bio120 -- community ecology

what bird species in the everglades reveald a threat to the ecosystem?

wood stork

what is an indicator species?

Species that indicate environmental quality or levels of pollution by their presence, absence or abundance.

what is top-down effect of keystone species?

changing the TOP consumer to a low population which trickles down and affects the lower trophic levels.

what is bottom-up effect of keystone species?

how changes at lower trophic levels, such as the availability of resources like nutrients, affect higher trophic levels and the overall community structure

what is a keystone species?

a species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend, such that if it were removed the ecosystem would change drastically.

what is an ecological community?

The interactions of two or more species within a given area.

habitat

physical environment in which individuals of a particular spcies can be found

niche

unique role a species plays in its community, including how it gets its energy and nutrients, what habitat requirements it has, and with what other species and parts of the ecosystem it interacts

niche specialist

species with very specific habitat or resource requirements that restricts where it can live

niche generalist

species that occupies a broad niche because it can utilize a wide variety of resources

is the wood stork a niche generalist or specialist?

niche specialist

why were the everglades important to the larger ecosystem

• helped capture contaminants and excess nutrients

• provided flood control

• helped refill groundwater supplies

• changed soil matrix

what effect do humans have on the everglades?

drained wetlands, reordered landscape, pollution disrupting nutrient cycles, etc

food chain

simple linear path starting with a plant or photosynthetic organism that identifies what each organism in the path eats

food web

linkage of all the food chains together and shows the many connections in the community

producer

photosynthesize that creates its own food

consumer

consumes other organisms for nutrients and energy

what wood storks r or k selected and why?

k-selected because they mature slowly and may not produce until they are 4 years old

single clutch of eggs per year

trophic pyramid

A representation of the distribution of biomass, numbers, or energy among trophic levels

trophic levels

feeding levels in a food chain

detritivores

Organisms that eat dead organic matter

decomposers

Organisms that break down the dead remains of other organisms to constituent atoms or molecules in forms that plants can take back up

what two factors determine species diversity?

richness and evenness

the greater the diversity, the ____ resilient a community is

more

species richness

the total number of different species in a community

species evenness

relative abundance of each species