Unit 8: Ecology Flashcards
Structural Hierarchy
every level of organization has a roll and is required for an organism to function (cell -> tissue -> organ -> organ system -> organism)
*any change to any level = changed function in the organism
Individual
single organism
Population
group of organisms in the same species
Community
collection of species in a region that interact with each other
Ecosystem
the species in an area and the abiotic environment they live in (climate, weather, pollution, etc)
Ecology
the study of how organisms interact with the living and nonliving components of the environment
Animal behaviors
All evolved animal behaviors exists because they are evolutionary adaptive (help organisms survive better + reproduce better)
- any animal behavior is typically more efficient (behavior changes to be more efficient)
Behavior
response to a stimulus (stimulus = internal or external change) - external can be environment or other organism
Innate Behavior
automatic/occur naturally in all members in a species (coded in the DNA)
- normally 100% necessary for survival and offers no flexibility
Learned Behaviors
ones an individual organism gains through experience by interacting with other organisms and environment
- ensures survival by allowing the organism to be reactive
Tactile communication
touch based communication, important for social groups of organisms
ex. honeybees dance with each other to give directions to flowers
this form of communication is limited by distance as organisms must be in direct contact with each other
Auditory Communication
sound based communication extremely important in wide variety of organisms
- lots of auditory communication is for mating
Visual Communication
uses signals that must be seen (posture, warning sign, facial expressions)
ex. poison dart frogs bright colors tell preds they are dangerous (some predators learn this by attempting to eat them)
Chemical Communication
use chemical signals called pheromones
ex. dogs mark territory when they pee (chemical communication can be used to communication about location of food, mark territory, warn others about danger)
Phototropism
the growth of a plant in response to light towards the light (INNATE BEHAVIOR)
- towards lights = max surface area for photosynthesis
- only plants with undamaged tips can do phototropism
the behavior works bc of signal transduction pathways and a hormone called Auxin
Auxin
the plant growth hormone that controls phototropism (ligand for the receptor)
- it moves to the darker side of the plant and causes those cells to bend and elongate bending whole plant towards the light
Transpiration
water loss through evaporation (in leaves)
- the leaves have holes (stromata) in the bottom to let CO2 in which is good but they also let water out which is bad
- turned into evolutionary compromise where stromata close during day to prevent sun from evaporating water and open at night to let CO2 in forth e dark reaction b/c it doesn’t need the sun for it (most glucose is produced at night)
Minimizes water loss
Rule of 10%
when one organism eats another, most energy is lost (only 10% of energy is actively transferred to new organism)
- creates food pyramids b/c less energy is available at top for pred so there need to be less of them and more prey/producers
Tropic level
an approximation of an organism’s energetic relationship (who eats it and what it eats) on a scale from 1 to 5
- can’t go higher then 5 b/c then there is so few energies there it isn’t worth is
PRODUCERS: bottom of the tropic level
- any organism that produces its own food (plants)
CONSUMERS:
- eat another organism for energy
- 4 levels (primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary) - higher level eats one below it
- Organisms can occupy different tropic levels
Decomposers/Detritovores
- when organisms die they are decomposed by decomposers (maggots, flies, etc)
- decomposers recycle the nutrients from the dead organisms into the soil where producers use those nutrients to grow and continue the cycle
*The ONLY way nutrients can be recycled (finite material) - in a food web, every organism is consumer by these
Metabolism
how an animal produces energy
Endothermy
metabolic strategy of generating heat using internal metabolism (warm blooded)
- maintain a steady body temperature ( only birds and mammals do this)
- more energy COST but more active in more environments
*as size decreases, metabolism increases b/c smaller endotherms have higher SA:V ratio so they lose energy more efficiently and must make up that energy faster
Ectothermy
metabolic strategy where body temp is dependent on heat transfer via the environment (cold blooded)
- they shut down when it is cold ( either hibernate or die b/c life span isn’t that long)
- only highly active when it’s warm
- includes amphibians, reptiles, fish, invertebrates
the water cycle
evaporation: liquid to gas
transpiration: (evaporation from plants)
condensation: gas to liquid
precipitation: liquid falls back to earth as liquid or solid
***humans can’t chemically change water cycle (we can only contaminant it)
