Unit 8: Ecology

Habitat = address vs. Niche = job (resources used by organism)

Biological organization

• Organism.. make up → Population... make up → Communities.. make up → Ecosystem

Behavior

• Innate → Instinct

• Learned

  • What causes it?

  • How does it develop?

  • How does it affect fitness?

  • How does it evolve

Environmental Cues

• Migration → Caused by.. Moving

• Hibernation → Decreasing temperatures

• Estivation → Increasing temperatures

Circadian Rhythms

• Daily Cycle

• 24 Hr changes body

Innate

• Reflexes

• Fixed Action Patterns

  • Key Stimulus

    • Happens due to a certain trait, such as sicklebacks and red bellies

Learned

• Habituation

  • Repeating stimulus stop being relevant

• Imprinting

  • Chicks & Mother

  • Can cause negative affects as well

Conditioning / Associative learning

• Classical

  • Involuntary behavior enforcing stimulus

    • Dog + Whistle

• Operant

  • Voluntary behavior causing stimulus

    • Rat + Trap

Communication

• Pheromones (Chemicals)

• Coloration

Endotherms

• Warm-blooded

• More E

• BMR (Basal metabolic rate)

  • metabolism help them maintain homeostasis

• Flexible

• Behavioral thermogenesis

Ectotherms

• Cold-blooded

• less E

• SMR (Standard metabolic rate)

  • have to move around/shiver to generate heat

  • depends on temp

• Can live w/ diff body temps

• thermogenesis

Body size

• Smaller = more energy

Reproductive Strategies

• How animal choose to reproduce

• More babies = more time invested for each / some animal prioritize, some hope some of theirs will hatch

• When do you have offspring early?

  • Early → Reproducing takes energy

  • Later

• Semel/ Iteropanity

  • Semel → one baby, die

  • Itero → continuous birthing

Pop growth

• Exponential (J shape)

  • No restrictions

• Logistic (S shape)

  • Limited resources

  • Carrying capacity

• Density dependent

  • Competition

  • Disease

• Density independent

  • Flood

  • Fire

Food Webs

• Autotrophs (produce own food)

  • Plants - photoautotroph

  • Chemoautotroph

• Heterotroph

  • Rabbit

  • Fox

• Decomposers break it dead animals down

Community

• Interspecific interactions

  • Predation

  • Symbiosis

  • Mutualism

  • Commensalism

  • Parasitism

Competition

• Niche

• Competition exclusion principle (2 animals can’t have the same niche bc of competition)

Biodiversity

• Species nichness

• Relative abundance → difference species represented

Species

• Foundation (carries an ecosystem)

• Keystone (even w. few, still big impact on ecosystem)

Human Impact >:(

• Invasive Species

• Resources → Renewable / Nonrenewable

• Extinction