Comprehensive Biology Ecosystems, Taxonomy, and Scientific Methods

What is an e___________m?

A _____________ community of i_____________

___________ and their p_________ environment

- ecosystem

- biological

- interacting organisms

- physical

An ecosystem includes all ________ and _________ factors

- biotic

- abiotic

________: Biological components; living organisms

• e.g. Plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, etc

________: Physical components; non-living things

• e.g. Water, land, light, temperature, soil, rocks, etc

- biotic

- abiotic

A _________ is an ecological environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant, or other organism.

It is the (?unnatural/natural?) environment in which an organism can live, or the physical environment that surrounds a species population.

- habitat

- natural

A ____________ is often used to describe the small-scale physical requirements of a particular organism or population; often a smaller habitat within a larger one

E.g. A fallen log inside a forest can provide a microhabitat for insects that are not found in the wider forest habitat outside such logs

microhabitat

Food Webs and Food Chains are used to show the _______ passed from organism to organism in an (?ecosystem/habitat?).

- energy

- ecosystem

Food ________ follow a single path as animals eat each other

Food ________ show how plants and animals are interconnected by multiple paths

- chains

- webs

How to think about a food web

A) C_____________: How many actual feeding links exist compared to how many could possibly exist between species.

B) How ________ is transferred among species

C) Any _____________ among species

*For B & C, the size of the arrow is the amount of energy and the strength of interaction, respectively

- Connectance

- energy

- interactions

The _________ level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food chain

- ________ _____________ are organisms that can make their own energy through biochemical processes like (?autotrophs/heterotrophs?)

- ______________ cannot make food. They must find food and eat it to obtain energy like (?autotrophs/heterotrophs?)

- ______________ are organisms that break down dead or decaying organisms like (?autotrophs/heterotrophs?)

- trophic

- Primary producers

- autotrophs

- Consumers

- heterotrophs

- Decomposers

- heterotrophs

An _______ _________ is a graphical model of energy flow in a community

energy pyramid

Energy loss:

Scientists have calculated that an average of (?70%/90%?) of the energy entering each step of the food (?web/chain?) is "lost" in r___________.

- 90

- chain

- Respiration

The different levels of an energy pyramid represent different groups of __________ that might compose a food (?web/chain?).

Trophic level 4 (0.1%): t_______ consumer

Trophic level 3 (1%): s___________ consumer

Trophic level 2 (10%): p_______ consumer

Trophic level 1 (100%): (?consumer/producer?)

- organisms

- chain

- tertiary

- secondary

- primary

- producer

Biodiversity is the variety of life. Its studied at many levels:

- G________ diversity

- S________ diversity

- E________ diversity

- High biodiversity is an indicator of the ability of an ecosystem to resist _______ or _______ from disturbances

- Cannot easily be captured in a ________ number

- Using several different measurements together gives a clearer picture of _____________.

- Genetic

- Species

- Ecosystem

- change

- recover

- single

- biodiversity

Species Diversity:

- ___________ (S): Total number of species in an ecosystem (community).

- ____________ (E) is a measurement to compare the relative abundances of each species in the community/ how evenly individuals are spread across species (0-1 scale). Higher values = more balanced community.

- Richness

- Evenness

___________ Diversity Index for a community that accounts for both richness and evenness of individual species (how rare or common/dominant a species is

__________ Diversity Index (H) accounts for species abundance by calculating the proportion of individuals of each species compared to the total number of individuals in the community (p i). Higher H = more diverse.

- Simpsons

- Shannon

(?Shannon/Simpson ?) = Sensitive to the Small (rare species).

(?Shannon/Simpson ?) = Sensitive to the Strong (dominant species).

- Shannon

- Simpson

Evenness (E):

measures how evenly individuals are spread across species in a community. If species are balanced, evenness is (?low/high?) (close to 1). If a few species dominate and others are rare, evenness is (?low/high?) (close to 0).

- high

- low

Systematics and Taxonomy

• Life on Earth is diverse and vast, so scientists organized a system for describing and classifying organisms.

• _________________: a broad field concerned with classification, evolution, individual variation, distribution, and taxonomy (naming).

• _________________: name structure involving a series of categories in a hierarchy so that each level includes several sublevels.

EX: • country > state > county > city > street > building/house number

- Systematics

- Nomenclature

The broadest taxon is the (?species/domain?):

- B________, A________, and E________

• The narrowest taxon is the (?species/domain?).

Perspectives on the classification of eukaryotic diversity have changed rapidly in recent years:

- The four eukaryotic groups within the five-kingdom classification—p_____, a_______, f_____, and p______—have been recently transformed through numerous permutations into the current system of four "supergroups.

- domain

- Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya

- species

- plants, animals, fungi, and protists

Hierarchical relationship:

Domain ->

________->

Phylum ->

________->

Order ->

________->

Genus ->

________

- kingdom

- Class

- Family

- Species

Domain: E________

Kingdom: A_________

Phylum: C__________

Class: M_________

Order: C__________

Family: F_________

Genus: EX-Panthera

Species: EX-leo

- Eukarya

- Animalia

- Chordata

- Mammalia

- Carnivora

- Felidae

Binomial Nomenclature:

• The scientific name of an organism has two parts:

- ________ name and a ________ epithet

• The ________ is always capitalized, and the species is always lowercase

• Both the Genus and the species are always ______*______

EX: Panthera leo with ______*______

- Genus

- species

- Genus

- italicized

_________________ Key:

- A tool used to identify organisms by making a series of choices.

- Each step gives you two contrasting options (yes/no, has/doesn't have).

- Each choice rules out some organisms, narrowing down the possibilities.

- By continuing the process, you eventually end up with the correct organism.

Dichotomous

1. __________

2. Ask questions

3. Formulate a hypothesis: ______ hypothesis & _____________ hypothesis

4. Make ___________

5. Design an _____________

6. Collect ______

7. _________ data

8. Compare predicted results to actual results: Reject the (?null/alternative?) hypothesis? or Fail to reject the (?null/alternative?) hypothesis?

9. Report your results

10. _________ on results and create new questions

- Observe

- Null

- Alternative

- predictions

- experiment

- data

- Analyze

- null

- null

- reflect

___________ Number of _________ (ENS):

The actual number of equally-common species that would give the same diversity value as H.

- Effective

- Species

_____________ Variable (__V) is the variable affected by the independent variable.

_____________ Variable (__V) is the variable that you are studying the effect of

- Dependent

- (DV)

- Independent

- (IV)

______ Hypothesis

● The "null model" that the researcher is trying to disprove or discredit.

● Assumed (?false/true?) until data is significant enough to say otherwise → Think "innocent until proven guilty

● No observed effect; i.e. the IV has no significant effect on the DV

● Always either fail to reject or reject the null hypothesis.

- Null

- true

Alternative Hypothesis

● What the researcher wants to prove

● Claims that the (?IV/DV?) does have a statistically significant relationship between the variables being tested

● (?Does/Does not?) need to be written in an "If, then, because" format

● USUALLY the (?same/opposite?) of the null

- IV

- Does not

- opposite

Low p-value (≤ 0.05) → (?fail to reject/reject?) null

High p-value (> 0.05) → (?fail to reject/reject?) null

- reject

- fail to reject

_______ species outcompetes natural/native wildlife from their respective habitats

Invasive

Florida water system is reliant on 3 water systems:

__________ river- pumps water into lake Okeechobee/freshwater

Lake _____________- releases the water south giving fresh water supply to ecosystems like the everglades

__________- freshwater flows down to provide supply to Florida ecosystem

• Kissimmee

• Okeechobee

• Everglades

Florida is _________ or near the tropics and temperate zones so it supports ecosystem diversity

subtropical

An example of Florida’s subtropical environment is the pine rocklands, found at the highest elevations of the Florida Keys and the Miami Rock Ridge, where the underlying substrate is limestone. This ecosystem is fire-dependent. There is fire form lighting to rmeove competeors.

Tropical hardwood hammocks are found near wetlands and pine rocklands. They are considered a ‘copy’ of the surrounding vegetation, but unlike pine rocklands, they are fire-intolerant, which allows them to thrive in areas within the pine rockland environment that are protected from fire.

Rainfall seeps into Florida limestones bedrock to make underwater fresh water.

Forest fires and hurricanes are ecologically important for fresh water and tropical hardwood hammocks.

Natural disturbances in Florida ecosystems include wildfires, which reduce vegetation; floods, which carry nutrient-rich sediment that fertilizes the soil; and windstorms, which create gaps in the forest canopy and allow sunlight to reach the understory.

The paired t-test compares two related (dependent) measurements, and those measurements must be continuous.

A paired t-test result that shows little or no difference between the means suggests that there is no significant difference between the paired measurements, assuming the differences are normally distributed.

The null hypothesis (H₀) states that there is no significant difference between the paired (dependent) measurements. For the alternative hypothesis (H₁):

• Two-tailed test: the mean difference (μd) ≠ 0

• One-tailed test: the mean difference (μd) > 0 or μd < 0, depending on the direction of the test.