ESS Chapter 2.1, 2.2, 2.3

A group of organisms sharing common characteristics that can be interbred to produce offspring that can interbreed.

• Doesn’t account for asexually reproducing organisms.
• Doesn’t classify species in extinct populations.
• Doesn’t identify whether isolated populations belong to the same species.

The external surroundings that affect species’ survival and development.

• Salinity (Non-living, physical factors)
• Temperature
• pH
• Sunlight

Organisms.

The environment in which the species lives.

Where, when and how a species lives, what it feeds on, how it interacts with its habitat and other organisms etc.

Species can have overlapping niches, which leads to increased competition, but not the same niche. A particular set of biotic and abiotic factors a population responds to.

• Fundamental niche is the full range of conditions in which a species can survive and reproduce.
• Realized Niche is the actual range of conditions. (limited by interactions with other species)

Predation, Symbiosis, Parasitism, Herbivory, Disease, Competition

• An animal hunts and eats another animal, negative feedback cycle,
• Also kinda good for prey because it creates a superior breeding pool
• What is Herbivory?
• An area with a more abundant plant resource has a larger carrying capacity for the herbivore

Lice, ticks, mites

Tapeworms etc.

Things that create disease

• Inter is between different species
• Intra is within a species
• When resources decrease intra increases, when niches overlap, inter increases.

Reduce the carrying capacity for the other’s environment

A group of organisms of the same species living in the same area at the same time.

• Due to limited resources and limiting factors, the rate of growth slows down and fluctuates when the carrying capacity is reached. Has 4 phases:
• 1.Lag phase: a small number of indivudals colonize the area nad have a small number of offspring
• 2.Exponential growth phase: limiting factors are not restricting the rate of growth, no disease no predation, good temperature, good rainfall
• 3.Transitional phase: limiting factors begin to affect the population and increased competition, disease and predation limit the rate of growth
• 4.Stationary phase: population growth stabilizes and fluctuates due to abiotic and biotic factors.

Maximum number of individuals of a species that can be sustained by an environment.

• Limiting factors do not restrict the rate of growth
• Usually with species with rapid reproduction and minimal parental care like insects and shit
• Populations tend to crash due to overused food resources, change in abiotic factors, disease etc.)

Factors that limit the distribution or number of a particular population.

Factors that are affected by the population size of the species (food, water supply, predation, disease)

• Not related to population density
• Natural disasters

Many species living together.

A community and the physical environment it interacts with.

The position that an organism occupies in a food chain.

Typically plants or algae that produce their own food.

• What is the second law of thermodynamics?
• Energy and biomass decrease along the food chain due to loss to heat.

The buildup of nonbiodegradable pollutants within an organism or trophic level.

The increase in the concentration of nonbiodegradable pollutants along the food chain.

g/m2 or j/m2

6CO2+6H20=C6H12O6+6O2

Chemical energy to kinetic energy and heat.

Standing stock of energy or a mass at a specific point in time.

A flow of energy or mass over a period of time.

The total biomass or energy gained by producers in a specific area in a specific amount of time.

The total biomass or energy gained by consumers in a specific area in a specifc amount of time.

Just deduct respiration.

• More complex systems
• hunting , moving
• Complex reproduction
• Maintaining body temperature

Gross production/ energy invested x 100

• Total gain in biomass gained by consumers through absorption in a specific amount of time in a specific area
• Food eaten- fecal loss
• NSP is respiration deducted.

Cellulose is harder to digest

Transfer

• Is the measure of reflectivity of a surface
• Higher albedo with ice and snow, lower with water

• Reflection from clouds
• Absorption by clouds
• Reflection from the surface of the earth
• Absorption by atmospheric levels and dust

• Number of each individual at each trophic level
• Good for comparing populations through time

• Biological mass of the standing stock at each trophic level at a specific point in time
• May be misleading due to seasonal change and is hard to measure with many assumptions but good for comparing seasons
• g/m2 or j/m2

• Flow of energy through each trophic level of a foodchain over a period of time
• Always pyramid due to second law of thermodynamics and directly comparable (no seasonal change shit)

• Pine-pine borer-salamander-snake
• Phytoplankton-starfish-flatfish-harp seals

• Effected by all trophic levels
• Biomagnification and bioaccumulation

Limited food chain due to second law of thermodynamics

• Detrivores: larger organisms that break the leftovers into smaller pieces for future decomposition
• Saprotrophs: fungi and soil bacteria

• Hydrophytes: water plants
• Mesophytes: normal plants
• Xerophytes: cacti and stuff that store water

• The rate of increse in biomass thast can be exploited without depleteing the original stock or its potential for replenishment
• Equal or lower to their natural productivity

• The maximum of a given resource such that the stock does not decline over time.
• Equivalent to net primary or secondary production
• (born+immigrated)-(death+emmigrated)

j/m2yr or g/m2yr

• Higher primary productivity leads to higher energy investment in all tropic layers of the ecosystem
• Efficient energy transfer results in more energy to use
• Both result in longer food chains which means higher productivity