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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?
Predation
Parasitism
Herbivory
Competition
Commensalism
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?
Parasitism
Commensalism
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?
Endoparasites
Ectoparasites
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?
Intraspecific competition
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?
Interference competition
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?
Realized
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?
Species richness
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?
Primary succession
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?
Genetic variation within populations and species
Number of species in an ecological community
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?
Overharvesting
Overfishing
Invasive Species
Pollution/Contamination
Climate Change
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?
End of Ordovician and beginning of Devonian
End of Devonian
End of Permian
End of Triassic
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?
Extinct
Extirpated
Endangered
Threatened
Special Concern
Data Deficient
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?
Area
Edge Effects
Number of Protected Areas
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?
Survey sites
Captive breeding
Examine stressors
Thermal stress
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