Exam 1

Question 1

Haeckel (1866)

Answer 1

study of relationship of animals to their environment

Question 2

Basic observations of ecology

Answer 2

1. Many species on earth
2. Each species has a unique limited distribution
3. Abundance of each species varies in space and time
4. Not all species occur together
5. species occur in limited sets, or communities

Question 3

scientific natural history

Answer 3

the study of nature and natural phenomena

Question 4

Structure and function of nature (def)

Answer 4

The working of nature that implies there are feedback loops to maintain homeostasis.

Question 5

Gaia hypothesis

Answer 5

proposed by James Lovelock and lynn Margulis and proposed that the earth is a self regulating entity

Question 6

formal def of ecology

Answer 6

The scientific study of the interactions that determine an organism’s distribution, abundance, and co-occurence.

Question 7

conspecifics

Answer 7

members of the same species

Question 8

31,000 years before present (French)

Answer 8

Cave paintings that showed clear evidence that the earliest modern humans understood the concept of an ecosystem

Question 9

Aristotle

Answer 9

Speculated on the cause of mouse plagues (huge population explosion of mice in greece where mice normally not found)

Question 10

Graunt

Answer 10

founded demography which is the study of vital statistics of size (death and birth rates)

Question 11

Malthus

Answer 11

Essay on population: critical essay that influenced Wallace and Darwin on natural selection. The essay wanted to explain the bad things happening to humans

Question 12

Darwin

Answer 12

natural selection is an ecologically process

Question 13

Ross

Answer 13

Published a mathematical model for malaria, mosquitoes, and humans (mathematical models are essential for understanding ecology)

Question 14

Lorna

Answer 14

mathematical ecology of competition and predation

Question 15

Elton

Answer 15

writes 1st animal ecology textbook (uncommon)

Question 16

Clements and Gleason

Answer 16

Initiate community ecology (first ones to look at community and what causes the community to be)

Question 17

MacArthur and Wilson

Answer 17

start of modern community ecology

Question 18

1997

Answer 18

Signatories adopt the Kyoto Treaty (treaty signed by many countries to take steps to limit and stop global climate change)

Question 19

Goals of ecology

Answer 19

1. Description
2. Identification of proximate causes
3. Identification of ultimate causes
4. Prediction
5. Application (applied ecology)

Question 20

ecological systems of heirarchical

Answer 20

biosphere, ecosystems, communities, populations

Question 21

population

Answer 21

group of conspecifics

Question 22

community

Answer 22

set of populations (of multiple or different species)

Question 23

hypothesis

Answer 23

specific, testable proposal to answer specific questions

Question 24

theory

Answer 24

a explantory, well integrated set of well test hypothesis

Question 25

Approaches to ecology

Answer 25

1. experimental 2. Modeling 3. Comparative

Question 26

natural experiment

Answer 26

take advantage of similar natural circumstances that differ in some one or few attributes

Question 27

what is meant by environment?

Answer 27

1. surroundings in general
2. proximate factors that affect the location of an individaul
3. proximate factors that affect the life cycle of an individual
4. proximate factors that affect relative performance of individuals

Question 28

meant by population

Answer 28

1. composition
2. location
3. functional nature
4. population as a conceptual tool (rarely discrete and defined according to the interests of the investigator)
5. formal def
6. relationship between distribution and abundance

Question 29

natural selection

Answer 29

differential survival and reproduction resulting from the possession of different, inherited forms of a trait

Question 30

requirements of natural selection

Answer 30

1. trait variation
2. trait heritability
3. consistent relationships between trait form and survival/reproduction

Question 31

darwinian fitness

Answer 31

the biologically reasons one form of the trait dominates over another

Question 32

directional selection

Answer 32

results in change of mean and yields evolutionary change. trait variation decreases

Question 33

stabilizing selection

Answer 33

results in no change of mean and yields no evolutionary change. decreased trait variation

Question 34

disruptive selection

Answer 34

lose phenotype variation (decrease in trait variation), no change in mean (misleading), adaptive evolutionary change

Question 35

biosphere

Answer 35

a thin, shell of earth capable of supporting life

Question 36

ecosystems

Answer 36

sets of communities and their abiotic surroundings

Question 37

biotic

Answer 37

pertains to living portions of environments

Question 38

abiotic

Answer 38

pertains to non-living aspects of environment

Question 39

condition

Answer 39

a non-consumable environmental factor

Question 40

resource

Answer 40

a consumable environmental quantity

Question 41

attributes of resources

Answer 41

1. potential effect on survival/reproduction
2. resource must be consumed
3. consumption should reduce resources availability to other individuals

Question 42

shelfords law of the minimum

Answer 42

distribution controlled by environment factor for which the organism has the narrowest range of physiological adaptability

Question 43

local adaptation

Answer 43

result of natural selection favoring traits that are advantageous under particular conditions (natural selection traits for specific, varying locations)

Question 44

how do you analysis distributions?

Answer 44

transport experiment

Question 45

how do you detect local adaptation?

Answer 45

reciprocal transplant experiment

Question 46

dispersal

Answer 46

the transport of organisms (place of birth to place of reproduction)

Question 47

Buffon

Answer 47

published his ‘Natural History” where he tried to pull all that was known about the natural world at the time into a book