3 key issues
Terms
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- definition of ecology (2 parts)
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1. study of organisms and their environment
2. used to just be of organisms
3. abiotic=environment
biotic=animals - community
- assemblage of animals and plants in a small area
- structural profile
- cellular, individual, population, community, ecosystem, landscape, biome
- biosphere
- all liveable area on world, most life found within only a few meters of the water surface
- habitat
- where an organism lives
- niche (2)
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1. what an organism does
2. all the environments in which an organism can survive - biome
- large, characteristic area
- autotroph vs heterotroph
- makes own food vs. eats other organisms
- food chain vs food web
- food web is more complex
- trophic levels
- 1-producers, 2-herbivores, 3-carnivores...organism is assigned to the highest trophic level it belongs to
- community effects and keystones
- keystone-important species to the community (ash) relationship of the emerald ash borer takes out the ash and highly impacts, hurts community
- succession
- orderly and predictible evolution in one direction
- primary succession
- vegetation in a place that there was none prior (glacier)...fast growing, short lived, early flowering, shade intolerant (apsen, mosses, lichen, grasses)
- secondary succession
- vegetation after there was vegetation destroyed prior (fire)...slow growing, long lived, need fertile site, shade tolerant, late flowering (oak, maple, beech)
- 4 regions in michigan
- regions 1/2-higher temperature, more precipitation, more deciduous (maple-beech forest)...region 3/4-colder, less precipitation, more coniferous (spruce, pine, fir)
- growing season
- time between last freeze in spring and frist freeze in fall...determines distribution of plants
- landscape change
- alteration in structure and function of a landscape...expected and natural in evolution...but not good if it happens quickle
- reasons for change in landscape
- invasives (gypsy moth), human action (agriculture, natural disturbances (hurricaine), geomorphic processes (tides and winds)
- fire positives and negatives
- (+)makes room for new seedlings to grow (-)kills trees, humans and animals
- great lakes invasives
- there are many kinds, pests and non-pests, they've been here a while, they will keep coming, they have changed forest management
- exotics...
- good bugs(honeybee), good gone bad(tachnid fly), defoliators(gypsy moth), pathogens(dutch elm disease), complexes(beech bark disease), phloem borers(emerald ash borer)
- soil made of? particle size?
- minerals, water, air, organic material...clay has smallest particles, sand has largest (water moves most easily through large particles)
- purpose of soil?
- nutrients, holds things in place, engeenering medium, habitat, regulates water
- ice age affected michigan?
- checkerboard landscape (plains, lakes, hills etc)
- biodiversity
- variety and variability of organisms OR number of species on earth
- facts on biodiversity
- 2 million known, of that 50% are insects, 10-30 million unknown species
- where are species found?
- latitudinal (find more diversity near equator), hot spots(costa rica, conditions good for diversification), endemics(ecuador/islands, speciation, organisms found only there)
- threats to biodiversity
- overharvesting, destruction, domino effect, pollution, climate change, invasives
- tundra vs boreal forest
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DIFF: boreal forest has caniferous trees where plants in tundra tend not to grow more than 20 cm, tundra deals with permafrost
SIM: cold winters, short growing season, lakes and bogs common - boreal vs deciduous
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DIFF: boreal has spruce, pines and firs where deciduous has maples, beeches and oaks
SIM: similar temperatures, and landscape otherwise - grasslands vs desert
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DIFF:grasslands don't have extreme temps, grasslands has high biomass where deserts have sparce vegetation
SIM: hot summers, dry periods - importance of rainforests
- have extremely high species divesity...havn't been studied a lot b/c of difficulty
- landscape viewpoints
- habitat, place, ideology, history, artifact, wealth problem, aesthetics, nature, system
- 3 differences between UP and Lower Michigan forests
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1. colder in UP
2. less diversity in UP
3. more confierous trees in UP - ephemerals
- shade intolerant (wildflowers)bloom early in the spring and take advantage before the leaves in the overstory develop
- important species of northern hardwood vs. maple-beech
- pine, spruce, firs vs maple, beech, oak
- boreal forest
- coniferous trees, extremely cold winter, podcol soil
- disturbances in boreal forest
- insects, fire, logging
- xenophytes
- adapted to the dry climate of deserts (cactus) have no leaves and a shallow root system