first bio exam ahhh
ecology: Ecology is the study of how living things (like plants, animals, and even tiny bacteria) interact with each other and with their environment. Imagine a big puzzle, where every piece is connected. In nature, everything works together. For example, plants need sunlight, water, and soil to grow. Animals eat plants or other animals to get energy. When an animal dies, decomposers like fungi and bacteria break it down, helping return nutrients to the soil, which plants use again. This keeps the cycle going!
abiotic factors:
Plants: They produce oxygen and food for animals, and they also provide shelter.
Animals: Any animals in the ecosystem, from insects to large mammals. They interact with plants, other animals, and the environment.
Fungi: These break down dead plants and animals, recycling nutrients in the ecosystem.
Bacteria: They can help decompose matter or help plants absorb nutrients, like nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the soil.
Algae: Tiny plants in water that produce oxygen and food for other organisms.
biotic factors:
Sunlight: Plants need sunlight to photosynthesize and make food, and animals rely on plants for food and oxygen.
Water: All living things need water to survive, whether it's for drinking, bathing, or growing.
Temperature: The climate (how hot or cold it is) affects what kind of organisms can live in an area.
Soil: The type of soil, its nutrients, and how it drains water can affect what kinds of plants grow in an area.
Air: The gases in the air, like oxygen and carbon dioxide, are essential for living things to breathe and grow.
Wind: Wind helps plants spread seeds, and it can also affect temperature and moisture levels.
Rocks: Rocks and minerals can influence the types of plants that grow, as well as how water moves through the environment.
biosphere: part of Earth where life exists. It includes all living things (plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, etc.) and the places they live, like forests, oceans, deserts, and even the air. It stretches from the deepest parts of the ocean to the highest mountains, and it’s made up of many ecosystems, which are communities of living organisms interacting with each other and their environment.
lithosphere (earth)
atmosphere
hydrosphere
cryosphere (ice)
global ecology: Global ecology is the study of how the Earth's ecosystems, climate, and living things are connected on a global scale. It's like zooming out and looking at the big picture of how life on Earth interacts with the environment as a whole.
Ecosystems around the world are all linked. For example, what happens in the rainforest can affect weather patterns, which can affect places far away, like deserts or oceans.
Global Climate plays a huge role. Changes in things like temperature and weather patterns can impact ecosystems everywhere. For example, if the Earth's temperature rises (global warming), it can change how plants grow, how animals migrate, or even how much rain falls in certain areas.
Human Activities have a big effect on global ecology. Things like deforestation (cutting down forests), pollution, and burning fossil fuels can mess with the natural balance and cause problems like climate change, which affects the entire planet.
landscape ecology: landscape ecology looks at the bigger picture of how different ecosystems fit together and how changes in one part of the landscape can affect the whole area, including the plants, animals, and even us!
Ecosystem Patches: Landscapes are made up of different "patches," like forests, grasslands, wetlands, or urban areas. These patches are connected or separated by things like rivers, roads, or mountains.
Movement of Species: Animals and plants don’t stay in just one place. Landscape ecology looks at how species move between these patches. For example, a bear might travel from one forest patch to another, or a bird might migrate between forests and wetlands.
Human Impact: Humans change the landscape by building cities, roads, farms, etc. This can affect how animals and plants move around and how healthy the ecosystems are. Landscape ecology helps us understand how to plan cities and roads in a way that doesn’t harm the environment.
community ecology: Community ecology is about understanding all these interactions and how they shape the way a group of organisms lives together in a specific area. It's like looking at a whole neighborhood of plants and animals and figuring out how they share space, food, and even challenges!
Predation: One animal might eat another. For example, a lion might hunt a zebra. This affects both species, as the lion gets food, and the zebra might have to adapt to avoid being eaten.
Competition: Species may compete for the same resources, like food, water, or shelter. For example, two species of birds might compete for the same tree to build a nest.
Symbiosis: Some species live together in close relationships that help them both. There are three types of symbiosis:
Mutualism: Both species benefit. For example, bees and flowers—bees get nectar, and flowers get pollinated.
Commensalism: One species benefits, and the other isn’t really affected. For example, birds that follow herds of cows to eat insects the cows stir up.
Parasitism: One species benefits, and the other is harmed. Like a tick living on a dog and sucking its blood.
Cooperation: Some species work together to help each other. For example, certain fish may swim with larger sharks to get protection, and in return, they clean the shark's teeth.
population ecology: In short, population ecology helps us understand how populations of animals, plants, or other organisms change over time based on things like birth rates, death rates, and the environment around them. It's all about figuring out what affects how many individuals live in an area and how they survive!
Population Size: This is how many individuals of a species live in a specific area. For example, how many deer live in a forest or how many fish are in a lake.
Birth and Death Rates: These are important factors in population growth. If a lot of babies are born and not many individuals die, the population will grow. But if there are fewer births and more deaths, the population will shrink.
Immigration and Emigration: Immigration is when individuals move into a population (like when animals move into a new area), and emigration is when individuals leave. Both can affect how big or small a population is.
Carrying Capacity: This is the maximum number of individuals that an environment can support. If a population grows too large, it may run out of resources like food, water, or space, and the population might start to decrease.
Environmental Factors: Things like food availability, predators, diseases, and weather can affect the population. For example, if a disease spreads in a population of animals, it might cause the population to decrease.
Population Growth Models: There are different ways populations can grow:
Exponential Growth: This is when a population grows very quickly, without limits, like bacteria in a petri dish.
Logistic Growth: This is more realistic. It happens when a population grows fast at first but then slows down as it reaches its carrying capacity, meaning it can’t grow any bigger because resources are limited.
organismal ecology: So, in organismal ecology, we learn how each organism’s body, behavior, and features help it live in different environments, whether it's a hot desert, a cold arctic tundra, or a forest!
Behavior: This is about how organisms act in response to their environment. For example, animals may hunt for food, migrate to warmer places, or hide from predators. These behaviors help them survive. For instance, birds fly south in the winter to find food and stay warm.
Body Functions (Physiology): Organisms’ bodies have special features or abilities that help them adapt to their surroundings. For example, camels store water in their bodies to survive in the desert, and fish have gills to breathe underwater.
Physical Traits (Morphology): Organisms’ physical features (how they look or are built) help them survive in their environment. For example, animals living in cold places might have thick fur to stay warm, while animals in the desert might have big ears to help them cool down.
ecological niche: An ecological niche is like an organism's "role" or "job" in its environment. It includes everything the organism needs to survive, grow, and reproduce—like its food, where it lives, what it does, and how it interacts with other organisms.
Imagine a community of animals in a forest. Each animal has its own special role or niche:
A deer might eat plants and live in the forest.
An owl might hunt for small animals like mice and live in a tree.
A mushroom might break down dead leaves and trees, helping to recycle nutrients in the soil.
EX: dung beetle recycles nutrients that no other organism does
Even though all of these animals and plants live in the same forest, they each have a unique niche. No two organisms can fill the exact same niche in the same place at the same time because they would be competing for the same resources, like food and space.
population: a population refers to a group of individuals of the same species that live in the same area at the same time. These individuals can interact with each other, mate, and share the same resources like food, water, and shelter. A population can change in size over time depending on
birth rates
death rates
immigration (moving into the area)
emigration (moving out of the area)
community: a community refers to all the different populations of different species that live and interact in the same area at the same time. It's like a neighborhood made up of many different kinds of organisms, such as plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria, all living together.
forest community includes trees, animals, like birds, deer, insects, and the microorganisms in the soil
all interact with each other in different ways, predators, prey, some compete for food, while others might cooperate or help each other.
ecosystem: An ecosystem in biology is a community of living organisms (like plants, animals, and microbes) interacting with each other and with their physical environment (like air, water, and soil). It includes everything in a specific area, both the living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) parts, and how they all work together.
landscape: a landscape refers to a large area that is made up of different ecosystems, habitats, or environments. It's like a bigger picture of how different ecosystems (forests, grasslands, lakes, rivers, etc.) are arranged and how they interact across a wider area, such as a region or even a whole continent.
For example, a landscape might include:
A forest on one side of a river,
A grassland on the other side of the river,
And maybe a mountain range nearby.
weather: Weather is what’s happening in the atmosphere right now or over a short period of time (like today or this week). It includes things like:
Temperature (how hot or cold it is)
Rainfall (how much it rains or snows)
Wind (how fast or slow the wind is blowing)
Clouds (how many clouds are in the sky)
climate: Climate, on the other hand, is the average weather of a place over a long period of time, like 30 years or more. It’s like the general pattern of weather you can expect in a certain area. Climate takes into account:
Average temperature over a year
Average rainfall or snowfall
Seasonal changes (like whether it's usually hot in summer or cold in winter)
ecological factors: Ecological factors are the different things in an environment that affect how organisms live and survive. These factors can be both biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living). They play a big role in shaping ecosystems and communities.
Here’s a breakdown of the two types:
Biotic Factors (Living factors):
These are the living things in an environment that affect other organisms. Examples include:
Predation: When one organism hunts and eats another, like a lion hunting a zebra.
Competition: When organisms compete for the same resources, such as food, water, or space. For example, two birds might compete for the same tree to build a nest.
Symbiosis: Close relationships between organisms. This includes:
Mutualism (both benefit): Bees and flowers (bees get nectar, flowers get pollinated).
Commensalism (one benefits, the other isn’t affected): Birds that ride on buffaloes to eat insects stirred up by the buffalo.
Parasitism (one benefits, the other is harmed): A tick living on a dog and feeding on its blood.
biology:
organization → CELLS
information → GENETICS
interaction → ECOLOGY, how organisms interact with one another and environment
energy & matter → organisms ability to keep internal balance while conditions change
evolution → how species SURVIVE & REPRODUCE
emergent properties: Emergent properties in ecology are new characteristics or behaviors that come from the complex interactions between different parts of an ecosystem. These properties can only be understood when considering the whole system and how its components work together, rather than looking at individual parts in isolation.
chracteristic that is there but is not necessarily useful inless its in a specific envirneomnt, has its own unquie characteristics that arise from the interactions of smaller comoentents, has culmination of a function, cell on its own does not hsve a role unless surrounded by cells to make an arm move or other process
1. Ecosystem Stability:
An ecosystem’s balance or stability is an emergent property that comes from the interactions of all the organisms and abiotic factors (like temperature, water, and soil). For example, a forest ecosystem might stay stable because plants provide food and shelter for animals, and animals help pollinate plants or spread seeds. If one species is removed, it might disturb the entire system and lead to changes in the whole ecosystem.
2. Biodiversity:
Biodiversity (the variety of life in an ecosystem) is an emergent property that arises from the complex interactions among different species within that ecosystem. In a healthy forest, the interactions between plants, herbivores, predators, and decomposers create a diverse range of species that contribute to the ecosystem’s functioning. If one species is lost, it can affect the biodiversity of the entire ecosystem.
3. Food Webs:
In an ecosystem, a food web is an emergent property that shows how energy flows from one organism to another. The interactions between producers (like plants), consumers (like herbivores), and predators (like carnivores) create a complex system of feeding relationships. The entire food web cannot be understood by just looking at individual species—it emerges from their interactions.
4. Nutrient Cycling:
The cycling of nutrients, like carbon and nitrogen, is an emergent property of the interactions between living organisms and the environment. Plants absorb nutrients from the soil, herbivores eat plants, and decomposers break down dead organisms to release nutrients back into the soil, making them available for plants to use again. This cycling process helps keep the ecosystem functioning and healthy.
disturbance: a disturbance refers to an event or change that disrupts the structure or function of an ecosystem. Disturbances can be natural (like wildfires, storms, floods, or earthquakes) or human-made (like deforestation, pollution, or climate change).
A disturbance can affect the organisms in an ecosystem and the abiotic factors (such as soil, water, and temperature), which can lead to both short-term and long-term changes in the environment.
Primary succession happens in an area that has never had life before (like after a volcanic eruption), while secondary succession occurs in areas where life has been disrupted but soil and some organisms remain (like after a forest fire).
Over time, the ecosystem might return to its original state or change into a new type of ecosystem.
secondary succession: an ecosystem recovers and regenerates after a disturbance that does not completely destroy the existing environment.
density: # of individuals per unit area/volume
dispersal: organisms move away from birth place, can be seeds or animals
dispersion: pattern of spacing or distribution of individuals within a population in a specific area or habitat.
clumping
uniform
random
demographics: study of the statistics or data that describe a population, such as humans or animals.
population size
age structure
birth rate
death rate
immigration & emigration
EXAMPLE
If there are lots of baby deer (high birth rate) and not many older deer (high death rate), the population of deer might increase quickly.
If too many deer die because of disease or predators (high death rate), the population could decrease.
cohort: a cohort refers to a group of individuals from the same population that share a common characteristic, often born around the same time. These individuals are studied together to observe how they grow, develop, and experience life over time.
life history: survival/reproductive history
negative feedback: works to maintain balance and bring the system back to a stable state by counteracting the change.
Body Temperature Regulation: If your body temperature rises above normal (say, you get too hot), your body activates cooling mechanisms (like sweating) to bring your temperature back down. If your body temperature drops too low, your body will conserve heat or shiver to bring the temperature back up. The response is opposite to the change, which is why it's called "negative."
Blood Sugar Regulation: When your blood sugar level is too high, your body releases insulin to lower it. If it's too low, your body releases glucagon to raise it. Both are examples of negative feedback because they counteract the change in blood sugar levels.
positive feedback: works to amplify or accelerate the change, driving a process toward a specific outcome.
Childbirth (Labor): During childbirth, contractions cause the release of hormones that intensify the contractions. The stronger the contractions, the more hormones are released, which leads to even stronger contractions. This continues until the baby is born, after which the process stops.
Blood Clotting: When you get a cut, platelets in the blood stick to the site and release chemicals that attract more platelets. This leads to a rapid increase in platelet accumulation to form a clot, stopping the bleeding.
density independent factors: do not depend on population density. They affect a population regardless of how many individuals are present in the area.
Natural Disasters: Events like hurricanes, floods, wildfires, or earthquakes can wipe out a large portion of a population, regardless of how many individuals are in the area.
Climate Changes: Extreme weather, such as long droughts or temperature extremes, can harm or kill organisms, regardless of population size.
Human Activity: Pollution, habitat destruction, and deforestation can reduce populations, but these effects do not depend on how dense the population is.
density dependent factors: depend on the population density. In other words, the effects of these factors become stronger as the population becomes more crowded or larger.
Competition for Resources: When there are more individuals in an area, resources like food, water, and shelter become limited, leading to competition among organisms. This competition can reduce the survival or reproduction rates of individuals.
Predation: As population density increases, predators may have an easier time finding and hunting prey, which can reduce the prey population.
Disease: In crowded populations, diseases can spread more easily from one individual to another, causing higher mortality rates.
Waste Accumulation: In dense populations, the accumulation of waste products can harm individuals, affecting their health and survival.
TERRITORIAL
interspecific interactions: interactions that occur between individuals of different species. Interspecific interactions can have various outcomes, such as competition, predation, mutualism, and more.
Competition: When different species compete for the same resources (e.g., food, water, shelter). For example, different bird species might compete for nesting sites in the same tree.
Predation: One species (the predator) hunts and eats another species (the prey). For example, a lion hunting a zebra.
Mutualism: Both species benefit from the interaction. For example, bees and flowers—bees pollinate flowers while getting nectar for themselves.
Commensalism: One species benefits while the other is neither helped nor harmed. For example, birds that ride on the backs of buffaloes, benefiting from the insects stirred up by the buffalo without affecting the buffalo.
Parasitism: One species benefits at the expense of the other. For example, a tick feeding on a dog.
intraspecific interactions: interactions that occur between individuals of the same species. Intraspecific interactions are important for understanding social behavior, competition, and reproduction within a species.
Competition: Individuals of the same species compete for limited resources, such as food, mates, or territory. For example, two male deer might fight for dominance and access to mates.
Cooperation: Individuals of the same species work together to benefit the group, such as when wolves hunt in packs to catch prey.
Mating: The process where individuals of the same species come together to reproduce. This often involves courtship behaviors or competition for mates.
Social Structure: Some species, like ants or bees, have a social hierarchy where individuals have specific roles (worker, queen, soldier).
character displacement: phenotypic changes a species inherits in order to limit competition
resource partitioning: how different species divide up or share resources (like food, space, or shelter) in a way that allows them to coexist in the same habitat, without directly competing with each other for the exact same resources.
Different Times (Temporal Partitioning):
Some species might use the same resources, but at different times of the day or year. For example:
Bats and birds both eat insects, but bats are active at night, while birds are active during the day. They share the same food source, but at different times.
Different Locations (Spatial Partitioning):
Species might occupy different parts of the same habitat to avoid competition. For example:
In a forest, woodpeckers may peck on tree trunks, while nuthatches forage for insects on the tree's branches or in the leaves. Both species are eating insects, but in different places on the tree.
Different Ways of Using the Same Resource (Functional Partitioning):
Some species might use the same resource in slightly different ways. For example:
Herbivores might eat different parts of the same plant. One species might feed on the leaves, while another feeds on the roots, and another feeds on the stems. By eating different parts, they reduce competition for the same food.
ecological niche: the role or function of an organism within its environment. It's like the organism's "job" in the ecosystem. The niche includes how an organism gets its food, where it lives, how it interacts with other organisms, and how it survives in its environment.
Habitat: The physical place where the organism lives. This could be a forest, ocean, desert, etc.
Example: A lion's habitat is the savanna or grasslands in Africa.
Resource Use: The way the organism uses resources, like food, water, or space, to survive.
Example: A giraffe feeds on the leaves of tall trees, which are a resource it uses to survive.
Interactions with Other Species: This includes the relationships the organism has with other species, such as competition, predation, mutualism, etc.
Example: A bee has a mutualistic relationship with flowers, as it helps pollinate them while getting nectar for food.
Behavior: The actions the organism takes to survive, reproduce, and interact with its environment.
Example: A nocturnal animal, like an owl, hunts at night to avoid competition with daytime predators.
competitive exclusive: two species that occupy the same niche in the same environment cannot coexist for long. One species will always outcompete the other, leading to the extinction or displacement of the less competitive species.
exploitation:
predation
herbivory
parasitism
relative abundance: refers to how common or rare a species is in a particular environment, compared to other species in the same area. It is a measure of the proportion or percentage of individuals of a particular species relative to the total number of individuals of all species in a community.
species diversity: measure of the variety and abundance of different species in an ecosystem. It looks at two main factors:
Species Richness
Species Evenness
species richness: the number of different species in an area
keystone species: organism that has a large impact on community BUT is a small population size
foundation species: those that have a strong influence on the structure and function of an ecosystem because of their abundance or biomass. They create or significantly modify the habitat in which other species live.
Role: These species provide essential resources for other organisms, such as food, shelter, or substrate for attachment. Their presence and activities form the foundation or base of the ecosystem.
Example:
Coral Reefs: Coral species are a classic example. They build the actual physical structure of the reef, providing habitat for a wide variety of marine species.
Trees: In forests, large trees like oak or pine can be foundation species. They provide habitat and food for various animals, insects, and plants.
ecosystem engineers: organisms that modify their environment in a way that creates new habitats, resources, or conditions for other species. They can change the physical, chemical, or biological aspects of an ecosystem. This alteration can have major effects on the cre and functioning of the ecosystem.
Role: Ecosystem engineers often create or modify habitats in a way that supports a wide range of other species. They may do this by physically changing the environment (like building structures), affecting nutrient cycles, or influencing the availability of resources.
Types:
Autogenic Engineers: Organisms that modify the environment using their own physical structures or materials (e.g., trees modifying the environment by providing shade or altering soil).
Allogenic Engineers: Organisms that modify the environment by transforming living or non-living materials (e.g., beavers building dams, which alter the flow of rivers and create ponds).
Examples:
Beavers: By building dams, beavers create ponds that provide habitats for many other species (fish, birds, amphibians).
Coral: Coral species build extensive reef structures that become home to a large number of marine species.
Termites: Termites burrow and break down dead plant material, altering the soil structure and affecting the flow of water and nutrients in the ecosystem.
structural species: create physical structures in the ecosystem, often modifying the environment in a way that provides habitat or alters the landscape.
Role: These species change the physical environment, affecting the availability of resources, shelter, and food for other species. They can be foundation species, but not all structural species are foundation species. The key difference is that structural species often have a more direct physical impact on the habitat.
Example:
Beavers: Beavers are a structural species because they build dams that change the flow of rivers and create ponds, which then become habitat for many other species.
Mangrove Trees: These trees grow along coastlines, creating a physical barrier to protect shorelines and provide habitat for fish and other organisms
K: carrying capacity (absolute # when cpaitalized)
N: population size
r: per capita growth rate (per indivudal) , made up of birth rates and death rates, per capita death rates are (on average per individual), individuals died per year divided by the number of populaiton alive total
ex fish population: per individual that exhistis - add two fishes - per capita = 2
dN/dt: chnage over populatino size / change in population time, population growth rate
when populaiton does chnage - population growth = 0
r = 0 means that the same amount of trees were added and taken away = b - d
realized niche: actual range of environmental conditions and resources that a species occupies in the presence of competitors, predators, disease, and other limiting factors
Example: That same plant species might only grow in certain soil types in areas where competition from other plants is lower or where it faces fewer herbivores, even though it could theoretically grow in a wider range of conditions.
fundamental niche: range of environmental conditions and resources that a species can theoretically use or occupy in the absence of competition, predation, or other limiting factors.
Example: A species of plant may have the ability to grow in a wide range of soil types, temperature ranges, and moisture levels.
ave listed above (use
arrows to indicate the primary patterns observed).
c. Choose two biomes and compare and contrast them in terms of their characteristic
climate conditions, primary vegetation, typical animals that inhabit them, and where
they are found geographically (i.e. list example locations).
6. List 5 key physical and chemical properties that characterize aquatic biomes.
7. Describe how water depth and distance to shore result in stratification of abiotic factors
characterizing aquatic communities/ecosystems.
8. Figure 40.1 (52.1) in your text gives you a visual overview of factors that strongly affect
species distribution. Notice that the factors that have the strongest effect on terrestrial
systems are different from the ones affecting aquatic systems.
a. Create a flow chart that shows these differences and then bring the chart to a
common end with dispersal and interactions.