Midterm Review Flashcards
(45 cards)
What is a novel ecosystem?
development of ecosystem that differ in composition and/or function have been completely transformed from the historic system: system may be composed almost entirely o species not formerly native or exhibit different functional properties.
What is a Hybrid system?
A system that returns characteristics of the historic system but whose composition or function lies outside the historic range of variability (HRV)
What are examples of abiotic changes?
Climate, land usem pollution, urbanization and nutrient loads
What are 3 types of ecosystem services?
Provisioning services: resources we depend on (food, fuel, etc)
Regulatory services: benefits that occur to us from ecosystem processes (water pollution, natural hazard reduction, pollination)
Cultural services: recreational, aesthetic, and spiritual use of ecosystem
What is ecological restoration?
refers to scientific exploration of ecosystems under repair, including design and implementation, practice of restoring degraded ecological systems
What is an ecosystem service?
Conditions and processes through which natural ecosystem and species tha make them up sustain human life
What is restoration?
The process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed, aim to achieve semblance of predisturbance state
What is reclamation/rehabilitation?
The return of a damaged ecosystem to a productive and socially acceptable condition short of restoration
What is creation?
The construction of an ecosystem on a site that has a different type of ecosystem before destruction or damaged occurred
What is abandonment/passive restoration?
the process of allowing a damaged ecosystem to recover from disturbance without human intervention
What is mitigation?
The attempted alleviation of any or all detrimental effects arising from a given action
What is reforestation/afforestation?
The planting of trees, often for timber production, not necessarily native species
List some limitations/constraints of restoring an ecosystem.
- Limited time scale
- lack of understanding of ecology and ecosystem functioning
- presence of exotic species
- cultural values
- climate change and changing endpoints
- residual disturbance
What is succession?
A regular progression of communties replacing each other on a site until a relatively permanent climax community is established
-ecological succession refers to how communities change through time
What is an r-selected species?
early successional, adapted to disturbance, good dispersal capabilities, large numbers of offspring, generalist, shorter lifespan
What is a k-selected species?
later successional, better competitors, smaller numbers of offspring with higher survival rates, specialists, longer lifespan
What is Facilitation?
When early successional species alter the environment to make it more favorable for the establishment of later successional species - common in highly disturbed ecosystems
What is inhibition?
When early successional species alter the environment to make it less favorable for the establishment of later successional species
What is assisted migration or managed translocation?
intentionally moving individuals of a species outside their present range in response to changing climatic conditions
What is the difference between primary and secondary succession?
Primary succession - community change in a location that has never supported biotic community
Secondary succession - community change in a location where an existing biological community has been disrupted by disturbance
What is a disturbance cycle?
events such as fires, floods, and windstorms, to the extent that they severely damage or destroy an existing community, are considered to be the inhibitors of successional change
What is system resilience?
a community is considered to be resilient if it return to normal after a disturbance
What is a keystone species?
One way a single species may maintain community stability is by acting as a keystone predator, remove the keystone, and the arch (or community) becomes unstable or changes to a different state
What is a metapopulation?
where multiple populations of an organism occur across a landscape, providing redundancy that may enable the species to survive despite the occasional extirpation of a local population
A set of geographically isolated subpopulation that are interconnected by gene flow and colonization, often consist of one or more core populations that are persistent and a number of satellite populations
