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BIOL 1070 > Midterm 2 > Flashcards

Midterm 2 Flashcards

(101 cards)

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1
Q

Why are urban forests so important?

A

Urban forests are critically important to the maintenance of biodiversity, the water quality, and the overall health and quality of life for all species living in that space

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2
Q

Describe Brown’s Woods.

A

After the land was cleared for a gravel pit, it was restored. There are characteristics of an artificial community. It is an example of progress/problems created by attempts at forest restoration.

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3
Q

Describe North Campus Ravine.

A

It is behind the MacDonald institute. It is the home to the European buckthorn and a non-native beetle.

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4
Q

Describe the Arboretum.

A

It was built on a mandate to promote education, research, and outreach. It consists of Victoria Woods and Wild Goose Woods. It is an Urban Forest Island.

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5
Q

Describe the Dairy Bush/Dairy Bush Field.

A

Old field environment is slated for re-purposing and residential development. The field is full of new, small trees. Dairy Bush was the second experimental forest plantation. Many of the trees are not native to North America. Some invasive species, such as garlic mustard.

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6
Q

What is biodiversity?

A

The variability among living organisms from all sources including terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and ecological complexes of which they are part (diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems)

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7
Q

What is species richness?

A

The number of species present in a defined area (community or ecosystem)

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8
Q

How is sampling intensity determined?

A

Sampling intensity is determined by plotting the new number of species observed (complete when the curve is saturated)

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9
Q

What is structure?

A

Vertical arrangement and spatial organizations of the plants

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10
Q

What is physiognomy?

A

Growth form of a community; Defined by the dominant vegetation layer and most abundant species

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11
Q

What is alpha diversity?

A

The number of species at a local scale (or within a habitat); also called species richness

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12
Q

What is point diversity?

A

Diversity of microhabitats

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13
Q

What is gamma diversity?

A

Diversity of multiple woodlots

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14
Q

What is phenology?

A

Study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events

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15
Q

What is succession?

A

The woodlot community changes over time (temporal variation); predictable and orderly changes in the composition/structure of an ecological community through time

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16
Q

What is old field succession?

A

A change in community structure after a cultivated field, pasture, clearing, or roadside has been abandoned or left undisturbed

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17
Q

What is traditional ecological knowledge?

A

Finely tuned yet adaptive form of knowledge about the environment that is acquired through extensive observation of a species or an area

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18
Q

What is ethnoecology?

A

The study of how people interact with (and understand) all aspects of the natural environment, including plants, animals, landforms, forest types, and soils (ethnobotany = plants, ethnozoology = animals)

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19
Q

What is species abundance?

A

How common a species is in a defined area and can be measured as % cover, biomass, or frequency of individuals per species

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20
Q

What is relative abundance?

A

The comparison of the species abundance within a defined area and relates to the “evenness” of distribution of individuals among species in a community; Shannon Diversity Index (how abundant each species is relative to the abundance of other species in habitat)

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21
Q

What does abiotic mean?

A

Physical/chemical features of an environment (ex. light, temperature, water, atmospheric gases and soil factors)

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22
Q

What does biotic mean?

A

Living things that live within and shape an ecosystem (ex. producers, consumers and decomposers)

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23
Q

What is a population?

A

Collection of individuals of a single species within a defined area at a specified point in time

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24
Q

What does population ecology consist of?

A

Population size, population density, patterns of dispersion, age distributions and population growth

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25
What is a community?
Collection of species (each with its own population) living in a given area at a particular point in time
26
What does community ecology consist of?
Structure and dynamics of animal/plant communities
27
What is an ecosystem?
Community of organisms that interact with each other and environmental (abiotic) factors
28
What does ecosystem ecology consist of?
Investigating processes that influence the composition and distribution of organisms
29
What is variation?
Differences among individuals within a population
30
What is diversity?
Number of species in an area/taxon/clade. Also called species richness
31
What is disparity?
How different species are from each other
32
What determines global biodiversity?
Global biodiversity is the net outcome of 2 opposing processes: Diversification through speciation, and loss of diversity through extinction
33
What is speciation?
The formation of new species
34
What is cladogenesis?
An ancestral species splitting or branching into 2 descendant species (i.e. speciation)
35
How do new species form?
A barrier to gene flow allows one species to split into two (Allopatric speciation and sympatric speciation)
36
What is allopatric speciation?
"different place"; Species is split due to a geographic barrier or because some individuals move to a separate place
37
What is sympatric speciation?
"same place"; Species is split by reproductive separation without any geographic barrier
38
What is endemism?
A species evolved here and it is only found in this region
39
What is range expansion?
It evolved elsewhere (relatively nearby) and then expanded its range to also include this area
40
What is range shift?
It evolved elsewhere and used to be found elsewhere, but its range shifted to include only the current distribution and not the former distribution
41
What is long-range dispersal?
It arrived from somewhere else not nearby (eg. seeds transported by migratory birds, introduced by humans)
42
What is vicariance?
It evolved elsewhere, but then the physical landscape itself changed
43
What are some possible explanations for how a species got somewhere?
Endemism, range expansion, range shift, long-range dispersal, and vicariance
44
What is a woodlot?
An urban forest
45
What is the Campus Master Plan?
It describes the history of campus and provides guidelines for future development. The guiding/planning principles are environmental quality; spatial structure and composition; project design; movement and associated systems; land use locations; and implementation. Suggest a 50m boundary, 10m minimum.
46
What are some abiotic factors related to edge effects?
There is differential movement of solar radiation, temperature, humidity, moisture, and wind between interior and edge habitat. Edge habitats often become intermediate between the 2 adjacent habitats (eg. between forest and field, the forest edges become hotter and drier with solar radiation)
47
How is access related to edge effects?
When resources are spatially separated and edge provides access to both resources.
48
How are species interactions related to edge effects?
Many incidences of increased nest predation for birds nesting in edge habitats
49
What is population growth?
The change in number of individuals during some period of time (Population growth rate = birth rate - death rate + immigration - emigration)
50
What is carrying capacity?
The number of individuals that can survive on the available resources within a given area; not fixed.
51
What is mutualism?
Both species are benefitted
52
What is competition?
Species have a negative impact on each other
53
What is predation/parasitism?
One species benefits while the other is harmed
54
What is commensalism?
One species benefits while the other is unaffected
55
What is amensalism?
One species is harmed while the other is unaffected
56
What is neutralism?
Species have no effect on each other
57
What are ecosystem processes?
The flow of energy and cycling of materials (ex. photosynthesis, respiration)
58
How does the biological species concept define species? What's wrong with this?
"Species are groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups". Asexual species, hybrids, and connected extremes are not included
59
Why might urban forests be more prone to the effect of exotic species?
Edge effects and fragmentation
60
What are biological invasions?
They are an important cause of extinction and biodiversity loss
61
What are some possible invasive species mechanisms for success?
Escaping natural enemies, competitive ability, early phenology, high phenotypic plasticity, and high reproductive output
62
What are abiotic variables?
Non-living; physical and chemical factors that affect the ability of organisms to survive and reproduce; ex. light, temperature, chemical products, water and atmosphere
63
What is geographical space?
The species' distribution as plotted on a map
64
What is environmental space?
The space that an organism occupies, which is confined by environmental variables to which the species responds
65
What is the fundamental niche?
Environmental conditions in which a species can survive and persist (the species may not be present within all of this space); usually based on abiotic factors
66
What is the realized niche?
Environmental and ecological conditions under which a species actually exists and persists; usually based on biotic factors
67
What is a habitat?
The environment in which a species is known to occur; can be considered "environmental space"; influenced by biotic and abiotic variables; increased habitat diversity is correlated with increased species richness
68
What is a functional trait?
How species function within a community or ecosystem; uniquely adapted to the ecological niche; "competitive exclusion principle"; determine how species interact with other species
69
What is a trait?
Measurable property of an organism that influences its performance
70
What is functional diversity?
Diversity of functional traits of all the species in a community/ecosystem
71
What is ecosystem engineering?
Ecosystem engineers can change, sustain and develop new habitats; control availability of resources to other species
72
What is niche construction?
Feedback mechanism of natural selection imparting forces on abiotic niche
73
What is gamma species diversity?
The total number of species across all habitats being studied (larger scale)
74
What is beta species diversity?
Measure of how different the diversity is between two habitats = (alpha1 - common species) + (alpha2 - common species)
75
What is the species composition of a habitat?
Which species live in a particular habitat, relative abundances of the species in the habitat, and spatial pattern of where the various species are located within the habitat
76
What is species distribution?
Where in the world a particular species lives (and where it doesn't live) and where the individuals of a particular species are located relative to each other within a population
77
What affects species' distributions?
Life cycle, Dispersal ability (involves eggs/seeds, larvae, juveniles, or adults; can be water-, wind-, or animal-assisted)
78
What are the genetic consequences of multiple founder effects?
Lowered allelic diversity
79
How does range expansion affect genetic variation?
It decreases genetic variation
80
How does vicariance affect genetic variation?
It stays about the same
81
Why isn't a particular species found in more places?
It was in other places but died out elsewhere (extirpation); It can't live in those other places; It could live in those other places but never dispersed there; It could live elsewhere but it is excluded by other species that are already there.
82
Why don't other species live there too?
They were there but died out (extirpation/extinction); They were there but moved away (range shift); They couldn't live there even if they arrived there; They could live there but never dispersed there; They could live there but are excluded by the species that are already there
83
What is competitive exclusion?
One of the species disappears from that area
84
What is character displacement?
Both species continue to co-exist, but they diverge to occupy slightly different ecological niches within the shared habitat
85
What is co-existence at reduced carrying capacity?
Both species continue to live in the area, but at lower numbers of individuals per species
86
How would you determine which abiotic factor is limiting the distribution of a species?
Field observation of actual range of distribution, Determine ecological tolerances, correlation between environmental gradients and a species optimum range, and experiments (field transplant, controlled environment)
87
What factors limit the tree line?
(most to least survival) Shade (cool) = competition for water; Full sun (hot) = no competition for water; Full sun (hot) = competition for water
88
What is the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis?
Predicts that the highest species richness will occur at an intermediate level of intensity/frequency of natural disturbance (low levels = not many habitats, high levels = eliminate habitats that support diversity)
89
Why are natural disturbances important?
They are important in shaping landscapes and influencing ecosystem processes
90
What is an Ecosystem Function?
Includes the exchange of energy and nutrients among plants, animals, and their environment
91
What is Ecosystem Service?
Refers to the processes within ecosystems that provide fundamental resources such as water, clean air, or even the decomposition of waste products
92
What is adaptive management?
Utilizes ecosystem management as a tool to alter the functioning of an ecosystem; allows ecosystem managers to use hypothesis testing as a tool to learn about the ecosystems while managing for certain predicted outcomes
93
How does urbanisation affect diversity?
Urbanisation can sometimes result in an increase in species richness, especially at intermediate levels of development (IDH)
94
How does the domination of exotic species affect diversity?
An invasion may increase total species richness, but actually decrease the diversity of native species
95
What is biotic homogenisation?
The replacement of local biotas with non-native speciesthat can co-exist with humans (# of nonnative species increases with urbanisaiton, while # of native species decreases)
96
What is fecundity?
Number of eggs produced per female
97
What is fertility?
Percent of eggs that produce viable offspring
98
What is recruitment?
Number of individuals reaching breeding age, includes offspring + immigration
99
What are the different spatial patterns of distribution?
Clumped (butterflies), even (birds), and random (plants)
100
How does the effectiveness of density dependent factors change?
It will increase as the population density increases
101
How does the effectiveness of density independent factors change?
It doesn't. It stays constant while population density changes.

BIOL 1070 (3 decks)

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