CH.

51 ANIMAL FORM AND FUNCTION

Definitions

 Fixed action pattern: sequence of unlearned acts due to a sign stimulus

 Stimulus response chain: response to each stimulus is stimulus for next behavior
 Pheromones: chemical signals emitted by animals that communicate through odors or taste
 Promiscuous mating: no strong pair bonds
 Altruism: behavior that reduces animal's individual success but increases others in the population
 Kin selection: natural selection that favors altruism by enhancing the reproductive success of
relatives

CH. 52 ECOLOGY

 Climate affected by temp, precipitation, sunlight

 Effects of climate
o Seasons
o Air circulation - rising wet air masses
o Bodies of water moderate temp of nearby land due to high specific heat
o Mountains - precipitation and desert
 Climate change - range expansion
 Desert - Tropical rainforest - grasslands - temperate deciduous/boreal - taiga (coniferous forest) -
tundra
o Grasslands - insects, large herbivores, low rainfall
o Temperate deciduous/Boreal forest - hot and cold seasons, leaves fall in winter
o Taiga/Coniferous forest - moose, elk, beavers, deer, grizzlies, wolves, lynxes, lakes, ponds
o Tundra - permafrost, reindeer, caribou, wolves, bears, flies
 Aquatic Biomes
o Marine
 Intertidal, neritic, oceanic
 Photic/aphotic (pelagic), benthic/abyssal
o Freshwater
 Littoral, limnetic, profundal
 Distribution of Terrestrial Biomes controlled by
o Climate - predominant vegetation
o Disturbance
 Distribution of Aquatic Biomes controlled by
o Physical and chemical environment
 Limits to distribution:
o Dispersion: area inaccessible/insufficient time
o Biotic: predation, parasitism, herbivory, disease, competition
o Abiotic: temp, water and oxygen, salinity, sunlight, pH, mineral composition, rock structure
 Deep waters: high nutrient, low O2
 Ecological change - alters selective pressure in population - evolutionary change - alters outcome
of ecological interaction

Definitions
  Organismal ecology: how an organism meets its environmental challenges
 Population ecology: factors affecting population size
 Community ecology: how interaction between species affects community structure
 Ecosystem ecology: energy flow and chemical cycling
 Thermocline: layer of abrupt temp. change in water between warm surface and cooler deep
water.
 Pelagic zone: photic + aphotic
 Abyssal: 2000-6000m below surface
 Benthic zone: bottom surface, occupied by benthos
 Littoral zone (lake): shallow, well-lit water close to the shore; supports rooted aquatic plants
 Limnetic zone (lake): farther from shore, deep, has plankton
 Profundal zone (lake): aphotic zone
 Neritic zone: shallow region of ocean near shore
 Estuaries: transition between river and sea
 Range expansion: organisms reach an area where they didn’t exist previously; can lead to
adaptive radiation
 Adaptive radiation: rapid evolution of ancestral species into new species that fill many niches
 Disturbance: causes biomes to become patchy; chaparral and prairie depend on it
 Eutrophic lakes: oxygen poor, nutrient rich; high rate of biological productivity
 Oligotrophic lakes: nutrient poor, oxygen rich

CH. 53 POPULATION ECOLOGY

 Density, Dispersion, Demographics
o Density - births, deaths, immigration, emigration
o Dispersion
 Clumped - most common
 Uniform - territoriality
 Random
o Demographics
 Life Table
 Survivorship Curve (I, II, III)
 Reproductive Rates
 Exponential Model
 Logistic Model
 Life History Traits - reproductive strategies
 Age of first reproduction
 Frequency of reproduction
 Frequency of offspring
 K-selection
 R-selection
 Age structure
 Infant mortality
 Life expectancy at birth
 Density independent factors - temp, precipitation
 Density dependent factors - negative feedback
o Competition for resources
o Disease
o Predation
 o Territoriality
o Intrinsic factors (aggressiveness)
o Toxins
 Carrying capacity caused by energy, shelter, crowding, predators, water, and nutrient availability
 Stable growth
o High birth rate - high death rate
o Low birth rate - low death rate
Definitions

 Life table: summarizes survival and reproductive rates of individuals of cohorts

o Cohort: group of individuals of same age
 Survivorship curves: survival vs age
o Type 1: good care to offspring
o Type 2: constant death rate
o Type 3: lots of offspring but little care
 r: intrinsic rate of increase; per capita rate at which an exponentially growing population increases
in time at each instant in time;
 Exponential model: population increases in size at a constant proportion at each instant in time
 Life history traits: traits that affect organism's schedule of reproduction and survival
o Semelparity: all offspring in one reproductive episode
o Iteroparity: repeated reproduction
o K-selection: little offspring, large, intensive parenting, slow maturation, iteroparity; sensitive
to population density
o R-selection: many offspring, small, little parenting, rapid maturation semelparity; maximizes
reproductive success at low density
 Density dependent factors: death rate increases and birth rate falls due to rising density;
regulates population size changes consistently
 Density independent factors: birth/death rate that doesn’t change with population density
 Metapopulation: local populations linked by emigration and immigration; if one population goes
extinct, it may be recolonized
 Demographic transition: in stable populations, shift from high birth and death to low birth and
death rates (achieved by delayed reproduction)
 Age structure: relative # of people of each age in a population

CH. 54 COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

 Community diversity is affected by:

o Species interaction
 Competition
 Competitive exclusion principle
 Resource partitioning
 Character displacement
 Predation
 Aposematic coloration (camo) and Cryptic coloration (warning)
 Batesian mimicry and Mullerian mimicry
 Herbivory
 Chemical/physical defenses
 Parasitism
  Mutualism
 Lichens, pollination, stomach bacteria mycorrhizae
 Commensalism
o Dominant/keystone species
 Dominant species
 Keystone species
 Ecosystem engineers
o Disturbances
 Primary succession - lack of soil
 Prokaryotes, protists
 Lichens - mosses- soil - grass
 Secondary succession - soil intact
 Herbs - shrubs - pine trees - deciduous trees - climax community
o Latitudinal variations
 Climate
 Evolutionary history
o Area variation
 # species on island - new immigrants affected
 Size of island
 Distance of island from mainland - immigration affected
 Community can be characterized by…
o Species richness
o Species abundance
o Food chains/trophic levels
 More plants - more food supply - longer food chains
 Higher diversity communities: more productive, better able to withstand and recover from
environmental stress, have more biomass, less variation in annual growth, and more resistant to
invasive species

Definitions

 Community: group of populations of different species

 Character displacement: the tendency of characteristics to be more different in sympatric
populations than in allopatric populations; sympatric would compete for resources
 Resource partitioning: differentiation of niches in similar species
 Energy hypothesis: length of food chain small because only 10% of energy stored in organic
matter at one trophic level converted to organic matter at next
 Nonequilibrium model: describes most communities constantly changing after disturbance
 Immediate disturbance: moderate levels of disturbance foster greater species diversity by
opening up new habitats
 Autogenic succession: influenced by biotic factors (ex. Predators)
 Allogenic succession: influenced by abiotic factors (ex. Storms)
 Evapotranspiration: evaporation of water from trees and ground; depends on sunlight,
temperature, and water availability
 Species area curve: shows that the bigger the geographic area of a community, the more species
it has more diverse habitats
 Island equilibrium model: equilibrium reached when immigration rates = extinction rates
 Endemic species: unique to an island; adaptive radiation
  Zoonotic pathogens: transferred to humans from animals or vectors (intermediate species)

CH. 55 ECOSYSTEM ECOLOGY

 Energy flow: light energy - chemical energy - heat
 Chemical cycling: inorganic elements - plants - organic elements - animals - inorganic elements -
plants…
 Rate of Primary Production limited by:
o Terrestrial: temp and moisture
o Aquatic: light and nutrients (N and P)
 Lower light so higher nutrients in deep water
 Decomposition (bacteria and fungi) directly proportional to
o Temp
o Moisture
o Nutrient availability
 Biogeochemical cycles - Water, Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorus
Definitions

 Detritivores: convert organic to inorganic for plants to use; get energy from detritus (nonliving
organic material)
 Gross Primary Production (GPP): total light energy converted to chemical energy
 Net Primary Production (NPP): GPP - energy used by autotrophic cell respiration (Ra); storage of
food available
 Net Ecosystem Production (NEP): total biomass accumulation during a given time period
o GPP - respiration by all organisms in ecosystem (Rt)
 Secondary production: biomass generation through consumers
o Production efficiency: % of energy stored in food used for growth and development
(mammals lowest, microorganisms highest)
o Trophic efficiency: % of energy transferred from one trophic level to next (10%); less than
production efficiency because takes in account energy loss from feces
 Inverted biomass pyramid: producers replace biomass at a rapid rate by reproducing fast
 Eutrophication: dense growth of plant life and death of animal life from lack of oxygen; due to
excess nutrients from sewage and fertilizer pollution

CH. 56 CONSERVATION BIOLOGY

 Human impacts:
o Acid rain - nitric and sulfuric acids
o Ocean acidification - CO2 + H2O - Carbonic Acid - decreases CO3- (Carbonate) - kills coral
reefs
o Eutrophication - nitrogen fertilizers cause leaching, causing runoff, causing eutrophication
o Global warming - more CO2 means more heat retained
o Invasive species
o Toxins - biological magnification
o Overharvesting of animals
o Overgrazing/deforestation - reduces habitats
o Ozone depletion - increased UV; from Cl atoms
 Nitrogen cycle
o Fixation - bacteria, lightning, fertilizers, legumes
 o Ammonification - bacteria recycle dead organic matter/fix nitrogen from air to NH4+
o Nitrification - bacteria - NO3-
o Assimilation - plants/Denitrification - bacteria - N2
 Warm/Salty water = less dissolved O2
 Transpiration - high humidity, not necessarily rainfall