mami

Biome

A group of ecosystems that share similar climates and typical organisms
-determined by rainfall & temperature
-seasonality & disturbance also important
-characterized by growth forms of plants

Population

A group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area

desert

-An extremely dry area with little water and few plants
-year around low precipitation and high temperature

Savanna

An area of grassland with scattered trees and bushes

Biotic

-Describes living factors in the environment.
-mates, offspring, competitors, predators, prey, mutualism, parasites

Abiotic

-Non-living things in the environments
-temperature,water, pressure, light, oxygen, and nutrients

Chaparral

-A scrubland biome of dense, spiny evergreen shrubs found at midlatitudes along coasts where cold ocean currents circulate offshore
-hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters
-Mediterranean climate
-Mediterranean, California, Chile, South Africa, Southern Australia

temperate grassland

-a community (or biome) that is dominated by grasses, has few trees, and is characterized by cold winters and rainfall that is intermediate between that of a forest and a desert
-burn easily & the fires allow grasses to dominate

temperate deciduous forest

-A forest characterized by trees that shed their leaves in the fall.
-Cold, wet winter
-Warm, wet summers
-Vegetation changes with the seasons because of the temperature.
-The soil typically is rich.
-Tree leaves are arranged in strata: canopy, understory, shrub, and ground.

Deciduous growth form

-temp. Dec. forest
-drop leaves during cooler seasons to wait for better conditions

tropical rainforest

-a broadleaf evergreen forest found in wet and hot regions near the equator.
-central & South America & central Africa & SEA
-very hot all year w/ lots of rain

Evergreen broad-leaved trees

-Wet, warm year-round
-typically in tropical rainforests
-Adaptation: photosynthesis year round, large leaves for sunlight

Sclerophyllous shrubs

-evergreen, small, hard, thick, and leathery shurbs
-Chaparal
-resistance to drying out to survive droughts

Boreal Forest (Taiga)

-A forest biome made up primarily of coniferous evergreen trees that can tolerate cold winters and short growing seasons
-Cold weather - The taiga has the coldest weather of the forest biomes. ...
-Dry - The precipitation is only slightly more than the desert or the tundra.
-rain in warmer temps

Needle-leaved evergreen trees

- keep leaves year-round
- woody tissues
- narrow leaves
-Taiga/Boreal Forest/temperate coniferous forest
-don't need much nutrients for leaves in the low nutrients soil

succulence

-development of fleshy water storage tissues
-desert
-thick and fleshy leaves to retain water

Grasses

-Plants with hollow, non-woody stems and narrow leaves
-grasslands

Tundra

-a vast treeless plain in the arctic regions between the ice cap and the tree line
-year round cold temperature and low precipitation
-very little sunlight

forbes

-Low growing herbaceous plants, both annuals and perennials.
-tundra
-no woody tissue

conservation biology

application of biology and ecological principals to counter & address the loss of biodiversity
-mission driven
-multidisciplinary
-results in changes in policy (ie: endangered species act)

climate

-The average weather conditions in an area over a long period of time
-daily (weather)
-seasonal (winter vs summer & dry vs wet)
-years (ENSO: El Niño southern oscillation)
-millennia (ice coverage on the earth)
-eons (carbon dioxide levels)

ENSO on sea birds

-changes bird nesting locations due to ENSO making places warmer = less sardines at the surface of the water = less food for nesting = they move north away from warming places

weather

-the state of the atmosphere at a place and time as regards heat, dryness, sunshine, wind, rain, etc.
-daily climate

Energy key concepts

-energy from the sunlight can be captures and concerted into chemical energy used as currency between most organisms, but some organisms obtain energy from inorganic chemical compounds
-Autotrophs capture radiant an chemical energy and convert this onto stored energy in the form of carbon-carbon bonds
-heterotrophs evolved a variety of ways for acquiring and assimilating energy efficiently futons various organic sources

Autotrophs

-perform photosynthesis or chemosynthesis (fixation of C)
-Autotrophs capture radiant an chemical energy and convert this onto stored energy in the form of carbon-carbon bonds

Heterotrophs

-heterotrophs evolved a variety of ways for acquiring and assimilating energy efficiently futons various organic sources
-eats plants or animals for energy & nutrients

Which of the following is not typical of the types of tools that ecologists use to answer scientific questions and why?

-Mathematical models, because models aren't "real" and can't actually tell us about how the natural world works.
-Laboratory experiments, because ecology is concerned primarily with the natural world.
-Field observations, because only experiments, not observations, can be used to test scientific hypotheses.

Which of the following is a biotic environmental factor?

-Potential mates

When scientists noticed otter numbers were not increasing in numbers, they became curious as to what was preventing sea otter populations from increasing. This illustrates what step in the scientific process?

-Making observations and asking questions.

Which statement below about the interaction between Toxoplasma and sea otters near the California coast is true?

Toxoplasma was a significant, but not the only, source of mortality for otters.

Which cause of climate variation is correctly matched with the time scale over which it causes that variation?

ENSO...multiple years

What lead to elegant terns nesting in San Diego and Los Angeles instead of Isla Rasa in the Gulf of California?

ENSO events warming the ocean around Isla Rasa by several degrees.

The northern, Caribbean coast of Colombia receives extensive rainfall in some parts of the year and much less rainfall in other parts of the year. This is an example of what kind of climate variation?

Seasonality.

Tough, thick, leathery leaves found on shrubs and trees in drier climates are referred to as...

sclerophyllous.

In the biomes graph pictured above, which biome both exists in areas where the annual average temperature is between 0 and 20∘C and most often has the greatest average annual rainfall between 500 and 2050 mm?

Temperate forest

Which biome, based on its location on the Earth's surface and average annual temperature and precipitation, would you LEAST expect to be dominated by plant growth forms that respond strongly to seasonality in climate?

Tropical wet forest

coping with variations key concepts

-each species has a range of environmental tolerances that determines its potential geographic distribution
-temperature of an organism is determined by exchanges of energy with the external environment
-water balance of an organism is determined by energy gradients (gravity, pressure, and potential energy stored in chemical bonds)

organisms ecological success

-availability of energy and resources of the physical environment directly impact growth and reproduction

potential vs actual distribution

-actual includes: interactions with other organisms such as predation or competition can constrain its geographic range, dispersal ability and disturbances
-environment outside of potential distribution = organism cant live

environmental control over physiology

-when an organism falls short or beyond this optimal rate for physiological function value, as its environment changes, the organism experiences stress.
-stress alters all physiological processes.

acclimatization

-organism compensates for this stress and thus improves in physiological function despite environmental conditions remaining unchanged
-short-term, reversible process
-returns to normal function after

Adaptation

Natural selection can result in this when there are long periods of stress

ecotypes

-populations with adaptations to unique environments
-form after tolerating the new environment and represent populations of individuals that adapted to unique environments, but are not quite new species
-individuals will become less like their relatives, ultimately failing to interbreed or share genes and becoming reproductively isolated
-traits form the basis for what defines a species

coping mechanisms for stress

-tolerance & adaptation
-main ways species cope with environmental variation

Variation in temperature

energy transfer determines the temperature of an organism

Variation in temperature

-all enzymes follow this pattern in the upper left, where activity increases with temperature until an optimum, and then beyond the proteins denature and lose activity
-effects membrane properties of cells: cold temperatures = solidify lipid bilayers, making them impermeable or even brittle, hot temperatures = loosen membranes increasing their permeability and uncontrolled flux of molecules
-water availability depends on temperature (cold = frozen = less water)
-regulate temperature through behavioral, physiological or morphological means

energy exchange in terrestrial plants

-total amount of heat energy changing in the leaf at any given time
-deltaHeat = Solar + IRin - IRout +- Hconv +- Hcond - Hevap

High temps & rubisco

Hight heat can debate rubisco = bad for photosynthesis especially if the p;lanterns are in a biome with hot weather

C4 photosynthesis

-process that first converts CO2 into a 4-carbon molecule in the mesophyll cells, converts that product to malate and then shuttles it to the bundle sheath cells, where the malate releases CO2 and rubisco picks it up as if all were normal
-plants shifted the location and enzymes involved in harvesting and transporting CO2 so photorespiration could be avoided and plants could control CO2 and water exchange more effectively under rising temperature
-physical modification
-separate the location where CO2 is taken up in a plant from when the enzyme Rubisco operates.
- Best adapted to hot sunny environments

CAM photosynthesis

-The photosynthetic pathway in which carbon fixation takes place at night, and the resulting carbon acids are stored until daylight when they are broken down into pyruvate and CO2.
-temporal shift in the location and enzymes involved in photosynthesis to avoid operation during hat afternoons or whenever the sun is out in some deserts
-temporal modification
- Best adapted to very hot, dry environments

C3 photosynthesis

The most common form of photosynthesis in which atmospheric CO2 is used to form 3-phosphoglycerate, a three-carbon sugar.
- best adapted to cool and wet environments

energy exchange in animals

-deltaHeat = Solar + IRin - IRout +- Hconv +- Hcond - Hevap + Hmet

Ecotherms

-animals that are cold-blooded so body temperature changes with the temperature outside (fish, reptiles, and amphibians)
-body temperature fluctuates with energy change with their environment
-regulate body temperature through energy exchange with the environment, and tolerate great variation in body temperature

endotherms

-Animals (such as birds or mammals) that can regulate their body temperature.
-constantly create heat
-rely primarily in internal heat generation,m remain active below freezing temperature, demand high energy (food) to support metabolism

heat & surface area

Heat exchange ultimately depends on surface area to volume ratio, so in general small organisms can lose or gain heat much more rapidly than large organisms.

trade offs with photosynthesis

-Energy exchange in plants almost entirely depends on water availability and movement
-alter stomatal aperture and function at a variety of temperatures to control the amount of water
-photosynthesis can even occur below freezing because of altered solutes within cells

Variation in Water Availability

Temperature, solutes, and availability all effect organisms

variation in solutes

-solutes create a chemical energy potential that prevents water dipping below a critical point
ie: sugars that form a glassy coat around cell contents to improve viscosity and prevent water loss beyond where the cell ruptures in water bears

Frozen frogs

-need to avoid: Water forms needle-like ice crystals that can pierce cell membranes. Oxygen supply to tissues is restricted due to lack of breathing and circulation. When ice forms, it pulls water from cells.
-ice-nucleating proteins outside cell serves as sites of slow, controlled ice formation

Evolution

-The gradual change in a species over time
-population level phenomenon, not an individual level phenomenon
-change over time in frequencies of different alleles in a population

directional selection

-Form of natural selection in which the entire curve moves; occurs when individuals at one end of a distribution curve have higher fitness than individuals in the middle or at the other end of the curve
-favors on extreme variation of a trait

disruptive selection

-form of natural selection in which a single curve splits into two; occurs when individuals at the upper and lower ends of a distribution curve have higher fitness than individuals near the middle
-favors the two end extreme instead of the middle trait

stabilizing selection

-form of natural selection by which the center of the curve remains in its current position; occurs when individuals near the center of a distribution curve have higher fitness than individuals at either end
-favors middle trait

genetic drift

-A change in the allele frequency of a population as a result of chance events rather than natural selection.

Consider a set of areas whose abiotic conditions can be placed on an environmental gradient. The set of those areas where the environmental conditions support the survival, growth, and reproduction of an organism would be part of that organism's...

-potential distribution or actual distribution depending on the presence of other organisms, disturbances, and barriers to dispersal.

Acclimatization to stress...

can be reversible within an individual.

The ability of Rooibos plants to exhibit different morphologies in areas with different elevations and levels of rainfall is an example of...

-the plants ability to tolerate stresses generated by elevation or rainfall differences.
-a plant species exhibiting different ecotypes.
-adaptation to a wide range of stressful environmental conditions.

Physical separation of the location of CO2 is taken up in a plant and location where the enzyme Rubisco operates is occurs in ______ photosynthesis.

C4

When it is hot outside and you jump into a nice, cold pool, the direct contact of your warm skin with the cool water causes your body to lose heat through...

conduction.

A fish has a higher concentration of solutes in its body relative to its environment. Where does this fish likely live?

A freshwater lake

Which organism's outer covering (skin, shell, cuticle, etc.) would you expect to be the MOST permeable to water?

A freshwater snail.

When comparing a zebra, which is an herbivore (primary consumer) and a cheetah, which is a carnivore (a secondary consumer), which statement is true?

The zebra exerts less energy acquiring its meals, but assimilates less of what it eats.

Which of the following are NOT heterotrophs?

Chemosynthetic archea.

The medium ground finch experienced a drought that lead to the evolution of larger beak sizes in the finch. In 1983, the environment changed again. What did this environmental change lead to?

Directional selection for smaller beaks.

semelparity

-organism has only one chance in its life to reproduce and then it dies.
-reproduces once and then dies
-investing all of their energy into reproducing
-have a lot of babies and then they'll die
-salmon, mayfly

iteroparity

-ability to reproduce like this many times in a lifetime
-investing a large amount of parental care into their offspring to ensure their survival
-they live longer, but they have fewer offspring.
-kangaroo, dandelion

life history

-organisms' life time patter of growth, development, and reproduction

fecundity

-number of offspring produced by the iteroparous species

reproduction effort

-the proportion of the total energy budget of an organism that is devoted to the reproductive process

life history trade offs

-reproduction and survival (reproduces several times in its lifetime vs. dies upon reproduction)
-reproduction and parental growth/survival (continuing to reproduce or things for survival)
-number and size of offspring (more offspring means that you can invest less than each individual one so they are smaller vs. investing a lot of parental care into a small number of individuals so they are bigger)
-parental care (continuing to reproduce vs taking care of the small amount of offspring you have)
-age and size of offspring (too young/old = smaller vs optimal age = optimal size offspring)
-organism has a limited amount of energy that it can actually put into any of those features

r-strategy species

-The concept that in certain (r-selected) populations, a high reproductive rate is the chief determinant of life history.
-variable in time or short lived
-high reproductive rates, small body sizes and large number of offspring
-environment that's not going to last very long or it's very unpredictable
-live fast, die young
-semelparous

K-strategist species

-Organisms characterized by few offspring, long life, lots of parental care.
-more stable environmental conditions
-can delay their reproduction and reproduce many times
-better able to cope with sort of constant abiotic and biotic pressures in sort of a more predictable environment.
-iteroparous

ruderal plants

-plants with short life span, rapid growth rates, heavy investment in seed production are favored (lots of seeds)

competitive plants

-plants that are superior competitors in regards of acquiring light, minerals, water, and space to have a selective advantage

stress-tolerant plants

-plants may have slow growth rates, evergreen foliage, slow rates of water and nutrient use, & low palatability to herbivores
-don't invest in rapid growth and reproduction
invest in features that help them tolerate stress

population

A group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area

population distribution

number of individuals per unit area

abundance

the number of individuals in a population

abiotic factors

-Nonliving components of environment.
-temperature, rainfall, salinity, disturbance, oxygen levels
-pollination effecting plant distribution

biotic factors

-living parts of an ecosystem
-herbivory, competition, predation, mutualism, parasitism

niche

-Full range of physical and biological conditions in which an organism lives and the way in which the organism uses those conditions
-where abotic & biotic factors overlap

Herbivory

-interaction in which one animal (the herbivore) feeds on producers (such as plants)
-can limit plant distributions

migration

-long distance movement on a temporal & spatial basis
-can be used when resources are unavailable/patchily distributed
ie: migrating away from the cold
-physical, social, and morphological adaptations

The hellbender exemplifies what type of reproductive strategy?

Iteroparity.

For the hellbenders in Question 1, what life history strategy do they best exemplify?

K selected.

Based on its life history strategy, what type of environment does the hellbender live in?

A relatively stable environment.

The figure above plots litter size (the number of babies per reproductive event) as a function of neonate (that is, newborn) mass for several groups of mammals. What do the data above most directly suggest?

There is a trade-off between the number and size of offspring in mammals.

In the experiment where researchers manipulated the number of eggs in kestrel nests, what was found?

In nests where researchers added additional eggs, parents were less likely to survive to the next year than those where eggs were removed.

Consider the case of the migrating elk in Yellowstone National Park discussed in class. Which of the following statements is true?

Elk migrate to access seasonally available resources.

Which letter corresponds to the hypothetical species' geographic range above?

A