biology

unlearned acts, genetically determined

an external sensory stimulus

change in activity in response to a stimulus

orientated movement, towards or away from a stimulus

a stimulus transmitted from one animal to another

chemical communication, could be sexual

an animal learns to associate one of its own behaviors w/ a reward or punishment

an often ritualized contest that determines which competitor gains access to a resource

behavior that is developmentally fixed in all individuals in a population

any random stimulus becomes associated w/ a particular outcome

loss of responsiveness to a stimulus over time

learned innate component, happens in a specific phase/stage

ability to learn/associate

animals do this to maximize their energy when eating

selfless task

probability of two relatives to share the same gene

natural selection favors altruism when the benefit of the recipient times the coefficient of relatedness is larger than the cost of the person doing the task

• organismal
• population
• community
• ecosystem
• landscape
• global

study of factors that are exchanged between ecologies

• predation
• competition
• parasitism

the earth's axis and sunlight intensity

sun can penetrate water

sun can't get to water (deepest part of the ocean)

uniform temperature, nutrients spread around

• oxygen rich
• nutrient poor

• nutrient rich
• oxygen poor

mean temperature vs. mean precipitation

temperature=constant

• little precipitation
• varying temperature

• constant temperature
• seasonal rainfall

• seasonal precipitation
• cold winters
• hot summers

• long winters
• cool summers

group of individuals of the same species living in the same area

number of individuals in a unit area/volume

• most common (found in humans)
• individuals aggregate in patches
• influenced by resource availability and behavior

• individuals are evenly spaced
• influenced by social interactions such as territoriality

position of each individual is independent of other individuals

group of individuals of the same age

• 3 basic variables:
• When production begins
• how often the organism reproduces
• how many offspring are produced

species that exhibit this reproduce a single time then die

species that exhibit this produce offspring repeatedly over time

affect increase/decrease in population

affect increase/decrease in population

equals birth rate minus death rate (immigration and emigration ignored)

occurs when the birth rate equals the death rate

J-shaped curve

• S-shaped curve
• carrying capacity (k)

how much a population can hold

When the population size (n) equals the carrying capacity (K)

death rates rise/birth rates fall w/ population density

birth rate and death rate do not change w/ population density

are an example of negative feedback that regulates population growth

group of populations living close enough to interact

two species competing for the same limiting resource cannot coexist in the same place

two species cannot coexist permanently in the same community if their niches are the same

ecologically similar species can coexist in a community if there are one or more significant differences in their niches

• camouflage
• makes prey difficult to spot
• predator hard to see

warns predators to stay away from prey

harmless species mimics a harmful species

two or more harmful species mimic each other

total # of species in the community

proportion each species represents of all individuals in the community

• relationships between animals and what they eat
• Top to bottom:
• Quaternary consumers
• tertiary consumers
• secondary consumers
• primary consumers
• primary producers

length is limited by the inefficiency of energy transfer along the food change

• long food chains are less stable than short ones
• 5=food chain length

species that are most abundant or have the highest biomass and exert powerful control over the occurrence and distribution of other species

are not necessarily abundant in a community and exert strong control by their ecological roles, or niches

exert control by causing physical changes in the environment, referred to as ecosystem "engineers"

• an event that changes a community (fires, floods)
• removes organisms from a community
• alters resource availability

• sequence of changes that occur after a disturbance
• primary-occurs where no soil exists when succession begins
• secondary-begins in an area where soil remains after a disturbance

• two factors that determine the number of species on an "island" are the rate oat which new species immigrate to the island and the rate at which species become extinct on the island
• **area and distance from mainland

less when island is small and distance from mainland is large

energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only transferred or transformed

some energy is lost as heat

detritovores-primary source of decomposition

• amount of light energy captured by autotrophs that is converted to chemicals during a given time period
• amount of photosynthetic production

amount of chemical energy in a consumer's food that is converted to energy

• gross primary production
• equal to total primary production

• net primary production
• equal to GPP minus the energy used by primary producers for respiration

• **10% rule available to next level
• sunlight=1,000,000>primary producers=10,000

involves both biotic and abiotic components

• process in which a body of water is enriched w/ a nutrient
• phosphorous stimulates growth, depletes oxygen and water

food ingests itself and other predators eat others

caused by atmospheres CO2 increase

• ozone layer filters out U-V radiation
• layer is depleting because of chemicals

amount of water that is annually transpired by plants and evaporated by a landscape

• data is hard to prove
• data supports theories but never proves them right or wrong