Exam 2 - Community Ecology

What is community ecology?

All living and nonliving things interacting together in an environment

What is colony collapse disorder and why is it occurring?

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is when most of the worker bees in a hive suddenly disappear. It happens because of things like pesticides, parasites, disease, and loss of habitat.

What is pollen?

Small, thick-walled plant structures that contain the cells that will develop into sperm

What are pollinators?

Pollinators transfer pollen from male to female plant structures so that fertilization can occur
The goal of pollinators is not to find pollen; it’s just that the nectar they want has pollen around it and it gets on the pollinators

What percent of flowering plants are dependent on insect pollinators?

75%

What are ecological communities?

Groups of species that interact with and depend on other species living in the same area - directly or indirectly
Example: pollinators

What are food chains?

Food chains link feeding relationships in a community

What are producers?

Autotrophs that make their own food and get their own energy from the sun. They also supply that energy to the rest of the food chain

What are consumers?

Heterotrophs that cannot make their own food and get energy from eating producers

Primary consumers - herbivores

Secondary consumers - omnivores and carnivores

What are predators and what are the 2 types?

Predators are organisms that feed on other organisms
Carnivory - predation on animals
Herbivory - predation on plants

What are trophic levels?

Feeding levels based on a food chain (bottom - autotrophs, top - top predators)

How does energy flow through a food chain?

As you move higher up through a food chain, energy is lost (100% is produced by the autotrophs, and as you move up, 90% is lost and 10% is passed on)
100% used (autotroph/producer) → 10% used herbivores (primary consumers) → 1% used (omnivore/carnivore - secondary consumers)

What is a food web?

Shows interconnection and complexity of feeding relationships

What is symbiosis and what are the 3 types?

Relationship of two organisms that live together and depend on each other

Parasitism
Commensalism
Mutualism

What is mutualism?

Both organisms benefit from the relationship
Examples: bees and flowers, clownfish and anemone

What is parasitism?

One organism benefits and the other is harmed
Examples: mites and bees, and pinworms and humans

What is commensalism?

One organism benefits and the other has no effect
Examples: bees and trees, egrets and water buffaloes

What is a niche?

A niche is the particular space and environmental conditions and resources an organism needs in order to survive and reproduce

What happens when the niches of 2 organisms overlap?

When the niches overlap, there is competition as 2 different species are competing for limited resources

What are 2 ways species compete for resources?

Resource partitioning
Competitive exclusion

What is competitive exclusion?

The use of aggressive behavior or competition in order to prevent one species from gaining necessary resources, eventually leading to one species being excluded

What is resource partitioning and what are the 2 types?

Resource partitioning is when there are limited resources so the competing species try to make use of different resources in order to survive

Specialist: a species eats a particular food source
Generalist: a species eats many varieties of food sources in order to survive

How do humans impact pollinators and CCD?

Agriculture and development have decreased pollinator populations, along with the use of various pesticides
Climate change, habitat destruction, and parasites have also put stress on bee populations, causing them to decrease