2+Ecology

media type="custom" key="1181921" =__**Chapter 34**__=
 * //How is the study of ecology organized? What are the levels of organization?//** Individuals, Populations, Communities, Ecosystems, and biosphere as a whole...


 * //What does it mean that the biosphere is patchy?//** When you like look at a picture of the earth, it is not dispersed uniformly....like the oceans arn't all parallel and shaped the same....there is not an equal dispersion of forests and plains and stuff like that...so on...

Biotic = Living (ex. humans, animals, plants, bacteria) Abiotic = Non-living (ex. storms, fire, volcanos....i cant think of any more right now)
 * //Differentiate between abiotic and biotic factors and be able to give examples of each. How do these factors influence an ecosystem? For example, how are antelope adapted to the specific environmental characteristics of their habitat?//**


 * //Who was Rachel Carson, and how did her book affect the environmental movement?//** Rachel Carson, was a writer, scientist, and ecologist...who wrote a book called Silent Spring, that told the general population about the negative effects that DDT and other fertilizers were having on the environment......and everything started to change after that...DDT got banned etc....

These abiotic factors influence the ecosystem greatly, specifically they determine the plants that can sustain life in these areas, and therefore that has a direct effect on which animals can sustain life in those areas. Animals can also be directly effected by the weather....shelter is needed etc...
 * //How do regional climate and weather patterns influence ecosystems. (Ocean currents, prevailing winds, and rain shadow effects for example) How do these examples and others influence ecosystems.//**

Weather: The state of the atmosphere at a given time and place, with respect to variables such as temperature, moisture, wind velocity, and barometric pressure. Climate: The meteorological conditions, including temperature, precipitation, and wind, that characteristically prevail in a particular region.
 * //What is the difference between weather and climate?//** Weather is the state in general, whilst climate is the state for a specific section...

Tropics: Either of two parallels of latitude on the earth, one 23°27′ north of the equator and the other 23°27′ south of the equator, representing the points farthest north and south at which the sun can shine directly overhead and constituting the boundaries of the Torrid Zone. Temperate Zone: Either of two intermediate latitude zones of the earth, the **North Temperate Zone,** between the Arctic Circle and the Tropic of Cancer, or the **South Temperate Zone,** between the Antarctic Circle and the Tropic of Capricorn.
 * //Where are the tropics and temperate zone? What characteristics would you expect of each?//**

Estuaries: Mix of salt water and fresh water...usually inhabited by animals that can dwell in both... Wetlands: A lowland area, such as a marsh or swamp, that is saturated with moisture, especially when regarded as the natural habitat of wildlife: //a program to preserve our state's wetlands.// Intertidal zones: Of or being the region between the high tide mark and the low tide mark. Pelagic zone: Of marine life, belonging to the upper layers of the sea. Benthic zone: Lowest level of a body of water Photic zone: is the part of the water were the sun can still penetrate too Aphotic zone: the part of the water were the sun can't penetrate too
 * //Differentiate among the major aquatic ecosystems outlined in your book. (estuaries, wetlands, intertidal zones, pelagic, benthic, photic and aphotic zones)//** grrr this is gonna take awhile.....
 * //Differentiate among the major terrestrial biomes outlined in your book. Focus on the most prominent characteristics and trends in each.//**


 * //Be able to analyze or create a climatogram like we did in lab and determine the biome represented by the data. Analysis includes calculation of annual or monthly average rainfall and temp, determination of Northern or Southern hemisphere.//**

=**__Chapter 36__**= number of individuals of a species per unit area or volume mark-recapture: ear tags, collars, etc. N= (# 1st catch x total 2nd catch) / recaptured marked uniform: social interactions clumped: protection, food resources, sunlight, other resources random: can't move/will go where dropped (coral reefs), rare exponential: rate of expansion of a population under ideal conditions (*not in real world except humans); J shaped curve, G=rN where G-->rate of growth, r-->intrinsic rate of growth, N-->population size.; this type of growth is not limited, it is unregulated growth logistic: rate of reproduction is limited by environmental factors; more "real world"; abiotic=weather, density independent; biotic=density dependent; carrying capacity maximum population size that an environment can support density dependent: competition limits birth. predation affects death and birth rates. density independent: hurricane, tornado, fire, doesn't matter how many animals you have, they all die if hit. hare cycle: due to food competition and predation (hares reproduce faster) lynx cycle: due to availability of hare r-selection: intrinsic rate of increasing; large number of offspring, no care for offspring, bigger chance of dying. k-selection: larger bodies, longer lived, maturity and reproduction at a later age, offspring are well cared for, bigger opportunity to survive. type I: most organisms live most of their maximum life and then die off rapidly; large bodied, few offspring, care for the offspring type II:equal chance of death throughout life; medium size; meduim number of offspring. type III: huge death rate amoung very young but then most survive; small body, large # offspring; little or no care for offspring current population: 6 billion 2050: 9-11 billion exponential; us- steady growth
 * //How is population density described? Be able to describe the sampling technique called mark-recapture.//**
 * //Be able to differentiate between uniform, clumped and random dispersion. What factors may produce each?//**
 * //Be able to differentiate between the exponential growth model and the logistic growth model of populations. Under what conditions would each exist? What are the general formulas for each?//**
 * //What is carrying capacity?//**
 * //Differentiate between density-dependent and density-independent factors that affect population growth. Be able to give examples of each. How might they influence a population’s growth?//**
 * //What is an example of a boom and bust cycle?//**
 * //Differentiate between organisms with opportunistic life histories (r-selection strategists) and those with equilibrial life histories (k-selection strategists).//**
 * //Be able to describe Type I, Type II, and Type III survivorship curves. How do these represent organisms with different life histories? Be able to give an example of each?//**
 * //How big is the current human population – approximately? How big is it expected to be in 2050 – approximately?//**
 * //What type of growth does the human population curve represent? Is the US population growing and if so is it rapid or slow growth?//**
 * //What is an ecological footprint?//** An ecological footprint is the effect of an individual on the earth. Its the impact we have on the global ecosystem..

=**__Chapter 37__**= A community is all the organisms of different species in a given area but NOT the abiotic factors (which would be an ecosystem).
 * //Differentiate between a community and an ecosystem.//**


 * //What properties describe communities?//** Variations in species, biodiversity, feeding (trophic) structure, dominant species, response to disturbance and lack of abiotic components.


 * //What are the 2 components of biodiversity?//** species richness (# species) and species abundance (# org. of ea. species)


 * //Describe the competitive exclusion principle. Be able to explain this concept using the Paramecium example given in class.//** If there is a dominant species, than that species will often exclude the other species in the area (that occupy the same niche) in the pursuit of resources and shelter. If a predator is introduced, it can often even out this principle.

the organism's role in the environment/society symbiosis: the interaction between the symbiont and the host that which the symbiont lives w/in or on the host predation: one species (predator) kills and eats another species (prey); natural selection commensalism: one species benefits w/o significantly affecting the other mutualism: both species benefit parasitism: one species (predator) lives wither w/in or on the surface of a host, from which it derives batesian: a palatable (harmless) imitates a unpalatable (harmful) mullerian: 2 unpalatable (harmful) imitate the other species that exerts strong control over the community structure because of its ecological niche, keystone predator controls the dominant species to let other species survive. ecol. succ: disturbed areas that have been replaced by other species primary: when ecol succ. begins in a lifeless area with no soil secondary: disturbance has destroyed an existing community but left soil intact trophic levels: the different levels that energy is passed-->primary producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers, etc food chains: liner, 2D, almost never goes past 4 ^degree because there is not enough energy in the environment; the "line"/way that the energy moves throughout the environment from consumer to consumer food webs: all feeding interactions; 3D; more realistic pyramids of energy: =pyramid of numbers, pyramid of biomass; a pyramid of how much energy is being passed up the trophic levels biomass: the amount/mass of living organic material in an ecosystem One tenth of the initial E Waste and heat because there is more conveyable E because its gone through less E conversions chemical cycles-not gaining or losing chemicals; energy flows in through the sun and out through heat water-rivers, streams, oceans, ground water, ice, snow H2O vapor, etc carbon-atmospheres, fossil fuels nitrogen:atmosphere, soil phosphorous:rock, sediment They decompose the initial state into a product that includes the nutrient nitrogen.
 * //What is an organism’s niche? Give an example.//**
 * //What is symbiosis? Be able to describe the following relationships and give examples: predation, commensalism, mutualism, and parasitism. Be able to answer questions about the "Trials of Life" video.//**
 * //Differentiate between Batesian and Müllerian mimicry.//**
 * //What is a keystone predator? How does it maintain diversity within the community?//**
 * //What is ecological succession? Differentiate between primary and secondary succession, giving examples of each.//**
 * //Be able to describe the flow of energy through an ecosystem (trophic levels, food chains, food webs, as well as pyramids of energy, biomass, and numbers.)//**
 * //How much energy is passed from trophic level to the next higher trophic level?//**
 * //Where does most of the energy eaten by an animal go?//**
 * //Why is it more efficient to be a vegetarian than a meat eater?//**
 * //Be able to describe some examples of how matter cycles between abiotic reserves and biotic organisms.//**
 * //What is the principal abiotic reserve for water? …for carbon? …nitrogen? …phosphorous?//**
 * //What role do nitrogen-fixing bacteria play in the cycling of nitrogen?//**