Vocab Quiz 3

Question 1

Sexual selection

Answer 1

selection for traits that are involved in mating success, such as visual elements (color), and combat structures (antlers of deer)

Question 2

Protandrous

Answer 2

an animal that, when sexually mature, is first male and then switches sex to female.

Question 3

Protogynous

Answer 3

An animal, that, when sexually mature, is first female and then switches sex to male.

Question 4

Reproductive effort

Answer 4

The fraction of assimilated nutrients that are devoted to reproductive behavior and gamete production

Question 5

Diadromous

Answer 5

migratory species that move between the open sea and within an estuary.

Question 6

Anadromous fishes

Answer 6

fish species that spends most of its life feeding in the open ocean, but migrates to spawn in fresh water.

Question 7

Catadromous fishes

Answer 7

Fish that spawns in seawater, but feeds and spends most of its life in estuarine or fresh water.

Question 8

Recruitment

Answer 8

The residue of those larvae that have (1) dispersed, (2) settled at the adult site, (3) made some final movements toward the adult habitat, (4) metamorphosed successfully, and (5) survived to be detected by the observer.

Question 9

Biogeographic scale

Answer 9

hi

Question 10

Lecithotrophic larva

Answer 10

a planktonic dispersing larva that lives off yolk supplied via the egg.

Question 11

Planktotrophic larva

Answer 11

planktotrophic dispersing larva that derives its nourishment by feeding plankton.

Question 12

Survivorship curve

Answer 12

The curve describing changes of mortality rate as a function of age.

Question 13

Allee effect

Answer 13

the increase of probability of extinction when the population is so small that population density itself matters. Finding mates in a sparse population is the major mechanism of decline in such a case.

Question 14

Guild

Answer 14

a group of species, possibly unrelated taxonomically, that exploit overlapping or similar resources.

Question 15

Foundation species

Answer 15

species that are structurally important for the organization of a community. Includes abundant species like reef-forming corals and sea grasses.

Question 16

Succession

Answer 16

a predictable ordering of a dominance of a species or groups of species following the opening of an environment to biological colonization.

Question 17

Disturbance

Answer 17

a rapid change in an environment that greatly alters a previously persistent biological community.

Question 18

Autotroph

Answer 18

a primary producer

Question 19

Heterotrophs

Answer 19

consumers of autotrophs

Question 20

Primary productivity

Answer 20

the production of living matter by photosynthesizing organisms or by chemosynthesizing organisms. Usually expressed as grams of carbon per square meter per year.

Question 21

Apex predator

Answer 21

predators at the top of the food webs

Question 22

Keystone species

Answer 22

any species that has broad impacts on a community.

Question 23

Trophic cascade

Answer 23

a strong interaction among trophic levels in a food chain, where changes in density at one level results in indirect effects at a trophic level that does not directly interact with the first level.

Question 24

Top-down effect

Answer 24

the strong effect of fluctuations of apex predators, especially as indirect effects at lower trophic levels

Question 25

Bottom-up effect

Answer 25

changes in lower trophic levels may also exert strong effects on ecosystems.

Question 26

Natural selection

Answer 26

the differential contribution of genes to the next generation because of fitness differences.

Question 27

Fitness

Answer 27

the rate, relative to other genotypes, at which a genotype reproduces into the next generation. Definition can also be used for alleles.

Question 28

Cline

Answer 28

a regular (usually monotonic) change in gene frequency over a geographic space.