Term
| Association of interacting species inhabiting some defined area |
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Definition
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| 3 attributes of community structure |
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Definition
| Number of species, relative species abundance, and species diversity |
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| Group of organisms that all make their living in the same fashion |
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Definition
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Definition
| Combination of structure and growth dynamics |
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Term
| Combination of structure and growth dynamics |
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Definition
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Term
| Who developed a concept of distribution of commonness and rarity |
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Definition
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Term
| Abundance of species creates what kind of graph pattern? (Preston) |
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Definition
| Bell curve (lognormal distribution) |
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Term
| Sugihara suggested that the lognormal distribution of species abundance is a consequence of what? |
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Definition
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Term
| What two factors define species diversity? |
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Definition
| Species richness and species evenness |
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Term
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Definition
| Number of species in a community |
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Term
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Definition
| Relative abundance of species |
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Term
| What equation calculates species diversity? |
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Definition
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Term
| Equation for the Shannon Wiener Index: |
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Definition
H'=ΣPi*ln(Pi)
AKA the summation of all species as the proportion times the natural log of the proportion of each species |
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Term
| In a rank abundance curve, lower slope indicates |
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Definition
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Term
| Rank abundance curves plot BLANK and BLANK |
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Definition
| Relative abundance and their rank in abundance |
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Term
| Species diversity (inc/dec) with increasing environmental complexity/heterogeneity |
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Definition
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Term
| MacArthur's experiment that found warbler diversity increased as vegetation height increased demonstrates what idea? |
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Definition
| Species diversity increases as environmental complexity increases |
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Term
| How can phytoplankton communities have many species despite their relatively simple environment and competition for the same nutrients? |
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Definition
| Niches are determined by their nutrient requirements, which does vary in this "simple" environment |
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Term
| Tilman studied diatoms and found what? |
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Definition
| The coexistence of freshwater diatoms depended on a ratio of silicate and phosphate (different niches) |
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Term
| Why are plant communities in tropical forests so heterogenitive? |
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Definition
| Changes in soil type and depth of groundwater produce differences in vegetation over short distances |
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Term
| There is a (+/-) between nutrient availability and algal and plant species diversity. Why? |
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Definition
| Negative because the number of limiting nutrients is reduced |
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Term
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Definition
| A departure from average condition |
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Term
| How did Sousa define disturbance? |
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Definition
| Discrete, punctuated, killing, displacement, or damaging of one or more individuals that directly or indirectly creates an opportunity for new individuals to be established |
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Term
| Does disturbance require that organisms be killed? |
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Definition
| No, damage is also disturbance |
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Term
| How did White and Pickett define disturbance? |
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Definition
| Any relatively discrete event in time that disrupts ecosystem, community or population structure and changes resources, substrate availability or the physical environment |
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Term
| What are the two major characteristics of disturbance? |
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Definition
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Term
| What is the immediate disturbance hypothesis? |
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Definition
| Intermediate levels of disturbance promote higher diversity |
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Term
| Who proposed the intermediate disturbance hypothesis? |
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Definition
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Term
| How did Winemiller represent food webs? (3 ways) |
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Definition
| Only included common species, had a top-predator sink, and excluded weakest trophic links |
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Term
| What is the criterion for a strong interaction in a food web? |
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Definition
| Degree of influence on community structure |
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Term
| What did Paine suggest about food webs? |
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Definition
| A few species may have a dominant influence on community structure |
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Term
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Definition
| The effects of one species on another through a third species |
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Term
| Three examples of indirect interactions |
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Definition
| Trophic cascades, indirect commensalism and apparent competition |
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Term
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Definition
| One species indirectly benefits another species through a third species while it is neither helped nor harmed |
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Term
| Beavers felling cottonwood trees to provide stump sprouts for beetles that grow larger is an example of what? |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| Negative effects between two competitors who share a predator or herbivore |
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Term
| A plant sheltering mammals and thus increasing herbivory on a different plant is an example of what? |
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Definition
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Term
| If keystone species reduce the likelihood of competitive exclusion, their activities should (inc/dec) the number of species that coexist in a community |
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Definition
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Term
| Paine found that as number of species in a food web increases, the proportion of the web represented by predators (inc/dec) |
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Definition
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Term
| Higher proportion of predators (inc/dec) diversity |
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Definition
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Term
| Three factors that influence the effect that herbivores have on plant diversity |
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Definition
| Herbivore food preference, competitive relationships between plants, and variance in these two factors |
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Term
| How did Power define keystone species? |
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Definition
| Species that exert strong effects on their community structure despite low biomass |
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Term
| Annual actual evapotranspiration (AET) |
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Definition
| Annual amount of water that evaporates and transpires off a landscape |
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Term
| Cold, dry ecosystems have (high/low) AET |
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Definition
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Term
| There is a (+/-) between net primary productivity and AET |
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Definition
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Term
| Sala found that east-west variation in primary production correlated with BLANK |
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Definition
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Term
| Significant variation in terrestrial primary production can be explained by differences in BLANK |
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Definition
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Term
| What is the limiting nutrient(s) in net primary production in a dry tundra meadow? |
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Definition
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Term
| What is the limiting nutrient(s) in net primary production in a wet meadow? |
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Definition
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Term
| BLANK controls the rate of primary production in freshwater ecosystems |
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Definition
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Term
| Highest rates of primary production by marine phytoplankton is where? |
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Definition
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Term
| Why do continental margins have high primary production? |
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Definition
| Nutrient run-off from land and sediment disturbance |
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Term
| BLANK tends to be the main nutrient source in open ocean |
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Definition
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Term
| What nutrient is limiting in the sea? |
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Definition
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Term
| What is the other variable influencing phytoplankton biomass besides nutrient availability? |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| Influence of physical and chemical factors of an ecosystem |
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Term
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Definition
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Term
| Trophic Cascade Hypothesis |
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Definition
| The influence of consumers on lake primary productivity propagates through food webs |
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Term
| How do grazers increase primary production on the serengeti? |
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Definition
| Grazers cause plants to have compensatory growth |
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Term
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Definition
| Increased growth rate due to herbivory |
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Term
| Why is compensatory growth greater than regular growth? (3 reasons) |
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Definition
| Lower respiration rate due to lower biomass, reduced self-shading and improved water balance due to reduced leaf area |
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Term
| Who came up with trophic levels? |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| The percentage of energy transferred from one trophic level to the one above it |
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Term
| Why is energy degraded as it is transferred between trophic levels? (3 reason) |
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Definition
| Limited assimilation, consumer respiration, and heat production |
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Term
| How much of solar energy is left for primary production? |
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Definition
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Term
| Most of solar energy is... |
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Definition
| Absorbed during evapotranspiration or converted to heat |
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Term
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
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Term
| Global phosphorous cycle (does/does not) include a substantial atmospheric pool |
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Definition
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Term
| Largest quantities of phosphorous are found where? |
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Definition
| Mineral deposits and marine sediments |
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Term
| How is phosphorous made available to ecosystems? |
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Definition
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Term
| Global nitrogen cycle (does/does not) include a substantial atmospheric pool |
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Definition
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Term
| How is N released from organisms? |
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Definition
| Upon death, fungi and bacteria release N during decomposition |
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Term
| Where is the largest actively cycled pool of N? |
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Definition
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Term
| Annual N fixation (exceeds/does not exceed) denitrification |
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Definition
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Term
| Where is the largest pool of carbon on the planet? |
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Definition
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Term
| Uptake of carbon by terrestrial primary production is (>/=/<) return to atmosphere by respiration |
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Definition
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Term
| Uptake of CO2 by oceans is (>/=/<) export to the atmosphere |
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Definition
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Term
| Rate at which nutrients are made available to primary producers is determined by rate of BLANK |
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Definition
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Term
| Mineralization occurs primarily during BLANK |
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Definition
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Term
| Higher N availability in soil contributes to (higher/lower) decomp rates |
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Definition
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Term
| Leaves with higher lignin ratios lose biomass (faster/slower) during decomp |
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Definition
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Term
| Why does higher lignin in leaves slow decomposition? |
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Definition
| Lignin inhibits fungi colonization of leaves |
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Term
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Definition
| Cycling of a nutrient including the spatial component of downstream movement |
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Term
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Definition
| The length of a stream required for a nutrient atom to complete a cycle |
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Term
| What is spiraling length influenced by? (2) |
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Definition
| Rate of nutrient cycling and velocity of downstream movement |
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Term
| Transport of nutrients in streams is slowed by BLANK |
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Definition
| Nutrient uptake by benthic organisms |
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Term
| Equation for spiraling length |
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Definition
| S=VT, V is avg. velocity of a nutrient atom, T is average time to complete a cycle |
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Term
| Short spiral lengths have (high/low) nutrient retentiveness |
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Definition
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Term
| Aquatic invertebrates (increase/decrease) rate of N cycling |
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Definition
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Term
| How is the invasive tree Myrica altering N dynamics of Hawaiian ecosystems? |
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Definition
| Myrica is an N-fixing tree and its leaves have a high N content which lead to a high decomposition rate |
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Term
| Nitrate losses are (greatest/lowest) at sites with rapid decomposition |
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Definition
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Term
| Trenching (increased/decreased) nitrate concentrations in soil water |
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Definition
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Term
| Why is P export episodic? |
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Definition
| Associated with flooding/high flow |
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Term
| What causes the annual peak in P export? |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| Gradual change in plant and animal communities in an area following disturbance |
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Term
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Definition
| Occurs on newly exposed geological substrates |
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Term
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Definition
| Occurs after a disturbance that does not destroy soil |
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Term
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Definition
| Late successional community that reamins stable until disrupted by disturbance |
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Term
| Total number of plant species (inc/dec) with increased plot age |
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Definition
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Term
| What happened to soils during succession of Glacier Bay? |
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Definition
| Total soil depth and depth of all major soil horizons show significant increase from the pioneer community |
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Term
| During succession, N, moisture and organic matter (inc/dec) |
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Definition
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Term
| During succession, P, pH and bulk density (inc/dec) |
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Definition
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Term
| Two chronosequences used to study succession |
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Definition
| Glacier Bay and Hawaiian Islands |
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Term
| What did the Hubbard Brook deforestation experiment find? |
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Definition
| Succession can reduce losses of plant nutrients caused by disturbance |
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Term
| The biomass accumulation model includes what 4 stages? |
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Definition
| Reorganization, aggradation, transition and steady-state |
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Term
| How long does reorganization last in the biomass accumulation model? |
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Definition
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Term
| How long does aggradation last in the biomass accumulation model? |
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Definition
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Term
| Clements presented BLANK as a mechanism of succession |
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Definition
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Term
| Connell and Slayter presented BLANK as a mechanism of succession |
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Definition
| Facilitation, tolerance, and inhibition |
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Term
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Definition
| Pioneer species modify environment so it becomes less suitable for themselves and more suitable for species of later successional stages |
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Term
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Definition
| Initial stages are not limited to pioneer species and these early successional species do not facilitate later successional species |
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Term
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Definition
| Early occupants of an area modify the environment in a way that makes it less suitable for both early and late successional species |
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Term
| If the inhibition model is in effect, early successional species are (less/more) vulnerable to mortality |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| Ability to maintain structure and function in face of potential disturbance |
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Term
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Definition
| Ability to recover from disturbance |
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Term
| MacArthur's definition of geographic ecology? |
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Definition
| The search for patterns of plant and animal life that can be put on a map |
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Term
| Air at the earth's surface is primarily |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| Water vapor, CO2, CH4, Ozone, NO2 and CFCs |
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Term
| How much of solar energy is absorbed by the atmosphere/surface? |
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Definition
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