Chapter 4 Ecology Test

_______ is the association of interacting species inhabiting a defined area

community

A _____ is a group of organisms that makes their living in a similar way

Guild

ex: functional feeding guild

A _____ is a classification of similar growth dynamics in plants

life form

________ is the proportion of a particular species relative to other species in the area. 

relative abundance 

_________________ says that most species are moderately abundant with a few being extemely abundant or rare.

species abundance in a given community follows a bell curve shape

Preston’s Distribution of Commonness and Rarity

What are the two ways in which species diversity if defined?

Species Richness and Species Evenness

_____ is the number of speices in a community

species richness

________ is the relative abundance of speices in a community 

species evenness 

__________ is the method of quantifying species diversity considering both species richness and species evenenesss.

Shannon Wiener Index

The Shannon Wiener Index is always ______

positive

_______ is the plot of relative abundance against its fake in abundance

The rank abundance curve

In the rank abundance curve, what does a steeper slope indicate? 

lower species evenness 

Species diversity ____ with environmental complexity

increases

Why is diversity higher in more complex environments?

because there are more potential niches in complex environemnts

______ is the state of community/ecossten when environmental conditions remain reasonably stable

equillibrium

_______ is any event that removes all or part of a community 

disturbance 

What must be considered when thinking about distubrances?

-disturbance varies with organism and envrionemtns

-spatial and temportal scale

-frequency and intensity

What are potential sources of disturbances?

-abiotic factors such as fire, hurricane, floood

-biotic factors such as disease, predation,etc

-human caused disturbances

________ predicts the intermediate levels of disturbance promote higher levels of species diversity

Intermediate disturbance hypothesis

What is an example of the intermediate disturbance hypothesis as it pertains to the intertidal zone?

boulders in the intertidal zone

-small boulders→ frequent disturbance → low diversity

-large boulders→ infrequent disturbance → lower diversity

-intermediate boulder → intermediuate disturbance → high diversity

What is an example of inter intermediate disturbance hypothesis as it pertains to the temperate grassland?

Areas with lots of prairie dogs support distinctive vegetative communities

-Low prarie dog dist → low plant diversity

-intermediate prarie dog dist → high plant diversity

-high prarie dog dist → low plant diveristy

______ is the study of ecology in urban settings

urban ecology