mega fat ultra quizlet

Aposematic Coloration

"warning coloration", used by noxious organisms to signal their unprofitability to potential predators

EX: poisonous frogs be hella colorful

Batesian Mimicry

a harmless species mimics a harmful one

Biomanipulation

deliberate alteration of an ecosystem by adding/removing species, especially predators

Biomass

total quantity of weight of organisms in a given area or volume

Bottom-Up Model

system design approach where parts of a system are defined in details

Character Displacement

phenomenon where differences among similar species whose distributions overlap geographically are accentuated in regions where species co-occur, but minimized when not

Commensalism

(+/0 interaction), one species benefits, other is neither harmed nor helped

Competition Exclusion

caused by strong competition, local elimination of a competing species

Cryptic Coloration

camouflage, making prey difficult to spot

Ecological Succession

process by which an ecosystem or community experiences changes

Ecosystem Engineer

any species that creates, significantly modifies, maintains or destroys a habitat

Energetic Hypothesis

the length of a food chain is limited by the inefficiency of energy transfer along the chain

Evapotranspiration

process of water transferring from land to the atmosphere by evaporation from soil and other surfaces and by transpiration from plants

Facilitation

when one species positively impact the fitness of another

Food Chain

linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass as one organism eats another

Food web

diagram showing transfer of energy through multiple different organisms in an area

Herbivory

(+/- interaction), refers to an interaction in which an herbivore eats parts of a plant or alga

Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis

local species diversity is maximized when ecological disturbance is neither too rare nor too frequent

Interspecific Competition

when species compete for a resource in short supply, (-/- interaction)

EX: hyenas and lions compete for same food source

Interspecific Interaction

relationship between different species in a community

Invasive Species

organism that causes ecological or economic harm in a new environment where it isn't native

Keystone Species

organisms that other species in the ecosystem depend upon and whose disappearance would devastate their biological communities

EX: if leandros dimitropoulos kapsogeorgos disappeared it would devastate ian and oliver's bio grade because we depend on him in our community

Mullerian Mimicry

2 unpalatable species mimic each other

Mutualism

(+/+ interaction), interspecific interaction that benefits both species (obligative or facultative)

Parasitism

(+/- interaction), one organism (the parasite) derives nourishment from another organism (its host), which is harmed in the process

Predator

organism that consumes all or part of the body of another - living or recently killed - organism (its prey)

Prey

any animal that serves as food for another animal

Primary Succession

when a new area of land is populated by a group of species for the first time

Production Efficiency

percentage of energy not used for respiration but stored in assimilated food

Relative Abundance

evenness of distribution of individuals among species in a community

Resource Partitioning

when different organisms in 1 ecosystem split up an area so as not to compete for same resources. Enables similar species to coexist in a community

Secondary Successsion

a previously occupied area that is re-colonized following a disturbance that kills much of or all of its community :(

Species Diversity

the variety of organisms that make up a community

Species Richness

number of species present

Symbiosis

relationship where two or more species live in a direct and intimate contact with each other 😳

Top Down Model

basically says the influence on a community structure flows from top, the predators, down to the herbivores, then the vegetation and finally, nutrients

Trophic Structure

consists of the primary producer, a primary consumer, and a secondary consumer

Vector

a DNA molecule that is used as a vehicle to carry a particular DNA segment into a host cell as part of a cloning or recombinant DNA technique

Altruism

any individual acting in a way that reduces their own fitness while increasing the fitness of the group

ex: insects that form colonies are largely unable to reproduce but instead gather and donate much of their resources to those who can

Associative Learning

animals associating one feature of their environment with another

EX: if someone puts their hand on a hot stove and hurts themselves, they may learn to associate hot stoves with pain

Behavior

an action carried out by muscles under control of the nervous system in response to a stimulus

EX: an animal releasing a scent to mark its territory

Coefficient of Relatedness

the probability that a gene in one individual is identical-by-descent (IBD) to a gene in another individual

EX: no f​​​​​ ucking clue

Cognition

process of knowing that may include awareness, reasoning, recollection, and judgement

EX: honeybees can distinguish same from different

Fixed Action Pattern

a sequence of unlearned acts directly linked to a simple stimulus

EX: dog sees a cat run away from them and instinctively chases after them

Foraging

searching for food and balancing energy costs

EX: storks using long beaks to search bottom of freshwater marshland for food

Hamilton's Rule

an animal will engage in altruistic behaviour only when the indirect benefits that it derives from such behaviour are greater than the direct reproductive cost that it incurs.

simply: it's about how altruistic behaviors can evolve if they benefit relatives enough to outweigh the personal cost

EX: in insect colonies, workers exhibit altruistic behaviors such as sacrificing their own reproductive potential to benefit closely related individuals like the queen

Imprinting

behavior that includes a specific critical period learning and innate components and is generally irreversible

EX: newborn ducklings instinctively follow and bond with the first moving object they see, often their mother

Inclusive Fitness

individual's overall genetic contribution to the next generation, including not only its own offspring but also the offspring that its relatives produce as a result of shared genes

EX: bird that foregoes its own reproductive opportunities to help raise its siblings. Although the bird may not directly pass on its genes through its own offspring, it increases the likelihood of those shared genes being passed on by aiding in the survival and reproduction of its relatives. This behavior enhances the bird's inclusive fitness by contributing to the success of genetic relatives

Innate Behavior

developmentally fixed and under strong genetic influence/inborn

EX: the moment they hatch, some birds instinctively know how to construct nests using materials found in their environment, following specific patterns and techniques characteristic of their species

Kin Selection

occurs when an animal engages in self-sacrificial behaviour that benefits the genetic fitness of its relatives

EX: squirrel detects predator coming, squirrel emits alarm to alert other squirrels but draws attention to itself

Learning

modification of a behavior based on specific experiences

Migration

a regular, long-distance change in location

Monogamous

relationship where one male mates with one female

Optimal Foraging Model

generates quantitative predictions of how animals maximize their fitness while they forage

Pheromone

odor emitted (usually in low concentrations) as a way for many animals to communicate

Polygamous

relationships where an individual of one sex mates with several individuals of the other sex

Reciprocal Altruism

reciprocal altruism is a behaviour whereby an organism acts in a manner that temporarily reduces its fitness while increasing another organism's fitness, with the expectation that the other organism will act similarly at a later time

Sign Stimulus

external cue that is a trigger for fixed action patterns

Social Learning

learning by observing and mimicking others

Sociobiology

the systematic study of how biology affects human social behavior

Spatial Learning

more complex modification of behavior based on experience with spatial structure

EX: wasps use landmarks to locate their nest

Abiotic

physical rather than biological

Abyssal Zone

one of the levels that the ocean is divided into (~3,000 - 6,000 meters below the surface)

Aphotic Zone

portion of lake with little or no sunlight

Benthic Zone

lowest ecological zone in a water body

Biome

major ecological associations that occupy broad geographic regions and/or water

Biosphere

the global ecosystem, the sum of all the planet's ecosystems

Biotic

relating to or resulting from living things

Climograph

time-based graph presenting a location's average temperature & precipitation

Community Ecology

group of populations of different species in an area (including interspecific interactions, succession, and trophic strucutre)

Detritus

dead particulate organic matter

Dispersal

movement of individuals away from centers of high population

Disturbance

temporary change in environmental conditions causing pronounced change in an ecosystem

EX: drought, fire tornado, blizzard

Ecosystem

community of organisms in an area and physical factors with which those organisms interact

Ecology

scientific study of interactions between an organism and environment

Ecotome

transition area between 2 biological communities where they meet and integrate

Estuary

transition area between river and sea (salinity varies between rise and fall of tides)

Eutrophic Lake

nutrient rich, oxygen poor standing bodies of freshwater

Landscape

mosaic of connected ecosystems

Macroclimate

patterns on the global, regional, and local level

Microclimate

very fine patterns

EX: community of organisms underneath a fallen log

Photic Zone

uppermost layer of a body of water that receives sunlight

Thermocline

temperature boundary that separates warm upper layer from cold deeper water

Tropics

regions of Earth surrounding the equator

Turnover

rapid mixing of lake water

Age Structure

composition of a population in terms of proportion of individuals of different ages

Carrying Capacity

max # of individuals of a species that can exist in a habitat indefinitely without threatening other species in that habitat

Cohort

group of individuals of the same age

Demographic Transition

long term trend of declining birth and death rates, resulting in substantive change in the age distribution of a population

Demography

study of vital statistics of populations and how they change overtime

Density Dependent

linear inverse relationship between population growth rate and population density (i.e population growth decreases as density increases)

Density Independent

force that affects population size regardless of population density

Ecological Footprint

method that determines how dependent humans are on natural resources

Ecological Niche

match of a species to a specific environmental condition

Emigration

act of leaving a habitat or place with the intent of moving to a different habitat or place

Exponential Population Growth

continuous increase/decrease in a population in which the rate of change is proportional to number of individuals at any given time

Immigration

movement of an organism to an area

Iteroparity

reproductive strategy characterized by multiple reproductive cycles over the course of a lifetime

K-Selection

reproductive strategy favoring quality over quantity, fewer offspring, higher parental care, suited for stable environments with little resources

Life History

the pattern of survival and reproduction events typical for a member of the species