Intro to Ecology Review Know that ecology is studied at the levels of individuals populations communities ecosystems landscapes and biospheres primary focus on population community and ecosystem o Individual level physiological or behavioral ecology Population A group of individuals of the same species living in the same area area Community A group of populations of different species in the same Ecosystem The community of organisms in an area and the physical factors with which those organisms interact Be able to explain how ecology is the study of factors influencing the distribution and abundance of organisms o Factors that can influence abundance and distribution climate and species interactions Be able to explain how global climate is determined by the pattern of solar radiation striking the surface and local features such as mountains and bodies of water o The earth is generally hotter at the equator and cooler as you get farther away from the equator due to the angle at which the sun s rays hit the earth As the angle becomes less direct the rays are distributed over a larger area making the climate less hot o Solar radiation varies seasonally because the earth is tilted on an axis and whether the earth is tilted towards or away from the sun as it rotates around it determines the season o Warm air holds more moisture than cool air so as the warm air evaporates and gets cooled the moisture is released creating rain As air comes down it heats up and starts absorbing moisture causing the environment to be very arid and dry o Bodies of water provide cool breezes that counteract the warm moisture filled air to create a cooler environment and help to regulate rainfall o Mountains Rainshadows As air rises to overcome a mountain the air cools causing it to rain on the ocean side of the mountain As the air falls down the inland side of the mountain it absorbs heat and moisture This effect causes the ocean side of the mountain to have a very lush and moist environment while the inland side of the mountain is a very dry and arid environment Know that aquatic habitats are determined by the proximity to shore light bottom vs open water and nutrients Benthic The bottom surface of an aquatic environment Pelagic The open water component of aquatic biomes Photic The narrow top layer of an ocean or lake where light penetrates sufficiently for photosynthesis to occur Aphotic The part of an ocean or lake beneath the photic zone where light does not penetrate sufficiently for photosynthesis to occur o Forest streams are typically very clear because they are nutrient poor and barely any life can live in it opposite for lakes and rivers The main difference between the two is the amount of light exposure they receive light exposure affects nutritional content Know that terrestrial habitats are determined by temperature and moisture o The combination of temperature and rainfall moisture determines an environment s biome x Rainfall and y Temperature o Warm wet tropical forest consists of large trees with a multitude of diverse species Tropical forests have a complex vegetation structure that is created by the competition between plants for light o Dry hot desert climate has a combination of low amounts of moisture and high amounts of heat Deserts have widely spaced vegetation that is created by their big root systems and lack of wanting competitors for the rare amount of nutrients and moisture Intro to Ecology Vocabulary 1 Biome Any of the world s major ecosystem types 2 Wetland A habitat that is inundated by water at least some of the time and that supports plants adapted to water saturated soil 3 Estuary The area where a freshwater stream or river merges with the ocean 4 Coral Reef Typically a warm water tropical ecosystem dominated by the hard skeletal structures secreted primarily by corals 5 Desert A terrestrial biome characterized by very low precipitation 30 N and S of the equator 6 Temperate Broadleaf Forest A biome located throughout mid latitude regions where there is sufficient moisture to support the growth of large broadleaf deciduous trees Populations and Life History Review Understand that populations can be described by size density dispersal and survivorship Mark Recapture A sampling technique used to estimate the size of animal populations x n m N where m of originally marked individuals n of second sample individuals x of individuals in both samples and N the estimated population size o Mark recapture assumptions no gene flow therefore both observations are complete within a small time period o Mark recapture bias first caught individuals may be more cautious and less likely to get caught again bias does not exist in mark re sighting o Forces influencing population size birth rate death rate immigration rate and emigration rate o Resources such as food protection and social interaction may affect a species distribution in space Aggregated or clumped distribution starfish food and Even or over dispersed distribution male penguins during nesting offspring protection Random distribution flowers mobile gametes that travel via protection wind Understand that different organisms have differing rates of survival and reproduction o Type I II III Survivorship Curves Type 1 Humans and Elephants Type 2 Ground Squirrels Type 3 Oysters Understand that trade offs between different aspects of life history has been important in their evolution Semelparity Reproduction in which an organism produces all of its offspring in a single event big bang reproduction Iteroparity Reproduction in which adults produce offspring over many years repeated reproduction o Male ground squirrels leave home while female ground squirrels tend to stay home in order to prevent inbreeding However this decision leads to higher death rates in males due to the danger they face after emigrating o In semelparity there is a trade off between the amount of energy you put into reproduction vs the amount of energy you put into surviving The more offspring birds have the higher their death rate o Usually if an organism has a lot of offspring the offspring are small and have a low survival rate While organisms that have a few offspring have large offspring with a high survival rate o Physiological explanation rate of living hypothesis positive correlation between lifespan vs body size The metabolic rate decreases as body size increases so small animals kind of live faster and large animals live slower o Ecological evolutionary
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