Ecology Notes CH 50-53
AP Biology
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- Dominant species
- those that are most abundant or have the highest biomass; They exert powerful control over the occurrence and distribution of other species
- Intrasexual selection
- involves competition
- K-selection
- density-dependent selection, selects for life history traits that are sensitive to population density
- Communication
- is the reception of and response to signals
- Pheromones
- many animals that communicate through odors, emit chemical substances called pheromones
- Dynamic stability hypothesis, regarding food chain lengths
- proposes that long food chains are less stable than short ones
- Classical conditioning
- an arbitrary stimulus is associated witha reward or punishment
- Aposematic coloration
- Animals with effective chemical defense often exhibit bright warning coloration
- Abiotic factors, affecting distribution of organisms
- temperature, water, sunlight, wind, rocks and soil
- Kin selection
- is the natural selection that favors this kind of altruistic behavior by enhancing reproductive success of realitives
- Relative abundance
- the proportion each species represents of the total individuals in the community
- Signal
- is a behavior that causes a change in another animal's behavior
- Associative learning
- animals associate one feature of their environment with another
- Biomes
- are the major ecological associations that occupy broad geographic regions of land or water
- Inclusive fitness
- the total effect an individual has on proliferating its genes by producing offspring and helping close relatives produce offspring
- Demography
- is the study of the vital statistics of a population and how they change over time
- Proximate Questions
- "how" questions focus on: Enironmental stimuli that trigger a behavior; Genetic physiological, and anatomical mechanisms underlying a behavior
- Optimal foraging theory
- views foraging behavior as a compromise between benefits as a compromise between benefits of nutrition and costs of obtaining food
- Trophic structure
- the feeding relationships between organisms in a community
- Ultimate Questions
- "why" questions focus on evolutionary significance of a behavior
- Biogeography
- the study of patterns of distribution of organism withing the biosphere
- Kinesis
- is a simple change in activity or turning rate in response to a stimulus
- Taxis
- is a more or less automatic, oriented movement toward or away from a stimulus
- Population Ecology
- focuses on factors affecting how many individuals of a species live
- Fixed action pattern (FAP)
- a sequence of unlearned, innate behaviors taht is unchangeable; once initiated, it is usually carried to completion
- Organismal Ecology
- how an organism's structure, physiology, and (for animals) behavior meet environmental challenges
- Operant conditioning
- an animal learns to associate one of its behaviors with reward or punishment
- Ethology
- the scientific study of animal behavior, particularly in natural environments; ethologists focus on the proximate and ultimate questions
- Community Ecology
- the whole array of interacting species in a community
- Secondary succession
- begins in an area where soil remains after a distrubance
- Imprinting
- a behavior that includes learning and innate components and is generally irreversible; distinguished by a senstive period
- Intersexual selection
- members of one sex choose mates on the basis of certain traits
- Landscape Ecology
- arrays of ecosystems and how they are arranged in a geographic region
- Iteroparity
- behavior of animals that reproduce continually
- Ecosystem Ecology
- engery flow and chemical cycling among the various biotic and abiotic components
- Ecology
- is the scientific study of the interactions between organisms and the environment.
- Competitive Exclusion Principle
- two species competing for the same limiting resources can lead to the elimination of one or two competing species
- Keystone species
- are not necessarily abundant in a community; They exert strong control in a community by their ecological roles, or niches
- Altruism
- behavior that reduces an animal's fitness but increases the fitness of other animals
- Interspecific interactions
- relationships between species in a community
- Sensitive period
- a limited developmental phase when certain behaviors can be learned
- Biosphere
- global ecosystem, the sum of all the planet's ecosystems
- Energetic hypothesis, regarding food chain lengths
- suggests that length is limited by inefficient energy transfer
- Semelparity
- behavior of animals that reproduce then die
- Primary succession
- occurs where no soil exists when succession begins
- r-selection
- density-independent selection, selects life history traits that maximize reproduction
- Species richness
- is the total number of different species in the community