Lecture 1 Evolution and Ecology Flashcards
If you have a question about the course where is the first place to look?
The syllabus on Canvas
What is an environmental factor that limits the distribution and abundance of organisms?
-Abiotic factors such as temperature, landscape, weather.
- Physical constraints on Organisms:
Gravity, fluid dynamics, diffusion, surface/volume scaling, freezing and boiling points of water.
-Biotic environmental factors such as predators, parasitic organisms, disease, and competition between individuals in a population, the avaibility of prey in the area, etc.
What are the levels of ecological organization and how do they relate to one another?
Individual, population, community, ecosystem, biosphere. They relate to one another by interacting with the abiotic environment.
What is evolution? At what level of ecological organization does it occur?
Changes in heritable characteristics that occur in POPULATIONS over successive generations.
What is adaptation?
Give at least one example of how ecology and/ or evolution affects your life?
Evolution affects my life with the produce that is available in the supermarkets. Such as a new epidemic can affect strawberries, which would make the fruit more difficult to find and more expensive.
