ecology vocab exam 2

life history

how demographic parameters (fertility, survivorship) change as an organism grows or ages

life history strategy

how an organism allocates limited resources to maximize fitness (survival and reproduction)

life history trade off

investing time/energy into one life history trait comes at the expense of another

r selected species/environment

unlimited resources for a short period of time. good at reproducing quickly, bad at competing

k selected species/environments

intense competition for resources, good at growing slowly bad at reproducing quickly

stage structure

for many animals survival and reproduction depend on developmental stage

population projection

what will be the age (or size) distribution in the future

stable age distribution

the proportion of the population in each age class remains constant

population vector

vector of the number of individuals at each age

age based transition matrix

square matrix (nxn) that contains the probabilities of going from one age class to the next

life cycle diagram

red presentation of an organisms transitions through life with probabilities

stasis

in stage based models individuals can remain in the same stage class from one time to the next

eigenvalue

lambda, population growth rate

eigenvector

stable state distribution

sensitivity analysis

what stages have the largest effect on population growth. which are most important to conserve

active dispersal

individuals move themselves

passive dispersal

movement is the result of another agent

abiotic agents of dispersal

wind, water, etc.

biotic agents of dispersal

animals

ectozoochory

hooks, spikes, or barbs on seeds attach to mammals fur or clothing

endozoochory

ingested by animals

myrmecochory

ant dispersal

phoresis

animals may be transported by other animals

seed kernel shadow

shows how far seeds travel from their parent