Community Ecology and Structure

Question 1

Ecology

Answer 1

Studying relationships between living organisms (biotic) and their physical surroundings (abiotic)

Question 2

Population

Answer 2

A group of species living closely together at the same time.

Question 3

Community Approach

Answer 3

All populations come together in one place, including fungi, animals, protists, ect

Question 4

Ecosystem

Answer 4

The community along with the physical, non-living enviornment.

Question 5

Biosphere

Answer 5

Sum of all ecosystems

Question 6

Biome

Answer 6

A group of multiple ecosystems that can be classified by having different climates and dominate plants (think minecraft lol)

Question 7

How is community approach organized?

Answer 7

1. Physical characteristics (environment)
2. Biological characteristics (emphasizing dominate species)

Question 8

What is the community structure?

Answer 8

the types and numbers of species (or subsets of species) in the present

Question 9

What are community dynamics

Answer 9

how communities change over time

Question 10

Taxonomic affinity

Answer 10

all bird species in a community

Question 11

What is a guild

Answer 11

A group of species that use the same resources

Question 12

Functional Group

Answer 12

a group of species that function in similar ways, but do not always use the same resources

Question 13

What are the three types of species?

Answer 13

1. Foundational
2. Keystone
3. Dominate

Question 14

What is a foundation species?

Answer 14

a species that can cause physical or chemical changes within an environment (ex :beavers building a dam)

Question 15

What is a keystone species?

Answer 15

A species that can control distribution or abundance of other species

Question 16

What is a dominate species?

Answer 16

most abundant and out competes other species.

Question 17

How do you measure community structure?

Answer 17

1. Species Richness: The NUMBER of different species in a community
2. Species Evenness: RELATIVE ABUNDANCE compared with one another
3. Species Diversity: COMBINES SPECIES RICHNESS AND SPECIES EVENESS and measures community complexity

Question 18

What is lower species evenness?

Answer 18

Not much diversity

Question 19

What is higher species evenness?

Answer 19

A lot of diversity

Question 20

How do you measure species diversity?

Answer 20

By combining species richness with species evenness. The most common method is called the SHANNON-WEINER index.

Question 21

Species accumulation curve

Answer 21

Helps determine whether most or enough of a species has been observed.

Question 22

What influences community structure?

Answer 22

1. Climate patterns (Alter, Shift, Disrupt, Destabilize, Sporadic, MISMATCHES)
2. Geography of the communities location (ex: isolated, mainland, physical stress, etc)
3. Heterogeneity (patchiness of the communities location.
4. Frequency of disturbances or disruptive events (fires, storms, landslides)
5. Interactions between organisms (predation, competition, symbiosis, etc).

Question 23

What is climate patterns?

Answer 23

1. Temporal mismatches under warming climate
2. Spatial Mismatches under a warming climate
3. Body size mismatches under a warming climate