Term
______, the change in gene frequencies within a species over time, operating over the last several billion
years, has produced Earth’s diversity. It happens through a variety of mechanisms. |
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Definition
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Term
______ is the primary mechanism of evolution. Other mechanisms include ______, ______,
and ______. Basically, evolutionary mechanisms include processes that lead to the rejection of the
______. |
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Definition
Natural selection
mutation
migration
genetic drift
Hardy-Weinberg Law |
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Term
______ is the null hypothesis (Ho) for evolution and states that gene frequencies do not
change and genotype frequencies do not change after one round of mating. Note that there is a long list of
assumptions associated with a population that obeys this law over time. |
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Definition
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Term
| ______is the process that generates variability upon which natural selection operates. |
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Definition
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Term
Phenotypic traits often exhibit bell-shaped ______ (often graphed using a "histogram"). It is
these trait distributions that change due to ______, ______ (or ______), or ______. |
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Definition
frequency distributions
directional
stabilizing
balancing
disruptive selection |
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Term
______ is the close, usually coevolutionary relationship between species. This may be a positive
(mutualism) or negative (e.g., parasitic) interaction. |
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Definition
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Term
______ are ______ that fix their own energy for growth. ______ assimilate energy
through the consumption of other organisms (living or dead). |
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Definition
Autotrophs
primary producers
Heterotrophs |
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Term
______ suggests that the growth rate of a population is limited by the scarcest
resource. Related is ______ which suggests that populations are limited by resources that
either are below or exceed a tolerance level. |
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Definition
Liebig's law of the minimum
Shelford's law of tolerance |
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Term
______ (NPP) is equal to gross PP minus loss to respiration and drives higher trophic level
productivity. |
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Definition
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Term
Average ______ is low, medium, and high for terrestrial, aquatic macrophyte, and aquatic algal
systems, respectively. |
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Definition
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Term
Population growth rates are generally normally distributed (bell-shaped histogram) over a variety of
______ |
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Definition
| environmental conditions. |
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Term
Populations grow ______, unless acted upon by an outside force (much like Newton's first law of
motion). Populations at low densities tend to ______ when environmental factors are favorable, modified
by processes that affect growth rates (e.g., ______, or ______). For a single population
the growth rate might experience ______, reducing the growth rate due to ______. The simplest model of this is called ______ (dN/dt = rN[1-N/K]) where
populations generally increase or decrease toward a non-trivial equilibrium called the ______. |
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Definition
geometrically
increase
interspecific competition
predation
intraspecific competition
density dependent regulation
logistic growth
carrying capacity (K) |
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Term
At very low densities populations can decline due to the ______, which is brought about through
______, ______, ______, ______ (e.g., mates
can’t find each other), ______ (Ne), and other negative effects. |
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Definition
Allee Effect
demographic stochasticity
environmental stochasticity,
genetic inbreeding
social dysfunction
near-zero effective population sizes |
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Term
A ______ is a species’ set of resource requirements and the role a species plays in a community. It includes
the spatial, temporal, biotic, and abiotic characteristics of the habitat. The ______ includes environmental conditions under which a species could exist. The ______ is the portion of the
fundamental niche under which the species actually exists in nature |
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Definition
niche
fundamental niche
realized niche |
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Term
______ affect population dynamics. These are often modeled using
matrices such as the ______. |
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Definition
Age-, stage-, and size-class distributions
Leslie matrix |
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Term
| ______ is the trend that the range of organisms is correlated with latitude |
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Definition
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Term
Closely related animals often are larger at higher latitudes (______) and exhibit relatively smaller
limb sizes (______). |
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Definition
Bergmann's Rule
Allen’s Rule |
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Term
| Ecologists use increasing levels of aggregation to describe individual species: ______, ______, ______, and ______. ______ are groups of interacting species. |
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Definition
individuals
groups
populations
metapopulations
communities |
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Term
Populations often occupy a fraction of habitable patches with individuals moving among patches
(______). Some patches may exhibit positive growth while others exhibit negative growth rates
(referred to as ______). |
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Definition
metapopulations
source-sink dynamics |
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Term
Life history reproductive patterns are classified as either ______ or ______. Iteroparous species
have overlapping generations. |
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Definition
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Term
Organisms exhibit one or more of these ______, which are scale-dependent: ______ (VMR>1),
______ (VMR<1), or ______ (Ho). The patterns can be differentiated with the variance/mean ratio. |
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Definition
spatial dispersion patterns
clumped
uniform
random |
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Term
______ are classified in terms of their effects between two interacting species
(or individuals). These include ______ (-, -), ______ (+, -), ______ (+, -), ______ (+, -
[but not necessarily]), ______ (+, +), ______ (+, 0), and ______ (-, 0). |
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Definition
Ecological interactions among species
competition
predation
parasitism/ pathogenic
herbivory
mutualism
commensalism
amensalism |
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Term
As a plant community develops there is an inverse relationship between the mean size of individuals and
density (called the ______ or the ______). |
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Definition
-3/2 law
"law of self-thinning" |
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Term
The role of a ______ in a community is so important that its removal causes significant changes in
the structure and/or function of the system well beyond its relative abundance or mass within the
community. |
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Definition
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Term
Two species with identical resource requirements will lead to ______. Coexistence is a very
active research topic, however, with much work being done on spatial and temporal partitioning of
resources. |
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Definition
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Term
A ______ occurs when species, functional groups, or members of trophic levels cause large-scale
changes in other trophic levels. |
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Definition
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Term
The ______ is close to 10% because of the second law of thermodynamics,
producing the ______. |
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Definition
transfer of energy between trophic levels
Eltonian pyramid of energy |
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Term
Species that interact with other species through eating or being eaten form a structure called a ______.
Food webs are classified by ______, ______, and/or ______ |
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Definition
food web
connectedness
energy flow
function |
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Term
Pioneer communities are generally dominated by ______. Pioneer plants are shade-intolerant.
Later development species are typically ______. Such plants are generally shade-tolerant. |
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Definition
r-selected species
k-selected |
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Term
______ ("succession") occurs over time and involves compositional and functional
changes in resident species. This process is classified in different models: ______, ______, ______, ______, ______, and ______ models. |
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Definition
Community development
relay floristics
individualistic dynamics
initial floristics composition
facilitation
inhibition
tolerance |
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Term
The ______ states that the highest level of species diversity occurs at
intermediate levels of disturbance. |
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Definition
| intermediate disturbance hypothesis |
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Term
______ independently described models used as a starting point for understanding
the dynamics of ______ and ______ systems. |
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Definition
Lotka and Volterra
preditor-prey
competition |
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Term
| ______ tends to ______ with increasing latitude and increasing altitude. |
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Definition
species diversity
decrease |
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Term
| ______ tends to ______ with increasing area (______). |
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Definition
species diversity
increase
species-area relationship |
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Term
Diversity in isolated patches is generally ______ compared to equal-sized areas in larger contiguous
habitats. |
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Definition
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Term
| The number of species on an island is a balance between species ______ and ______ rates (______). |
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Definition
colonization
extinction
theory of island biogeography |
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Term
Species assemblages vary across ______ due to the interactions among ______,
______, and ______. |
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Definition
biogeographical realms
climate
plate tectonics
evolutionary history |
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Term
Terrestrial biomes are determined largely by ______, ______, ______ (the relationship between annual
precipitation and temperature), and ______. |
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Definition
geology
geography
climate
species composition |
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Term
| In general, areas with ______ tend to exhibit ______ in response to disturbances. |
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Definition
higher diversity
greater stability |
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Term
| Energy ______ while nutrients tend to ______ |
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Definition
flows through ecosystems
cycle |
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Term
| ______ of systems influences processes ranging from physiology to global-scale dynamics. |
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Definition
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Term
| Strong evidence suggests human activities are causing ______. |
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Definition
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Term
______ are tested using ______ (natural and manipulative). Their results are analyzed
using ______ and ______ models. "______" that continue to hold up to repeated tests and large
amounts of data are eventually promoted to the status of a "______," such as the theory of evolution. Nothing
in science is ______. All results are ______. |
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Definition
Scientific hypotheses
experiments
mathematical
statistical
Hypotheses
theory
proven
provisional |
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