Biodiversity (Final)

What are primary producers?

Create and supply their own energy; typically photosynthetic autotrophs

What do detritus feeders consume?

Dead organisms and wastes

What do decomposers do?

Break down dead, organic materials

What are the six types of population interactions?

1. Predation
2. Parasitism
3. Herbivory
4. Competition
5. Commensalism
6. Mutualism

What is the effect of predation on populations?

Predators gain nutrients and energy; prey are killed

What is the effect of parasitism on populations?

Parasites gain nutrients and energy; hosts are injured or killed

What is the effect of herbivory on populations?

Herbivores gain nutrients and energy; plants are killed or injures

What is the effect of competition on populations?

Both competing populations lose access to some resources

What is the effect of commensalism on populations?

One population benefits, the other population is unaffected

What is the effect of mutualism on populations?

Both populations benefit

When does symbiosis occur?

When one species has a physically close ecological association with another

What are the three types of symbiosis?

1. Parasitism
2. Commensalism
3. Mutualism

What is parasitism?

The relationship between two organisms, in which the parasite thrives at the cost of the host

What are the three types of parasites?

1. Endoparasites
2. Ectoparasites
3. Parasitoids

What are endoparasites?

Live within host

What are ectoparasites?

Live on/outside of host

What are parasitoids?

Insects that exist between true parasitism and predation

What is commensalism?

One species benefits from and the other is unaffected by the interactions

What is mutualism?

When two organisms work together and benefit one another

What does predation lead to?

Evolution of defense mechanisms

What are the two types of competition?

1. Intraspecific competition
2. Interspecific competition

What is intraspecific competition?

When access to resources limits populations, individuals of the same species compete among themselves for limiting resources such as food and shelter

What is interspecific competition?

Individuals of different species compete for the same limiting resources

What are the two types of intraspecific competition?

1. Interference competition
2. Exploitative competition

What is interference competition?

One species harms another species directly

What is exploitative competition?

Two or more populations use same limiting resource, in which one species reduces the availability of resources for others

What type of growth derives from interspecific competition?

Logistic

What is the competitive exclusion principle?

Population of two or more species cannot co-exist indefinitely if they rely on the same limiting resources and exploit them in the same way

What is a niche?

Resources it uses and environmental conditions it requires

What are the two types of niches?

1. Realized
2. Fundamental

What is a fundamental niche?

The environmental space that a species CAN occupy

* Ex) Tolerating specific pH levels

What is a realized niche?

Actual niche space once competition is factored in

How are niches related to competition?

Competition occurs from the overlap of fundamental and realized niches

What is resource partitioning?

Use of different resources or in different ways

What is character displacement?

Evolutionary change that occurs when two similar species inhabit the same environment

* NS favors divergence in characters

What are keystone species?

Species that have a disproportional effect, and define an ecosystem

What happens when there are more predators?

May increase species richness

What are ecotones?

Borders between communities that are generally species rich

What is the interactive hypothesis?

Predicts that species within communities exhibit similar distributions along gradients environmental gradients (seen via close alignment of curves over each section)

What is the individualistic hypothesis?

Predicts that species distribution along the gradient are independent (see via lack of alignment of curves)

What are the two aspects of species diversity?

1. Species richness
2. Relative abundances

What is species richness?

A lot of different types of species in an environment

What is relative abundance?

How many types species are present within a given area

What happens if evenness is high?

Types of species are relatively equal

What happens if evenness is low?

There is a dominant specie

What is the trophic structure?

Energy interactions of species and how energy flows through species

How are trophic structure illustrated?

Via food chains and webs

What does a more complex food web suggest?

Community is more stable

What is succession?

Change in ecosystem over time

What are the two types of successions?

1. Primary succession
2. Secondary succession

What is primary succession?

When organisms first colonize habitats without soil

What is secondary succession?

Occurs after existing vegetation is destroyed/disrupted by an environmental disturbance

Who coined the term “biodiversity”?

E.O Wilson in 1988

What does biodiversity refer to?

The richness of biological variation occurring at **all** levels of ecological organization

What are the three levels of biodiversity?

1. Genetic variation within populations and species
2. Number of species in an ecological community
3. Assortment of communities at a landscape scale

What is a landscape level?

An entire region that includes all communities

What are the six main stressors of biodiversity?

1. Overharvesting
2. Overfishing
3. Invasive Species
4. Pollution/Contamination
5. Climate Change
6. Global Catastrophe

Why are invasive species so successful?

Do not have predators in their home range and reproduce very quickly

What are endemic species?

Species that are native or restricted to one place/area

What is the environment phenotype mismatch?

Phenotype that evolved for hundreds of years get mismatched to environment due to climate change

What is demographic instability?

Too many males than females in a population

What happens when demographic instability and inbreeding depression are present?

May lead to extinction or extirpation

What is extirpation?

Extinction within a particular region

What is the Anthropocene?

The period over the last 500 years

Approximately how many species have gone extinct?

322 terrestrial vertebrates

Who caused the “sixth major extinction”?

Humans (indirectly)

What is mass extinction?

When the rate of extinction rises well above the background rate

What were the five main mass extinctions prior to the Anthopocene?

1. End of Ordovician and beginning of Devonian
2. End of Devonian
3. End of Permian
4. End of Triassic
5. End of Cretaceous

What was the most severe mass extinction?

Permian

* More than 85% of species alive at time disappeared

What happened at the end of the Cretaceous mass extinction?

Half of species on earth went extinct

* Including most dinosaurs

What does IUCN stand for?

International Union for the Conservation of Nature

What is the purpose of the IUCN?

Established objective criteria identifying species that are at risk

What does COSEWIC stand for?

Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada

What does COSEWIC do?

Studies biodiversity loss

What are the seven categories of COSEWIC?

1. Extinct
2. Extirpated
3. Endangered
4. Threatened
5. Special Concern
6. Data Deficient
7. Not at Risk

What does CITES stand for?

Convention for International Trade on Endangered Species

What does CITES do?

Attempts to prohibit international trade in endangered species

What is fragmentation?

The breakdown of contiguous landscapes

How does fragmentation affect populations?

* Reduce access to habitats and mates
* Reduce genetic diversity

What are corridors?

Act as a bridge between ecotones

What are protected areas?

Areas set aside from intensive economic use, and should have a self-organizing ecosystem

What does SLOSS stand for?

Single Large Or Several Small

What are the four key factors of SLOSS?

1. Area
2. Edge Effects
3. Number of Protected Areas
4. Distance Between Protected Areas

What does shape do? (SLOSS)

Protected areas with maximized interior habitat experience fewer edge effects

What does spacing do? (SLOSS)

Gene flow and recolonization is more likely when protected areas are in closer proximity

What do corridors do? (SLOSS)

Facilitate gene flow and recolonization

What is fauna?

Plants or animals

What is anthropogenetic loss?

Human-induced loss

What is conservation translocation?

Deliberate and mediated movement of organisms, from any source, captive or wild, from one area to free release in another

What is historical range?

Determines if they existed in their past

What is reintroduction biology?

Process of releasing a species back to where it historically occurred but has been extirpated

Why is reintroduction biology considered to be radical?

Because ecosystem is completely altered when species is reintroduced to an environment

Which countries are considered to be the pioneers of reintroduction biology?

Australia and New Zealand

What does stochastic refer to?

Some species take into captivity, others do not

What is enrichment?

Helps with keeping species as wild as possible by simulating a more natural lifestyle

What does it mean to be anadromous?

Moving in and out of lake

What does it mean if water is oligotrophic?

For water to be clean

What are match-plant introductions?

Take same number of animals from different strains and shoved them into the environment

What is allowable harm?

If you take a group of individuals of species out of an environment, how much damage will it cause to the old population

What are the four parts of reintroduction feasibility study?

1. Survey sites
2. Captive breeding
3. Examine stressors
4. Thermal stress