WFSC 403 1nd Edition Exam 1 Study Guide Lectures 1 12 Lecture 1 August 26 What are the four relationships of ecology to other disciplines Physiology Behavior Evolution Genetics What is the difference between genetics and evolution Genetics is the mechanics for evolution Evolution is when the genotype changes What are the three ecological perspectives Descriptive Functional Evolutionary What was the purpose of the Powers of 10 movie The purpose of the movie is to show how perspective changes depending on where and how you look What are the three approaches to ecological problems Theoretical Laboratory Field without is fantasy without is chaos Theory without practice is fantasy practice without theory is chaos What is ecology Ecology is the scientific study of the interactions that determine the distribution and abundance of organisms Lecture 2 August 28 What is the scientific method Observe form a question form a hypothesis from question make predictions for an experiment form and perform an experiment collect data and analyze compare predictions and data decide if hypotheses was confirmed or rejected What are life tables and why are they useful Ways to manage and structure data on populations They are useful because ecologists can project population sizes also follow the evolution of demographic traits List three of the seven population parameters Density Pattern of dispersion Age ratio Sex ratio Natality rate Mortality rate Immigration and emigration What are the two types of density Absolute and relative The three types of dispersion and which is most common Uniform random and aggregate with aggregated being the most common and then uniform and finally random which should not occur ever What are the three types of survivorship curves and which one do sea turtles fall under Type I low early death rate high older death rate an example is humans in developed countries Type II constant not age specific Type III inverse of Type I Massive early mortality long extended life this would be the Sea turtles What are the two assumptions that must be assumed with static life tables Population size and age specific birth and death rates remain constant Lecture 3 September 2 Population projections are based on The population projections are based on life tables True or false stabilizing populations depend on where the populations start False it doesn t matter where a stabilizing populations start they will eventually stabilize Lecture 4 September 4 What is used to manage populations Life tables How do you describe a population What where life history increase decrease structure function dynamics In the real world can a system grow indefinitely No Lecture 5 September 9 Which type of life table is more useful which type is used more often Why The cohort life table has more data and doesn t use any assumptions however it isn t used as often because the data is more difficult to acquire so the static life table is used more often Why are static and dynamic life tables different A cohort could be affected by weather or age specific diseases disasters A static table is almost like a snapshot of a time so we don t know all the different things that could have affected the population Lecture 6 September 11 What does Nt stand for The number of individuals at time t What is r Intrinsic capacity for increase for the particular environmental conditions What is ltbt The survivorship and natality Lecture 7 September 16 Can we predict the future No What is the point of simulation models and projections It helps quantify and qualify data Helps to embrace uncertainty to try and quantify what data is gathered How did the Whooping Crane populations vary from lab and in real life In lab the population was half a million in real life the population is in the high 200s In lab our population was exponential and in real life an exponential population can t be sustained that long It will turn into a logarithmic population What do you use to compare populations Population parameters age ratio specific birth and death rates sexes What was the point of the Disney World story The keynote speaker said that there would be no limiting growth factor but as ecologists we know that there will be limiting growth What are the two types of population Non overlapping generation population overlapping Lecture 8 September 18 What is k Carrying capacity What does R0 1 represent Exponential growth Lecture 9 September 23 If there is a very steep R0 slope what does that mean for the graph Then the graph is most likely a very chaotic oscillation Do we reject the logistic theory of population growth What good is the theory No Theories only work under assumptions and usually do not hold in the real world unless under very controlled circumstances It is useful as a concept This gives a point of departure on why populations do or do not follow the theory A simplification on a way to try and understand nature True or False Time drives lynx and snow shoe hare populations False Time doesn t drive anything things occur in time Why modify the logarithmic function Logarithmic doesn t always work in the field Why are stochastic models helpful Humans can t predict the future but we give our best guesses add in random unknown since we don t know a lot we have a better shot at being correct Also good for explicitly incorporating confidence interval