Week 7: Species Richness

Question 1

Species Richness

Answer 1

The number of species in a community

Question 2

Diversity Index

Answer 2

Measures that combine both species richness and the evenness or equitability of the distribution of individuals among those species

Question 3

Evenness

Answer 3

The similarity of abundances of each species in an environment.

Question 4

Niche breadth

Answer 4

The diversity of resources used or environments tolerated by an individual, population, species, or clade.

Question 5

Niche overlap

Answer 5

The situation in which co-occurring species share parts of their niche space with each other. High niche overlap may lead to conflictual interactions (such as competition and exclusion) for some species

Question 6

Productivity hypothesis

Answer 6

The importance of climate in determining productivity at the lowest trophic level - the plants and microbes — and the resources these then provide for herbivores and then carnivores further up the food chain.

Question 7

Energy hypothesis

Answer 7

Emphasizes the
direct role of energy (often measured by environmental temperature) on organisms throughout the community.

Question 8

Eutrophication

Answer 8

The gradual increase in the concentration of phosphorus, nitrogen, and other plant nutrients in an aging aquatic ecosystem such as a lake.

Question 9

Particulate organic matter (POM)

Answer 9

Fragments of undecomposed biomass that can be rapidly degraded in the water column

Question 10

Alpha diversity

Answer 10

Refers to diversity at a local scale (within a community), so it is high when there are many species within each
community.

Question 11

Beta diversity

Answer 11

Refers to the differences among communities within a region, so it is high when different communities in a region differ in the species they contain.

Question 12

Gamma diversity

Answer 12

Refers to diversity at the whole regional scale (collections of communities). It therefore combines a- and f-diversity and is highest when both individual communities are diverse and the communities in a region differ.

Question 13

Potential evapotranspiration (PET)

Answer 13

The amount of water that would evaporate or be transpired from a saturated surface, and hence a measure of atmospheric energy;

Question 14

Net Primary Productivity (NPP)

Answer 14

Gross primary productivity minus the rate of energy loss to metabolism and maintenance.

Question 15

Benthic

Answer 15

The study of organisms that make up bottom communities (sediments, seagrass communities and rock outcrops) in lakes, streams, estuaries and oceans, to determine environmental health and conduct environmental impact studies.

Question 16

Intermediate disturbance hypothesis

Answer 16

Suggests that local species diversity is maximized when ecological disturbance is neither too rare nor too frequent.

Question 17

Species-area relationship

Answer 17

The relationship between the number of species of plants and animals and the size of a specific area of land

Question 18

Turnover

Answer 18

Change in species composition observed in a single location through time

Question 19

Why does pH not fluctuate in the Waterloo Region?

Answer 19

pH does not Fluctuate because of our Limestone bedrock, making our water basic.

Question 20

How does water temperature affect aquatic life?

Answer 20

Important for fish and invertebrate habitat, some species require cold
water streams.

Question 21

Why is Dissolved oxygen (DO) important for aquatic life?

Answer 21

a). Necessary for aquatic organisms and bacteria.

b). Fast moving stream with riffles, rocky substrate will have higher DO.

c). Inverse relationship between water temperature and DO.

Question 22

Why is Velocity important for aquatic life?

Answer 22

a). Stream flow affects bank erosion, transport of nutrients, stirs up substrate and impacts aquatic habitat.

b). Faster flowing streams result in higher DO especially if the substrate is gravelly or rocky.

Question 23

Why is the Substrate of a stream important for aquatic life?

Answer 23

a). Will affect clarity of a stream

b). Will affect what organisms can live there. Generally, a gravelly or rocky substrate means higher DO than a silty substrate.

Question 24

Why is the type of stream important for Aquatic life?

Answer 24

Riffles and runs generally mean a higher DO and lower water temperatures than pools or flats resulting in higher water quality.

Question 25

Why is stream depth & width important to Aquatic life?

Answer 25

Stream width and depth change according to factors such as flooding events, precipitation and influences upstream (e.g. dam
release)

Question 26

What are Benthic Invertebrates?

Answer 26

Benthic Invertebrates are
bottom-living organisms that
inhabit the substrate of water
bodies for at least part of their
life cycle.

Question 27

Why are Benthic Invertebrates important to determine the water quality of a stream?

Answer 27

Invertebrates are an important
indicator of water quality
because different groups are
affected differently by physical
and chemical properties of
water.

Question 28

Laurel Creek Site features

Answer 28

a). Potential contaminant and nutrient sources upstream

b). Channel straightening

c). Adjacent land uses that destabilize banks

d). Sediment loading or deprivation

e). Barriers or dams nearby

f). Springs or seeps

g). Riparian vegetation

h). Other activities that could influence biota or habitat

Question 29

TSS and Turbidity

Answer 29

Total Suspended Sediments (TSS) and turbidity are similar
parameters, TSS is a quantitative measurement of sediment suspended in water, turbidity is a measurement of how clear or murky the water is.

Question 30

How does TSS and Turbidity affect aquatic life?

Answer 30

a). High TSS or turbidity affects photosynthesis and can influence habitat suitability for some aquatic life.

b). Contaminants such as phosphorus, metals and pesticides can
attach to sediment particles in the water

Question 31

Biotic indices

Answer 31

A family of weighted summaries that combine
the known pollution tolerances of taxa with richness or abundance
information.

Question 32

Richness & Evenness

Answer 32

Key information pieces that can be
combined to produce diversity indices