Ecology Exam Review

Flashcards for chapters 51, 53, 54, 55, and 56.

Agonistic behavior

Behavior involving a contest of some kind that determines which competitor gains access to a resource, such as food or mates.

Altruism

Selflessness; behavior that reduces an individual's fitness while increasing the fitness of another individual.

Associative learning

The acquired ability to associate one environmental feature (such as color) with another (such as a foul taste).

Behavior

An action carried out by muscles under control of the nervous system in response to a stimulus.

Circadian rhythm

A physiological cycle of about 24 hours that persists even in the absence of external cues.

Circannual rhythm

A behavioral rhythm linked to the yearly cycle of seasons.

Classical conditioning

A type of associative learning in which an arbitrary stimulus is associated with a reward or punishment.

Cognition

The process of knowing that involves awareness, reasoning, recollection, and judgment.

Cognitive map

A representation in the nervous system of the spatial relationships between objects in an animal's surroundings.

Cross fostering study

A behavioral study in which the young of one species are placed in the care of adults from another species.

Fixed action pattern

In animal behavior, a sequence of unlearned acts that is essentially unchangeable and, once initiated, usually carried to completion.

Foraging

The seeking and obtaining of food.

Imprinting

The formation at a specific stage in life of a long-lasting behavioral response to a particular individual or object.

Innate behavior

Behavior that is developmentally fixed and under strong genetic control. Innate behavior is exhibited in virtually the same form by all individuals in a population despite internal and external environmental differences during development and throughout life.

Learning

The modification of behavior based on specific experiences.

Migration

A regular long-distance change in location.

Monogamous

Pertaining to a type of relationship in which one male mates with just one female.

Operant conditioning

A type of associative learning in which an animal learns to associate one of its behaviors with a reward or punishment and then tends to repeat or avoid that behavior.

Optimal foraging

The concept that natural selection should favor foraging behavior that minimizes the costs of foraging and maximizes the benefits.

Pheromones

In animals and fungi, a small molecule released into the environment that functions in communication between members of the same species. In animals, it acts much like a hormone in influencing physiology and behavior.

Polyandry

A mating system in which one female mates with multiple males.

Polygamous

Pertaining to a type of relationship in which an individual of one sex mates with several of the other.

Polygyny

A mating system in which one male mates with multiple females.

Problem solving

The cognitive activity of devising a strategy to overcome an obstacle.

Sensitive period

A limited phase in an animal's development when learning of particular behaviors can take place.

Sexual dimorphism

Extent to which males and females differ in appearance.

Sign stimuli

An external sensory stimulus that triggers a fixed action pattern.

Social learning

Modification of behavior through the observation of other individuals.

Spatial learning

The establishment of a memory that reflects the environment's spatial structure.

Age structure

The relative number of individuals of each age in a population.

Carrying capacity

The maximum population size that can be supported by the available resources, symbolized as K.

Demographic transition

A shift from zero population growth in which birth rates and death rates are high to zero population growth characterized instead by low birth and death rates.

Density dependent growth

Referring to any characteristic that varies according to an increase in population density.

Density independent growth

Referring to any characteristic that is not affected by population density.

Ecological footprint

The aggregate land and water area required by each person, city, or nation to produce all the resources it consumes and to absorb all the waste it generates.

Emigration

The movement of individuals out of a population.

Exponential population growth

Growth of a population in an ideal, unlimited environment, represented by a J-shaped curve when population size is plotted over time.

Immigration

The influx of new individuals into a population from other areas.

Iteroparity

A life history in which adults produce large numbers of offspring over many years; also known as repeated reproduction.

K-selection

Selection for life history traits that are advantageous at high population densities.

Logistic population growth

Population growth that levels off as population size approaches carrying capacity.

Mark-recapture method

A sampling technique used to estimate the size of animal populations.

Population

A group of individuals of the same species that live in the same area and interbreed, producing fertile offspring.

r-selection

Selection for life history traits that maximize reproductive success in uncrowded environments.

Semelparity

A life history in which adults have but a single reproductive opportunity to produce large numbers of offspring, such as the Pacific salmon; also known as big-bang reproduction.

Type I survivorship curve

A survivorship curve in which most individuals live out their life span and die of old age (e.g., humans).

Type II survivorship curve

A survivorship curve in which individuals die at a constant rate (e.g., birds, rodents, and perennial plants).

Type III survivorship curve

A survivorship curve in which most individuals die young.

Aposematic coloration

The bright warning coloration of many animals with effective physical or chemical defenses.

Batesian mimicry

A type of mimicry in which a harmless species looks like a species that is poisonous or otherwise harmful to predators.

Biomanipulation

An approach that applies the top-down model of community organization to alter ecosystem characteristics.

Character displacement

The tendency for characteristics to be more divergent in sympatric populations of two species than in allopatric populations of the same two species.

Commensalisms

A symbiotic relationship in which one member of the association benefits and the other is neither harmed nor helped.

Competition

A -/- interaction that occurs when individuals of different species compete for a resource that limits their growth and survival.

Competitive Exclusion Principle

The concept that when populations of two similar species compete for the same limited resources, one population will use the resources more efficiently and have a reproductive advantage that will eventually lead to the elimination of the other population.

Cryptic coloration

Camouflage that makes a potential prey difficult to spot against its background.

Disturbance

An event, such as a storm, fire, flood, drought, overgrazing, or human activity, that changes a community by removing organisms from it or altering resource availability; disturbances play a pivotal role in structuring many communities.

Dominant species

A species with substantially higher abundance or biomass than other species in a community. Dominant species can exert a powerful control over the occurrence and distribution of other species.

Ecosystem engineer

An organism that influences community structure by causing physical changes in the environment.

Ectoparasite

A parasite that feeds on the external surface of a host.

Endoparasite

A parasite that lives within a host.

Evapotranspiration

The evaporation of water from soil plus the transpiration of water from plants.

Food chain

The pathway along which food energy is transferred from trophic level to trophic level, beginning with the producers.

Food web

The interconnected feeding relationships in an ecosystem.

Fundamental niche

The niche potentially occupied by a species if there were no limiting factors.

Herbivory

A +/- interaction in which an organism eats parts of a plant or alga.

Host

The larger participant in a symbiotic relationship, often providing nourishment to a smaller symbiont.

Intermediate disturbance hypothesis

The concept that moderate levels of disturbance can foster greater species diversity than low or high levels of disturbance.

Interspecific interaction

A relationship between individuals of two or more species in a community.

Invasive species

A species, often introduced by humans, that takes hold outside its native range.

Keystone species

A species that is not necessarily abundant in a community yet exerts strong control on community structure by the nature of its ecological role or niche.

Mullerian mimicry

A mutual mimicry by two unpalatable species.

Mutualism

A symbiotic relationship in which both participants benefit.

Niche

The sum of a species' use of the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment.

Parasitism

A +/- symbiotic interaction in which one organism, the parasite, benefits by feeding upon another organism, the host, which is harmed.

Pathogen

An organism or virus that causes disease.

Predation

A +/- interaction in which one species, the predator, kills and eats the other, the prey.

Primary succession

A type of ecological succession that occurs in an area where there were originally no organisms present and where soil has not yet formed.

Realized niche

The niche actually occupied by a species.

Relative abundance

The proportional representation of a species in a community.

Resource partitioning

The division of environmental resources by coexisting species such that the niche of each species differs by one or more significant factors.

Secondary succession

A type of succession that occurs where an existing community has been cleared by some disturbance that leaves the soil or substrate intact.

Species diversity

The number and relative abundance of species in a biological community.

Species richness

The number of species in a given area.

Succession

The process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time.

Symbiosis

A close and long-term interaction between two different species.

Zoonotic disease

A disease transmitted from animals to humans.

Autotroph

An organism that obtains organic food molecules without eating other organisms or substances derived from other organisms. Autotrophs use energy from the sun or from the oxidation of inorganic substances to make organic molecules.

Biomass pyramid

A diagram representing the biomass in each trophic level of an ecosystem.

Bioaugmentation

The use of organisms to add essential materials to a degraded ecosystem.

Bioremediation

The use of organisms to detoxify and restore polluted and degraded ecosystems.

Carnivore

An animal that mainly eats other animals.

Decomposer

An organism that absorbs nutrients from nonliving organic material such as corpses, fallen plant material, and the wastes of living organisms and converts them to inorganic forms; a detritivore.

Herbivore

An animal that mainly eats plants or algae.

Heterotroph

An organism that obtains organic food molecules by eating other organisms or substances derived from them.

Producer

An autotroph; an organism that produces organic compounds from CO2 by harnessing light energy (in photosynthesis) or by oxidizing inorganic chemicals (in chemosynthesis).

Primary consumer

An herbivore; an organism that eats plants or other autotrophs.

Secondary consumer

A carnivore that eats herbivores.

Tertiary consumer

A carnivore that eats other carnivores.

Trophic efficiency

The percentage of production transferred from one trophic level to the next.