BIOL 2140: ECOLOGY TEST 1
90 Cards in this Set
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adaptation
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evolutionary process by which organisms become better suited for their enviornment
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autotrophs
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organism that makes its own food
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balance of nature
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that nature returns to a self-restoring equilibrium when left alone
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biosphere
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all the ecosystems of the earth
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biodiversity and the principle of being just good enough
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difference in living things in the enviornment
GM metaphor:
how many GM trucks from the 1950's do you see? Not a lot, because they werent FIT enough to make it to the next generation.
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biomarker
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can help determine the proximate cause of an anomaly
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biome
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areas on the earth with similar climate, plants, and animals
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biosystematics
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science through which organisms are discovered, described, and studied
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circadian
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events occuring within a 24 hour period
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coefficient of determination
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percentage of varition due to the variable being measured
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coefficient of variation
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variation of the sample values attained from the statistical model
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community
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interacting populations usually defined by their nature of interaction of the place in which they live
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confidence limits
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how confident you are in the data or outcome of the info that was input and gathered from your statistical model
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primary consumer
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consumer at the lowest level of the food web or (herbivore)
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secondary consumer
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(carnivore) consumer of primary consumers
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tertiary consumer
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feeds on secondary consumers also a carnivore
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correlation
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how to pieces of data move in relation to one another
both go up or go down- positive correlation
one goes up and the other down- negative correlation
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crepuscular
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animals that are active primarily during dawn or dusk
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cues
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stimuli from the enviornment
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darwinian fitness
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superior adaptations to your enviornment and moving your genes along to the next generation proving your fitness
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decomposers
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feed on dead materials (or crap)
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deductive inference
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reasoning from general to specific conclusions
observation based testing
relies on correlation
(need physical evidence to back hypothesis)
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demographics
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statistical characteristics of a population
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deterministic
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not subject or accounting for random variation
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diurnal
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any pattern that reoccurs daily
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ecological niche
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organisms role or job in the community
trophic, temporal, and spatial
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ecological study units (ESU)
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study of an organism and their role at the various levels of the hierachy
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ecology
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multidisciplinary scientific study of the patterns of diversity, distribution, dispersion, and adundance of organisms in time and space
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ecosystem
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assemblage of organisms toether with their physical and chemical environments
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ecotoxicology
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research on the effects of toxic chemicals on communities, populations, and organisms
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ecotype
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or subspecies within a species
variation of the species to make them distinct enough to make a sub species
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emergent properties
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properties that come out in organisms due to arrangement of characteristics
"Principle of Functional Intergration"
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Emigration
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leaving ones home geographical area
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endemic
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belonging or native to a particular geographic area
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evolution
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change in populations gene pool
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exotic species
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a foreign species put by man in a different geographical area than it normally occurs
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experimental control
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a characteristic in an experiment that is constant and can be controlled to ensure the desired outcome
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snapshot experiment
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100 percent observational
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extinction
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end of an organism or group of organisms
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extirpaiton
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local extinction
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fundamental niche
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full range of enviornmental conditions under which an organism can exist
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genotype
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genetic makeup
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grazing food chain
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autotrophs make their food by aid of the sun, primary consumers feed primarily on autotrophs (herbivores), secondary consumers feed only on primary consumers (carnivore), tertiary consumers feed only on secondary consumers
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guild
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group of organisms that occupy similar niches within the same community
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habitat
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where an organism lives
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heterotrophs
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organisms that can't synthesize their own food so must find it already made
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home range
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where an animal lives and travels
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hutchinsonian performance niche "juggler metaphor"
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organism must juggle many things and respond accordingly
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immigration
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moving into a foreign area
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iductive inference
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reasoning from specific to general conclusions
controlled experiment based testing of hypothesis
requires relatively small scale ESU's
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migration
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movement from one area to another due to a cue (ex. climate change, length of day or night)
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mutualism
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interaction between two species that benefits both
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natural or life history
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the schedule of an individuals life (age at maturity, number of offspring, life span)
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natural law
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a law in nature that is universal or that will always take place
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natural selection
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change in frequency of genetic traits in a population through differential survival and reproduction of individuals bearing those traits
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neo darwinian paradigm
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revision of adaptation and fitness (adding new material)
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niche
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range of conditions a specie can tolerate and the ways of life it pursues
the functional role of a species in the community or it's job
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nocturnal
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comes out primarily at night
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null hypothesis
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that there is no significant difference between specified populations due to sampling or experimental error
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pandemic
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species found everywhere
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paradigm
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a model
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parameters
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a constant that is different in every equation
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pattern
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opposite of noise
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performance curve
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hyperbolic (or in a curve) with performance highest at intermediate values
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phenotype
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outward appearance and behavior of the organism
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Phylogeny
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evolutionary history of a species
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population
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individuals of a particular species that inhabit a particular area
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principle of functional intergration
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properties that comeout in organisms due to arrangement of characteristics
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proximate causation
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immediate causation
(ex. why do birds fly south? environmental cues)
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ultimate causation
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evolutionary or adaptive significance in terms of relative fitness
(ex. why do some birds fly south? they migrate because of the amount of food available)
So they gain more food by migrating and thus help their overall fitness
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realized niche
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range of physical conditions and resources within which individuals of a species can persist in the presence of competitors and consumers
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regression
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tells us the strength of the raltionship between the independent and dependent variables
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restoration
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trying to return a degraged ecosystem to it's original state or less degraded state
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spatial scale
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the area they inhabit
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temporal scale
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when the organisms are in that area
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sentinel species
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species that can be studied easily to see the effects of things in their enviornment
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standard deviation
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index of the degree of variation from the central tendency
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statistical population
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is the sample population
if you sample 15 people out of a class of 23 then the statistical population is 15
if you sample 23 out of 23 in a class then the biological and statistical population are the same
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stochastic
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resulting from chance events
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subspecies
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variation of the species that is different enough that it is made a subspecies
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symbiosis
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close physical association between two species
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taxonomy
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system of naming all the animals with their own scientific name
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territory
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any area defended by one or more individuals against intrusion by others of the same or different species
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theory
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hypothesis that needs to be tested to check its accuracy
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trophic pyramid
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a pyramid showing the feeding relationship of groups of organisms, and the distribution of energy among different levels in a given ecosystem
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trophic level
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position in a food web determined by the number of energy transfer steps from primary producers to that level
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trophic web
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showing the energy lost and the recycling of energy in an ecosystem
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type 1 error
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rejecting a true hypothesis
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type 2 error
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accepting a false hypothesis
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variance
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degree of deviation
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