APES - Unit 2 Review

making these flashcards along the way this time to keep up on everything we learn. goal: study these flashcards for 15 minutes every day until the week before the test.

Ecosystem services

The benefits people obtain from ecosystems

4 Categories of Ecosystem Services

Provisioning, supporting, regulating, and cultural

Provisioning services

Goods/products taken from ecosystems or made from natural resources that humans can sell

Example of provisioning resources

Food, fish, drinking water, lumber, fuels, paper, medicine, rubber, clothing

What is a supporting service?

Underlying natural processes that allow for life on earth. The other types of ecosystem services would not exist without supporting services

Examples of supporting services

Photosynthesis, nutrient cycling, creation of soils, water cycle, habitat, genetic diversity

What is a regulating service?

Processes that regulate natural conditions such as air, soil, or water quality, climate, or provide flood and disease control. They work together to make ecosystems clean, sustainable, functional and resilient to change.

Examples of regulating services

Wetlands provide flood control by absorbing excess precipitation, trees sequester carbon, soils and plants purify water

What is a cultural service?

Benefit that contributes to the development and cultural advancement of people

Examples of cultural services

Recreation, ecotourism, spiritual experiences, parks, and inspiration for art and design.

Succession

A process by which an ecosystem recovers from a disturbance

Primary Succession

Starts with bare rock (no soil present)

Secondary Succession

Starts with soil

How long does primary succession typically take and why?

Can take hundreds to thousands of years because soil needs to be built up first and soil takes a long time to develop

Pioneer species

The first species into a disturbed area undergoing succession

Climax community

Stable ecosystem that represents the final stage of succession

How long does secondary succession typically take and why?

May take under 100 years, because starts with grasses and shrubs.

What will happen to biodiversity after the disturbance?

There will be a loss in biodiversity and it might remain low for some time

Indicator Species

A species that indicates an environmental condition and is used to diagnose the health of an ecosystem

Keystone species

A species whose activities have a particular significant role in determining community structure relative to its abundance. If this species is removed, the ecosystem would be drastically impacted.

Biodiversity

The variety of earth’s species, the genes they contain, the ecosystems in which they live, and the ecosystem processes such as energy flow and nutrient cycling that sustain all life.

Ecosystem diversity

Number of different habitats available in a given area

Species diversity

Number of different species in an ecosystem and the evenness of the population sizes of all the species in the ecosystem

Genetic diversity

Variety of genes in individuals within a population

Greater biodiversity means…

Greater ecosystem or population health

Species Richness

The total number of different species in an ecosystem, high species richness is generally a good sign of ecosystem health

Species Evenness

Measure of the relative abundance of each species, indicates if there are one or two dominant species or if population sizes are well balanced.

Ecosystems that have a larger number of species are more/less likely to revocer from disruptions?

More likely

Genetic diversity

Variety of alleles of genes in a population. Caused by random mutations, recombination of chromosomes in sexual reproduction leading t onew gene combinations and new traits in offspring

Population bottleneck

An event that causes a sharp reduction in population size and kills organisms regardless of their genetic makeup

Generalist species

Able to thrive in a wide variety of environmental conditions and can make use of a variety of different resources

Specialist species

Can thrive only in a narrow range of environmental conditions or has a limited diet

Loss of habitat leads to what three things?

Loss of specialist species first, loss of generalist species after, species that needs large territories (apex species) are also strongly impaced

Inbreeding

Organisms mate with close relatives

What sized populations are more likely to experience inbreeding?

Smaller populations

Resilience

Ability of an ecosystem to return to its original conditions after a major disturbance

Higher species diversity means lower/higher ecosystem resilience?

Higher

Ecological range of tolerance

A range of conditions such as temperature, salinity, pH, or sunlight that an organism can endure before injury or death results

Optimal range (ecological range of tolerence)

Range where organisms survive, grow, and reproduce

Zone of physiological stress (ecological range of tolerence)

Range where organisms survive, but experience some stress such as infertility, lack of growth, decreased activity, etc

Zone of intolerance (ecological range of tolerence)

Range where the organism will die

Natural disturbance

A natural event that disrupts the structure of function of an ecosystem

Periodic disturbance

Some change that occurs at a regular interval

Episodic disturbance

Similar to periodic, these events do repeat but at an irregular interval

Random disturbance

No pattern, totally random. This is an event that may or may not happen again

Milankovich cycles

Changes in the Earth’s orbit and tilt that affect Earth’s long term climate

Migration

The movement of species from one location to another

Short term migration

Tends to be seasonal. Following the growing season to maximize resource availability.

Long term migration

These are more permanent changes in address. Often the result of large scale, significant habitat change

Mass extinction

When 75% or more of all species go extinct in a short period of time

Genetic diversity exists because…

Random mutations and/or recombination/ crossing over in parent chromosomes creates new combinations of alleles

Adaptation

A trait that increases an organisms fitness (ability to survive and reproduce)

Evolution

The gradual change in a population through adaptations over time, or a change in the gene pool of a population over time

Population

A group of organisms, all the same species, wcih interbreed and live in the same area

Gene pool:

All of the alleles in a populations genes

Natural selection

The process by which organisms with favorable adaptations survive, reproduce, and pass their adaptations to the next generation.

Overproduction - Step One of Evolution

Organisms produce more offspring than are needed to maintain a population

Competition - Step Two of Evolution

Offspring in each generation must compete with each other for the necessities of life. Only some can survive long enough to reproduce.

Variation - Step Three of Evolution

Differences are found among individuals of a species

Adaptations - Step Four of Evolution

Some variations may not be important to survival. Adaptations, however, are variations that enable members of a population to survive and reproduce better than other individuals.

Different Reproductive Success - Step Five of Evolution

Over time those individuals with the helpful variations are more likely to survive and reproduce

Change in population gene pool over time - Step Six of Evolution

Through different Reproductive success, over time those individuals with the adaptations are more likely to pass on adaptations, and there will be more with helpful and less with harmful

What happens if the pace of the change in evolution is too rapid?

Many species might migrate out of the environment or die off completely

Will more genetic diversity increase or decrease the species change to adapt and survive?

Increases change of beneficial mutations

The longer the lifespan of the organism…

The slower the rate of evolution

Island biogeography

The study of ecological relationships and distribution of organisms on islands, and of these organisms’ community structures

Islands

Unique habitats with limited resources

Theory of Island Diversity was originally developed by who?

Robert MacAurthur and E.O. Wilson in 1963

The theory boils down to…

The larger the island, the higher the biodiversity and the closer the island is to the mainland, the higher the biodiversity.

Islands closer to the mainland mean what for species richness?

Higher species richness

When an island is closer to the mainland, how does that effect migration?

More frequent migration to the island

Smaller islands mean what for species richness?

Less species richness

What do islands lead to related to evolution?

Leads to the evolution of unique, specialist organisms

Endemic

A species that has a very limited range, often limited to just a few locations

Speciation

The evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species

Habitat fragmentation

When a contiguous, undisturbed habitat is split up into smaller fragments due to natural or man-made events.