Community Ecology and Population Flashcards
(34 cards)
Nutrient
Water cycle (what happens, what’s involved, where does it happen, why is it important?)
- condensation
Transforms water vapor to liquid water - transpiration
Process where water vapor is returned to the atmosphere - precipitation
rain - evaporation
Process where water vapor is returned to the atmosphere - runoff
-Nitrogen cycle (what happens, what’s involved, where does it happen, why is it important?)
- nitrogen fixation
When bacteria separates the nitrogen to make nitrates so that they can be used by organisms- denitrification
Process where nitrogen returns to the atmosphere when bacteria converts fixed nitrogen back into nitrogen gas
- denitrification
- Carbon/Oxygen cycle (what happens, what’s involved, where does it happen, why is it important?)
- respiration, photosynthesis, consumers, producers, decomposers
Plants exhale oxygen, animals inhale oxygen, animals exhale CO2 plants inhale CO2.
- Phosphorus cycle (what happens, what’s involved, where does it happen, why is it important?)
-organic materials, rocks
The phosphorus cycle is essential for the growth and development of organisms. Phosphorus cycles quickly as phosphates, through sediments, plants, and consumers. In addition, phosphorus is weathered or eroded from rocks and added to the cycle. The cycle restarts when rocks are weathered and eroded.
-role of abiotic factors in succession
Influences the successful survival of the biotic factors
role of biotic factors in succession
Interactions among organisms in the same geographic area
primary succession (examples, process, end result)
Process when barren land is successfully colonized by plants and animals
secondary succession (examples, process, end result)
An established has to be destroyed in order to go through the process of secondary succession
Soil from primary succession still remains
community
A group of interacting populations that live in the same geographic area at the same time
ecological succession
When succession occurs and certain species overtake other species
climax community
When a community reaches its peak form
pioneer species
The first species to move to barren land
population
The members of a single species that share the same geographic location at the same time
population density
The number of organisms per unit area
dispersion
The pattern of spacing of a population within an area
density independent factors (examples!)
- Any factor in the environment that does not depend on the number of members in a population per unit area
- (ex. Fire, weather events, human alterations of the landscape, air/land/water pollution)
density dependent factors (examples!)
- Any factor in the environment that depends on the number of members in a population per unit area
- (ex. predation, disease, competition, parasites)
population growth rate
The rate at which a population grows
emigration
The number of individuals moving away from a population
immigration
The number of individuals moving into a population
exponential growth (explanation, examples, graph)
- Lag period
- Rapid increase
- Exponential growth occurs when the growth rate is proportional to the population size
- All populations grow exponentially until they encounter a limiting factor
logistic growth (explanation, examples, graph)
- Occurs when a population’s growth slows or stops following exponential growth
- A population stops increasing when the number of birth is less than the number of deaths of when the emigration rate is higher than the immigration rate
carrying capacity
maximum number of individuals in a species that an environment can support for long term
