Topic 1: Intro to Ecology Flashcards
Ecology is defined as what?
The study of the relationships between organisms and their environment.
Environment is defined as what?
All external factors (living and non-living) that effect an organism’s survival, growth, and/or reproduction.
Relationships is defined as what?
All interactions of an organism with its physical surroundings, members of its own species or other species.
What is meant by traditional ecological knowledge?
People who know where something is, or where or how something behaves. Ie indigenous peoples that know the land and therefore know where stuff is. The only people who have this kind of traditional knowledge.
Define Anthropocene.
Anthropocene is a new era of the earth basically. The impacts of humanity are so large and dynamic that we have entered a new area (human activity has been the most dominant on the climate).
Give an example of a case study that illustrates the importance of ecological thinking.
Asiatic carp was taken from east Asia and brought into the USA to fish farms because they grow rapidly and have a large appetite and can eat vegetation (ie algae) rapidly.
These fish eventually escaped the fish farms due to flooding into the Mississippi basin (very big river system).
These fish outcompeted the native species, and eventually posed a threat to the Great Lakes as well.
Why are non-native species outcompeting native species a problem?
Poses a threat to ecosystem stability. You can loose the native species and as a result it can cause other parts of the food chain to break, or cause monetary losses.
Down-stream cascading effects.
What are the functional units of ecology?
Individuals interact with each other and their environment within ecosystems.
So Individuals and ecosystems.
How do individuals interact with the environment?
Acquire essential resources, protection from hazards, identify predators, competitors, and potential mates.
What are ecosystems?
Ecosystems are collections of living and non-living components linked together.
Describe the ecological hierarchy in detail.
- Individuals - at the most basic leveller individual organisms.
- Populations - members of the same species form populations within a location.
- Community - populations of different species interact among themselves to form a community.
- Ecosystem - a biotic community interacting with its physical abiotic environment.
- Landscape - a patchwork of ecosystems linked by the transfer/dispersal of materials and energy.
- Biomes - broad regions dominated by similar types of ecosystems such as the boreal forest.
- Biosphere - is the highest level of organization, in which all ecosystems are linked, through the carbon cycle, the water cycle, etc.
What does science NOT do?
Science does NOT prove hypothesis true. Hypothesis testing rejects, or fails to reject a hypothesis.
How are models generated and what are models used for?
Observations and experiments are used to generate models. They are abstract representations of real systems.
What are some qualities of models?
allow predictions, must be testable, can be quantitative or qualitative.
What is meant by uncertainty in models?
Uncertainty is the inability to predict all outcomes. no experiment or model can duplicate al the factors at work in nature.
