Unit 8 Ecology - AP Biology

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be able to identify examples of:

  • imprinting

  • stimulus response chain

  • fixed action pattern

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  • imprinting - a long-lasting behavioral response to an individual, happens during a sensitive period of development usually very early in life

    • example: ducks following their mother

  • stimulus response chain - when a response to a stimulus serves as the next stimulus for a behavior

    • example: seen in animal courtships

  • fixed action patterns (FAPs) - a sequence of unlearned acts directly linked to a stimulus, actions are unchangeable, carried out to completion, triggered by a sign stimulus (external cue) (

    • example: stickleback fish

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define food web

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linked food chains

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includes topics from unit 8

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23 Terms

1
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be able to identify examples of:

  • imprinting

  • stimulus response chain

  • fixed action pattern

  • imprinting - a long-lasting behavioral response to an individual, happens during a sensitive period of development usually very early in life

    • example: ducks following their mother

  • stimulus response chain - when a response to a stimulus serves as the next stimulus for a behavior

    • example: seen in animal courtships

  • fixed action patterns (FAPs) - a sequence of unlearned acts directly linked to a stimulus, actions are unchangeable, carried out to completion, triggered by a sign stimulus (external cue) (

    • example: stickleback fish

2
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define food web

linked food chains

3
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define primary production

the amount of light energy that is converted to chemical energy

  • primary producers set a “spending limit” for the entire ecosystems energy budget

  • gross primary production (GPP): total primary production in an ecosystem

  • new primary production (NPP): the GPP minus the energy used by the primary producers for respiration (Ra)

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define secondary production

the amount of chemical energy in a consumer’s food that is converted to new biomass

  • the transfer of energy between trophic levels is at around 10% efficiency

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explain the significance of keystone species

not usually abundant, but other species in an ecosystem rely on them because of their important ecological niches

  • keystone species, produces, and essential abiotic and biotic factors contribute to maintaining the diversity of the ecosystem

  • if keystone species were to be removed from an ecosystem it would have a rippling effect (often ecosystems collapse)

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define ethology

the study of how evolutionary processes shape inherited behaviors and the ways that animals respond to specific stimuli

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define community

a group of populations or different species living closely and capable of interacting

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define population

a group of individuals of the same species living in an area

  • Population ecology - analyzes the factors that effect population size and how and why it changes overtime

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define species

a group of organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring under natural conditions, they share common characteristics and genetic similarities distinguishing them from other groups

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transfer of energy between trophic levels

species can be grouped into trophic levels based upon their main food source of nutrition and energy

  • energy cannot be recycled

  • primary producers - (autotrophs) use light energy to synthesize organic compounds

  • heterotrophs - rely on autotrophs because they cannot make their own food

    • primary consumers: herbivores

    • secondary consumers: carnivores that eat herbivores

    • tertiary consumers: carnivores that eat other carnivores

    • decomposers: get energy from detritus (nonliving organic material; leaves, wood, dead organisms)

  • the trophic structures of a community are determined by the feeding relationships between organisms

  • any changes to the availability of energy can disrupt ecosystems

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explain phototropism

a directional response that allows plants to grow towards (and in some cases away from) a source of light

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explain the WHY of higher vs lower organismal metabolic rates

metabolic rates - the total amount of energy an animal uses in a unit of time, can be measured in calories, heat loss or by amount of oxygen consumed, an animal’s metabolic rate is related to its body mass

  • smaller organism = higher metabolic rate

  • larger organisms = lower metabolic rate

WHY?

organisms use different strategies to regulate body temperatures

  • endotherms = use thermal energy from metabolism to maintain body temperatures '

  • ectotherms: use external sources to regulate their body temperature

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differentiate between learned and innate behavior

  • learned behaviors - depend on environmental influence

    • experience DO affect these behaviors

    • high variation in a population

  • innate behaviors - developmentally fixed

    • hereditary, born behaviors, do not need to learn them; instinctive

    • experience during growth has no obvious effect

Note: while behaviors may lean one way more, many behaviors have both innate and learned components

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be able to identify dispersion patterns given i information about an organism (dispersed, random, uniformed or clumped)

Dispersion - the pattern of spacing among individuals within a population

  • clumped: individuals gather in patches

  • uniform: evenly spaced individuals in population (can be due to territoriality)

  • random: unpredictable spacing; not common

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define ecological succession

the gradual process which species composition of a community changes and develops over time after a disturbance

  • primary succession: a series of changes on an entirely new (previously lifeless) habitat that has been colonized

  • secondary succession: a series of changes that clears an existing community, but leaves the soil intact

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summarize the impacts of invasive species

a nonnative species that can occupy a wide range of habitats and competitively exclude native species from those habitats

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be able to identify survivorship curves by description

  • type I curve: low death rate during early/middle life and high death rate later in life (starts at top, goes across the top and ends at bottom)

  • type II curve: constant death rate over the lifespan of the organism (diagonal line from top to bottom)

  • type III curve: high death rate early in life and lower death rate from those that survive early life (starts at top, lowers to bottom, goes across the bottom)

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be able to analyze experimental results and come to conclusions. (multiple examples of this on the test!)

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be able to analyze experimental results to make conclusions about the “hierarchy of behaviors”

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identify the effects of specific human activities on organisms

human activity is the strongest disturbance to an ecosystem

  • the main threats to biodiversity are:

    • habitat loss

    • invasive species

    • overharvesting

    • global change

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use the (+ / -) to describe the interspecific interactions, then describe them in detail:

  • facilitation

  • parasitism

  • predation

  • herbivory

  • mutualism

  • commensalism

  • competition

  • facilitation - (+/+ or 0/+) when one species has a positive effect on the survival and reproduction of another without intimate association of symbiosis, common in plant species

  • parasitism - (+/-) when one organism (parasite) derives nourishment from another (host)

  • predation - (+/- ) relationship where one species (predator) kills and eats the other species (prey), adaptations for both predators and prey have been refined by natural selection

  • herbivory - (+/-) relationship where one organism eats part of a plant or alga

  • mutualism - (+/+) when both organisms benefit from the relationship

  • commensalism - (+/0) when one organism benefits and the other is neither harmed nor benefited

  • competition - (-/-) relationship where individuals of different species compete for limited resources, competitive exclusion principle two species competing for the same resource cannot coexist permanently

22
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describe the mechanisms of protection from herbivory in plants

  • physical defenses: thorns, trichomes (small plant like hairs)

  • chemical defenses: production of toxic or distasteful compounds

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analyze a chart describing food sources among organisms in an ecosystem and create a representative food web