Biology UVU final Ecology and Animal Kingdom

Ecology is the study of

how organisms interact with each other and their environment

Environment includes

biotic and abiotic factors

Abiotic factors are

light, water, air, mineral nutrients

Biotic factors are

predation, competition, mutualism

predation

An interaction in which one organism kills another for food.

competition

the struggle between organisms to survive in a habitat with limited resources

mutualism

A relationship between two species in which both species benefit

terrestrial refers to

Land

Aquatic refers to

water

Population ecology

ways of describing a population

population size

the number of organisms in a population

population density

Number of individuals per unit area

age structure

number of organisms in various age categories of a population

populations change due to

births, deaths, immigration, emigration.

Life history traits

1. time to reach reproductive age 2. frequency of reproduction 3. number of offspring 4. amount of parental care given to offspring

opportunistic life history

many small offspring in a short amount of time

equilibrial life history

pattern of developing and reaching sexual maturity slowly and producing few, well-cared-for offspring

limiting factors keep populations from

continuing to grow

examples of limiting factors

competition, predation, parasitism, disease, natural disasters, weather, long-range environmental changes

Algae

phytoplankton & Seaweed

seaweeds

large, multicellular marine algae

brown algae examples

kelp

How do populations change

exponential growth, logistic growth, population cycles

exponential growth

the rate of population increase under ideal conditions

logistic growth

Growth pattern in which a population's growth rate slows or stops following a period of exponential growth

population cycles

fluctuations in population size in response to varying effects of limiting factors

biological control

the intentional release of a natural enemy to attack a pest population

methods of reducing pest populations

chemical pesticides, biological control, cultural methods (agriculture)

resource management goal

maximize harvest while maintaining population for future harvests

examples of resource managment

Deer and other game animals, fish, trees harvested for lumber

kudzu

A quick-growing vine with large leaves often found in the Southern United States

Why is Kudzu so bad?

it overtakes and kills native species

herbivory

animal consumes plants or algae

parasites & pathogens

parasites that live IN or ON another organism

pathogens include

viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites and some protists

Producers

make their own food

Consumers

obtain energy by eating other organisms

Herbavore

plant eater

carnivore

eats other animals

omnivores

eat both plants and animals

scavengers

eat dead animals

detritivores

eat detritus (plant and animal waste)

decomposers

fungi and bacteria that are absorbing biological molecules

Top to bottom of the food chain

1. Carnivores
2. Herbivores
3. Plants
4. consumers
5. producers
6. aquatic mammals
7. larger fish
8. small fish
9. Zooplankton
10. phytoplankton

species diversity of a community hold two components

number of species & 2 relative abundance of species present

Disturbances and examples

Fires, droughts, storms tornados, floods, human activity

examples of human activity

mining and burning of fossil fuels, manufacture and use of fertilizer

in the event of an environmental disturbance,

organisms are killed and resource availability changes

small scale disturbances can

increase species diversity of a community

ecological succession

follows large scale disturbances

energy flows

enters in the form of light (most ecosystems)

Nutrient Cycle

non living environment to living things back in a continuous loop

Nutrients in biological molecules include:

carbs, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids

chemical energy in herbivores

available to carnivores

chemical energy in producers

available only to herbivores

light energy is only available to

producers

Carbon Cycle

From CO2 to Carbon Fixation to Carbon in Biological molecules to combustion back to CO2

Fossil fuels are

coal, petroleum, natural gas

differences in abiotic factors determine what?

where organisms live

Examples of abiotic factors

light, water, temperature, inorganic nutrients, salinity, available oxygen, currents, tides, etc.

other abiotic factors in terrestrial ecosystems include:

wind, fire, storms

Climate is determined by

latitude, proximity of large bodies of water, mountains

World regions include

Polar regions, temperate regions, tropics

Tropic of Cancer

23.5 degrees North

Tropic of Capricorn

23.5 degrees south

rain shadow effect

one side of a mountain receives all the rain while another does not due to moisture falling on the windward side of the mountain

9 phyla

sponges, cnidarians, mollusks, flatworms, annelids, nematodes, arthropods echinoderms, chordates

what do Sponges do?

sessile, always live in water, filter bacteria

cnidarians are

coral - sea anemones, jellies, always live in water

plankton are

drifting organism, protists, prokaryotes

examples of Mollusks

snails, slugs, gastropods, shell-like

Flat worms lack

respiritory system

blood flukes

parasites that live in blood cells

more examples of flat worms

blood flukes, planarians, tapeworms, (all mostly parasites)

annalids

segmented worms (earthworms, leaches, polychaetes)

roundworms

nematodes

echinoderms

sand dollars, sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers (all marine)

arthopod characteristics

external exoskeleton, chitin, jointed legs, segmented body, insects, arachnids

Chordates

have a notochord during atleast part of their life cycle

bottleneck effect

a population's size is reduced for at least one generation

mechanisms of evolution

natural selection, artificial selection, genetic drift, gene flow, dna mutation

adaptive evolution

increase in frequency of traits that are well suited for the environment in a population over generation

artificial selection

Selection by humans for breeding of useful traits from the natural variation among different organisms

genetic drift

allele frequencies fluctuate unpredictably from one generation to the next

DNA mutations

Changes to genes due to changes in nucleotide base sequences.

gene flow

exchange of genes between populations

Protists are

Eukaryotes

protists can be

mostly single celled and sometimes multicellular

where do protists live

water

how do some protists obtain energy?

ingest and digests other prokaryotes

examples of protists

Paramecium, Euglena, Amoeba

protists that obtain energy from photosynthesis

algae

protists that obtain energy by absorption

fungi

Phytoplankton

Microscopic, free-floating, autotrophic organisms that function as producers in aquatic ecosystems

Phytoplankton single celled or multicellular?

single celled

Coccolithophores

microscopic algae with calcium carbonate shells, form the base of many marine food webs

diatoms

cell walls reinforced with silica

dinoflagellates

cell wall made of cellulose plates, two flagella located in grooves between the plates

what percentage of the bacterial pop is susceptible to antibiotics?

99.9%

polypeptide

chain of amino acids