ch 7 biodiversity key concepts

Recall community and community structure

Define guild and give examples

Differentiate species richness and diversity as indices to community composition

Understand how to interpret a rank abundance curve

What does slope tell us?

What does length of x-axis tell us?

Be able to calculate Simpson’s Index and Shannon-Weiner Index

Be able to discuss meaning in terms of population diversity of Simpson’s Index and Shannon-Weiner Index

Interpret food webs for species interactions

Describe and provide examples of inderect commensalism and apparent competition

Define and give examples of foundation, keystone, invasive, native, endemic, umbrella, and flagship species

Foundation - species that has strong role in structuring a community, providing food or shelter
ex: coral in coral reefs

Keystone - species that has disproportionately large impact to environment relative to its abundance, if removed, the entire ecosystem structure changes
ex: sea otter control sea urchins, preserving kelp

Invasive - non-native species that spreads quickly and harms native ecosystems, species, or humans
ex: zebra mussels in US freshwater systems

Native - species that naturally occurs in a specific area or ecosystem
ex: white tailed deer in north america

Endemic - species found in only one geographic location and nowhere else
ex: lemurs of madagascar

Umbrella - species with large habitat needs, protecting it indirectly protects many other species
ex: tigers

Flagship - species used to raise public awareness or gain support for conservation
ex: tigers

Describe the diversity tends to be higher in complex environments

Explain the trends (predictions) we see with island biogeograpy?

Why is species diversity generally increased in the tropics?