population ecology lecture 2

“every genuine worker in science is an _______, which is continually meeting fresh things and fresh situations, to which he has to ________ his material and mental equipment. this is conspicuously true of our subject, and is one of the greatest attractions of ecology to the student who is at one eager, _______, and determined. for the lover of the prescribed routine methods with the certainty of “_____” results, the study of ecology is not recommended”- arthur tansley

explorer, adapt, imaginative, safe

What is one of the biggest questions in ecology

diversity

what are the three main questions associated with the diversity on earth

how did such a variety of life occur, how is it all maintained, what would happen if it were lost

What is community and population ecology

the branch of science focused on understanding earths biodiversity, including the generation, maintenance, and distribution of the diversity of life in space and time

what interactions underlie the processes that determine biodiversity (scale persistence and resilience)

species interactions with one another and their environment

what makes the study of interacting species more challenging

that species and their interactions change and evolve through time, resulting in transience or continual change (it is not static)

What is a community?

a group of species that occur together in space and time

what is an operational definition

statement of procedures. use to define the terms of a process and its properties (duration, quantity, structure)

What three components need to be accounted for when defining a community

the definition is an operational one, the limits on space and time are arbitrary, limits on the number of species are arbitrary

what do you need to recognize when defining a community

it is impossible to study all the species that occur together in the same place at the same time