growth

temperature

soil quality

water / soil moisture

genetics

Results of agricultural land use legacies

Increased soil compaction

reduced organic matter

altered soil and water relations

altered nutrient content

altered microbial communities

reduced plant diversity

altered plant composition

Definition of biodiversity

Variety of living organisms at all levels of biological organization

Ecosystem Diversity

Variation in biotic and abiotic properties among ecosystems in a landscape

Species Diversity

Variation in the number and relative abundance of species in a community

Genetic diversity

Variation in genetic makeup and morphological traits among individuals

Scale of ecological prowess (big to small)

Biome, ecosystem, community, population, individual

Ways of quantifying community biodiversity

species richness

species evenness

diversity indices

species composition

What is this image of?

Intermediate disturbance hypothesis

Ecosystem Functions

Productivity

Stability

Resistance

Carbon Sequestration

Nutrient Cycling

Water Cycling

Soil Formation

Things an ecosystem does

Pollination

Decomposition

Biomass production

What is alpha diversity a measure of?

Species richness and species evenness

What is beta diversity?

A measure of community heterogeneity

How plots are unique+similar in species composition

Functional Diversity

Not all the species in a plot doing the same thing/serving the same purpose

What accounts for productivity

Standing biomass

percent cover

allocation (root:shoot)

Physiognomy

Form, structure, or appearance of a plant community

Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis

Moderate levels of disturbance promote greater species diversity than either high or low levels of disturbance

High levels of disturbance

exclude many slow growing species

low levels of disturbance

allows dominant species to exclude less competitive species

Niche complementarity

two niches dont overlap