This site is 100% ad supported. Please add an exception to adblock for this site.

Science Community Ecology

Terms

undefined, object
copy deck
producer
-Organism that makes its own food. Plants are producers
-organism that can capture energy from sunlight or cemicals and use it to produce food from inorganic componds; autotroph
primary producer - Type of autotroph that secures energy directly from the environment and stores some in its tissues.
-organism that forms bottom of food chain
producers autotrophs- self feeders. ex. phytoplankton photosynthesize glucose
autotroph
= producer
-Organism that makes its own food. Plants are autotrophs
-organism that can capture energy from sunlight or cemicals and use it to produce food from inorganic componds; autotroph
primary producer
- Type of autotroph that secures energy directly from the environment and stores some in its tissues.
-organism that forms bottom of food chain
producers autotrophs- self feeders. ex. phytoplankton photosynthesize glucose
primary consumers
primary consumers herbivores (plant eaters)
Organism that feeds on all or part of plants (herbivore) or on other producers. Compare to detritivore, omnivore, secondary consumer.
secondary consumer
Organism that feeds only on primary consumers. Compare detritivore, omnivore, primary consumer.
heterotroph
organism that obtains energy from the food they consume . feeds from others; an organsim that must consume food. Compare to autotroph
search image
what predators form to standardize the most common form of its prey and therefore optimizes its search effort, leading to frequency-dependent election
What is co-evolution? Give an example of
CCoevolution is a change in one species that acts as a selective force on another species. co-evolution is a series of reciprocal adaptations in two species. This can be demonstrated in the relationship between the caterpillar of the butterfly Heliconius and a plant, the passionflower Passiflora. The Passiflora has developed a toxic chemical that protect its leaves from most herbivorous insects, but the Heliconius caterpillars have digestive enzymes that break down the toxins. However, some of these Passiflora plants produce yellow sugar deposits that look like Heliconius eggs; female butterflies avoid laying their eggs on this plant, thus no hatchlings will feed on the leaf. However, the sugar deposits attract other insects to prey on heliconius eggs and larvae.
interspecific interactions -
4 types
Predation or Parasitism
Competition
Commensalism
Mutualism
Ecological niche and Habitat - difference
The ecological niche of an organism depends not only on where it lives but also on what it does. By analogy, it may be said that the habitat is the organism's "address", and the niche is its "profession", biologically speaking.
Habitat - address. Niche - job description
ecotones
An ecotone is a transition area between two adjacent ecological communities (ecosystems). It may appear on the ground as a gradual blending of the two communities across a broad area, or it may manifest itself as a sharp boundary line.

Changes in the physical environment may produce a sharp boundary, as in the example of a shoreline or the interface between areas of forest and cleared land.
Mountain ranges often create such ecotones, due to the wide variety of climactic conditions experienced on their slopes. They may also provide a boundary between species due to the obstructive nature of their terrain
closed communities
have sharp boundaries
open communities
have gradual distinct boundaries
community stability
the tendency of a community to persist in the face of disturbance
Community resilience
ability of a community to persist in the face of disturbance
Some communities can recover from large disturbances and cannot. Ex. Loggin affects different types of forests differently. Hypothesis- the more complex and interconnected a community the more stable and resilient it will be when faced with disturbance
species abundance 1
number of individuals of one species
-the ab. of one species is often inversely related to the species richness in a community
-General rule as you more from one equator to the poles, the abundance of individual species foes up while the species richness goes down[
species abundance 2
cont.from species abundance 1:
-at poles you have few species and many individuals (seals, pinguins, etc) , where is in the tropics you will find many species but fewer individuals
species richness
number of diff species in a community
trophic structure
feeding relationships = 2 types = produces (autotrophs ) and consumers
(heterotrophs )
What is the difference between interspecific competition and intraspecific competition? What is GAUSE's principle of competitive exclusion?
Interspecific competition is competition among different species. Intraspecific competition is competition among individuals of a single species. Gause's principle essentially states that no two species can occupy the same niche.
ISLANDS biogeography

immigrant pattern
relict pattern
immigrant pattern: dominated by "best migrators"
relict pattern: random extinctions of original biota

Deck Info

20

permalink