Unit 2 Flashcards by Madison Decker

4 levels of Biodiversity

-Genetic (variation in individuals w/in a population)
-Species (# of species in a region/particular ecosystem
-Habitat (variety of habitats that exist in a given ecosystem)
-Ecosystem (variety of ecosystems in a given region)

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Population bottleneck

When there is a sharp population decline due to a random event, leaving a smaller population with greatly reduced genetic diversity

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Specialist species

-live in a narrow range of a/biotic conditions
-can grow exponentially, but are at higher risk and less stable

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Generalists

-live in wide range of a/biotic conditions

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Species richness

of different species in a given area of an ecosystem

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Species evenness

Relative proportion of individuals w/in the different species in a given area

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Ecosystem services

-Direct & indirect benefits that ecosystems provide humans
-processes by which life supporting resources, such as clean water, timber, fisheries, and agg crops are produced

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

The 4 ecosystem services:

Provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Ecosystem service of Provisioning

-goods produced by the ecosystem that humans can use directly

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Ecosystem service of Supporting

-provide support systems that would be extremely costly for humans to generate
-ex. Pollination

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Ecosystem service of Cultural

-ecosystems can provide intellectual gain and aesthetic satisfaction
-ex. Property costing more because of it’s good location (being by the sea, a mountain, or pretty forest makes it more desirable for our culture)

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Ecosystem service of Regulating

-ecosystems help regulate environmental conditions

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

How can economic value be approximated for ecosystem services?

Replacement (of service) value + Property Value + Time Fee (how much people willing to pay to use a service (national parks, tourism))

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Human activities that disrupt ecosystem services:

HPPCO
-Habitat destruction & fragmentation
-Pollution
-Population growth
-Climate Change
-Over Exploitation

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

2 main factors that affect Island Biodiversity

-Size (larger = more diversity)
-Distance from mainland: closer to mainland, more likely migration will occur

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Better to protect 1 large area of multiple small areas of land

One large area, has it will have more biodiversity

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Why are species on Islands more susceptible to the impact of climate change

-isolated genetics
-often evolve to be specialist

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Fundamental niche

-Ecological tolerance/ the range of abiotic factors a species can survive, grow, & reproduce

Realized niche

-the range of biotic conditions under which a species ACTUALLY lives

How can environmental change alter the distribution of species?

-Change in abiotic factors–> evidence of this in sedimentary rock layers
ex. how certain tree species distributed as a result of warming ice age w/ pollen record

Functional Extinction

-when a population of species is so low it ceases to fulfill it’s ecological function (affects other species)

Biological Extinction

-death of all members of a species

Differentiate between background & mass extinction:

-background (normal extinction rate): standard rate of extinction in Earth’s history (species are always going extinct)
-mass: large number of species gone extinct over a relatively short period of time

3 types of Natural Disruptions to Ecosystems

periodic, episodic, random

Periodic

-occurring regularly -ex: cycles of night & day, daily & monthly cycles of the moon's affect on the tide

Episodic

-Occurring somewhat regularly -ex: cycles of high & low rain every ten years

Random

-occurs w/ no regular pattern -volcanic eruptions

Differentiate between resistance & resilience of an ecosystem:

-resistance: measure of how much a disruption can affect an ecosystem -resilience: the rate at which an ecosystem returns to it's original state after disruption

2 methods scientists use to determine what climate conditions were like thousands or millions of years ago

-ice cores, test the trapped air for atmosphere composition -pollen record in sedimentary rock layers -Species composition (measuring different species of small protists that increase & decrease in sed rock layer in accordance to how hot or cold it was) -Measuring melt of ice sheets

Evolution

Change in genetic composition of population over time

Mutation

-random, non-lethal change in a gene -results in different genes added to genetic composition of the population

gene flow

-individuals move from one population to another, altering the frequency of alleles

genetic drift

change in genetic composition of a population over time as a result of random mating

Difference between Bottlenecks & Founder Effect

-bottleneck: reduction in size of population that reduces genetic variation -founder effect: change in the composition of a population as a result of descending from a small # of colonizing individuals

Ecological succession

predictable replacement of one group of species by another over time

Primary Succession

-when a community begins with rocks & no soils -includes full cycle (from bare rocks to thriving ecosystem)

Secondary Succession

-succession of plant life in an area after an event that removes vegetation, but leaves soil intact (like a forest fire, or earthquake)

Keystone Species

-A species that is not very abundant but has large affects on ecological community

Indicator Species

-a species that demonstrates a particular characteristic of an ecosystem -used to evaluate an ecosystem on wether or not it's been negatively impacted by humans or when it's rebounding -(used to monitor an ecosystem)

Predictable animal migration tends to be a consequence of:

periodic disruption

Approximately what percent of species that have ever lived on Earth are thought to be extinct?

99 percent (holy cow)

How many known mass extinctions have occurred?

Pioneer species

the first to colonize new habitats created by a disturbance

What is the most common interaction among species?

Competition