community ecology - wordpress.com · community ecology community ecology is the study of _____...
TRANSCRIPT
Community Ecology
Community ecology is the study of ______________________ interactions-organism/s
interacting with individual/s of ______________ species.
Symbiosis (also called a symbiotic relationship) just means that species ______________ / have
direct contact with each other. Symbiosis used to be defined as a _________ interaction between
2+ species, where now it is defined as a helpful (+), harmful (-), or neutral (0) interaction.
Type of Symbiosis Definition +, -, or 0
Competition Different species compete for a resource that limits their
growth and survival.
Predation One species (the predator) kills and eats another species (the
prey). E.g. Lion captures and eats a gazelle.
Herbivory An organism eats parts of a plant or alga.
Parasitism One organism (the parasite) derives nourishment from another
organism (the host) which is harmed in the process.
Mutualism Both species benefit from the interaction.
Commensalism One species benefits, while the other species is neither helped
nor harmed from the interaction.
Facilitation *not symbiosis
One species has a positive effect on the survival and
reproduction of another species without living in direct contact.
Identify the Following Interactions
Florida manatee eating aquatic plants Cattle egret birds on water buffalo Ants living on acacia trees
__________________________ ________________________ ______________________
Sea lamprey on a fish Two male bucks Nurse log and new seedlings
__________________________ ________________________ ______________________
Ecological _________________-is how an organism makes a __________________ / its role in
the environment (where it mates, temperature it tolerates, time of day it is active, size of the
organisms it eats, etc.). A good analogy is that a _______________ is an organism’s “address”,
while the ecological niche is an organism’s “____________________”.
When two species compete for limited resources in the ___________ ecological niche, one will
be more efficient at gaining access to resources and drive the other out or to ________________.
Two species with similar niches can coexist if resource __________________________ occurs-
division of environmental resources to reduce competition.
Most species have both a ________________________ niche (the niche it can potentially use)
and a _____________________ niche (the niche it actually uses).
Q: Two species of paramecium (a type of
protist) are cultured together. What happened?
P. _________________ out competed
P. ___________________.
Q: What is this outcome called?
Competitive ___________________ principle.
Q: Seven similar species of Anolis lizards live
in close proximity in the Dominican Republic.
How do they participate in resource
partitioning?
Live on different __________________/
different niches.
Q: How did these differences come about
between the species?
Q: What class do lizards belong to?
Q: What organisms are pictured in this experiment?
Two species of ______________________.
Q: When together, Chthamalus is usually found on
higher rocks and Balanus is usually found on lower
rocks. What type of niche is this?
Q: When Balanus was removed, what happened?
Chthamalus grew on _________ lower and higher
rocks. This is its ______________________ niche.
Different populations located in the __________ geographic area are called _______________.
Populations located in ____________ geographic areas that do not interact (perhaps separated by
a mountain) are called ________________.
Prey animals have evolved adaptations to avoid being eaten.
A. coloration (also called camouflage) enables an organism to
blend into its surroundings.
B. Some organisms with ________________ defenses have _____________ warning
coloration called ____________________ coloration to warn predators they have toxins.
C. ______________________ defenses such as spikes or thorns.
D. ______________________/ harmful chemicals in plants.
___________
Q: These two Galápagos finch species both eat similarly sized
seeds. Describe their beak depths when they live on two different
islands (allopatric).
They have ________________beak depths.
Q: Describe their beak depths when they live on the same island
(sympatric).
They have _______________ their beak depths more to feed on
different-sized seeds and reduce competition.
Q: What is the tendency for characteristics to diverge more in
sympatric than in allopatric populations called?
Q: What are these two organisms?
leaf _________________ and a leafy sea
__________________.
Q: Poison dart frogs come in a variety of colors (e.g. blue,
yellow, red). How do they acquire their toxicity?
Through their _________ of insects (ants, mites, etc).
Q: What do the larvae (caterpillars) of monarch butterflies
eat and store in their tissues that is toxic?
Q: Can porcupines throw their quills at predators?
Q: What does grass contain in its cells that could deter a
small insect from eating it?
_________ (silica/ silicon dioxide) crystals (also found in
sand and used to make glass).
Q: Why are marigolds often planted around gardens?
They contain a pungent __________ that deters many
insects, rabbits, and deer.
Q: What milky substance do opium poppy seeds produce?
Opiates like________________ and codeine (for pain
relief) and ______________ (a narcotic).
E. _______________________ coloration.
F. ____________________ coloration such as stripes or spots create an “optical
illusion” to break up body outlines.
G. ______________________ is a type of camouflage with a dark _______________
side (back) and a lighter __________________ side (abdomen).
H. _____________________ is the similarity of one species to another. There are
several types, here are 3 examples:
#1) ____________________ mimicry- when a ___________________ or
palatable species mimics a ___________________ or unpalatable species.
#2) _____________________ mimicry- when two or more _________________
/ harmful species resemble each other so that predators quickly learn to avoid the
group as a whole.
Q: What does this silk moth have to make it look like a larger
predator (e.g. an owl) that may deter a predator from eating it?
Q: Are zebras black with white stripes or white with
black stripes?
Embyological evidence shows they are _________ in the
womb and the _________ stripes come later in
development.
Q: What is in the second image?
_______________ in the grass.
Q: Why do animals like porpoises, dolphins, and penguins
have countershading (Note: Predators can have this also,
e.g. sharks)?
If viewed from above, they blend better into the darkness
of the _____________. If viewed from below, they blend
better into the ______________ from the surface.
Q: The larva (caterpillar) of the hawkmoth when
disturbed puffs up its head and thorax / middle body
region of an insect (which has false eye spots on it) and
moves back and forth, hisses, and strikes at predators.
What harmful animal is it mimicking?
Small poisonous ______________.
Q: What common color pattern do bees, wasps,
yellow jackets, and hornets who all have stingers
have that is Müllerian mimicry?
Q: What can these bright colored warning patterns
also be considered?
#3) ________________________ mimicry- when a ___________________ uses
mimicry to catch prey.
There are two types of parasitism: _______parasites that live within the body of their host (e.g.
tapeworm) and _______parasites that feed on the external surface of the host (e.g. ticks).
Sometimes the parasites change the _________________ of their host to increase the chances of
being transferred to another ____________ in the cycle (e.g. rabies virus makes the host
__________________ so it bites the next host to continue the cycle).
Q: What natural lure does a female anglerfish use to
draw its prey closer?
______________ dangling above its mouth.
Q: When a smaller male anglerfish is born, it lacks a
digestive system so it must latch onto a female with its
teeth. The male physically fuses with the female’s skin
and bloodstream, loses his eyes and all his internal
organs except the testes. How many males will a female
anglerfish carry on her body?
Q: What is pictured in these images?
Top = _____________ butterfly and the bottom =
_______________ butterfly.
Q: Recall, that monarch larvae eat milkweed plants filled with a
milky toxic substance that the larvae and adult monarchs store in
their tissues so predators learn to avoid them. What do the adult
monarch butterflies eat?
__________________ and water to drink.
QWe used to think that the top picture of the viceroy was a
palatable species of butterfly that evolved through Batesian
mimicry to resemble the unpalatable monarch. What has
recently been discovered?
Actually the viceroy is ________ unpalatable than the monarch!
So this is actually an example of _____________________
mimicry.
Q: How can a person get tapeworm
(a type of flatworm)?
Eating __________________ meat.
Q: Ticks are vectors of many
diseases (including Lyme disease).
How long after being bitten by a tick
does it take for the bacteria to enter
the host?
In most cases, _____ hours.
There are 2 types of mutualism: ______________ mutualism where one species cannot survive
without its partner (e.g. bees and bee pollinated flowers like the snapdragon) and ____________
mutualism where both species could survive alone (e.g. ants and the acacia tree).
Species _________________________-the variety of different kinds of organisms that make up
a community. Made up of two things:
#1) Species _____________________- The ______ of different species in a community.
(e.g. There are oaks, maples, spruce, and birch trees or ____ different species in the Troy
woodlot).
#2) Relative _____________________- How ____________ of the different species.
(e.g. There are 210 oaks, 53 maples, 22 spruce, and 14 birch trees in the Troy woodlot).
Q: What lives inside the intestines of
termites that digests wood cellulose (a
carbohydrate found in plant cell walls)?
______________ (Trichonympha) and
living inside the protists are __________
that make the enzyme __________ which
breaks down cellulose.
Q: What type of mutualism is this?
Q: How do bees see the world?
Bees only see ___________, blue and _______.
Q: Bees and flowers evolved together. The bee gets nectar (sugar water with minimal proteins) and pollen
(a protein) from the flower, while inadvertently pollinating the flower. What is this called?
Q: Bee populations are decreasing worldwide and the cause is currently unknown. What is this called?
Q: Which community has greater species richness?
Q: Which community has greater relative abundance?
Q: Therefore, which community has greater species
diversity?
Q: Which community is more productive and better able
to recover from environmental stresses (e.g. drought)?
Communities with a _______ species diversity are less prone to ________________ species-
non-_____________________ / non-native species invading a new environment. This is
because communities with high species diversity use more of the resources available in the
system, leaving ________ resources available for the invader / exotic / introduced species.
The ____________________ structure- the ______________ relationships between organisms.
Q: What are some invasive species in Michigan?
______________ mussels and ____________ mussels, round __________, Asian
__________, purple ____________________, sea lampreys, etc.
Q: In the 1890’s the American Acclimatization Society sought to release every bird
mentioned in Shakespeare’s scripts to the US (NY’s Central Park). What invasive
songbird from this project has caused the greatest impact on native bird species
(due to their aggressive competition for nesting sites)?
Q: What climbing vine originally imported from Japan to control erosion is an
invasive species across the Southeastern United States?
Q: What invasive species was brought to Hawaii to control rats in the sugar cane
fields and now is eating ground-nesting Hawaiian birds and their eggs?
Q: Why do invasive species proliferate in new environments?
Since they did not _____________ in the new environment, there are often no
_______________ or local diseases (viral or bacterial) that affect them and they
often outcompete native species for _______________ (nutrients, light, physical
space, water or food).
Q: How does a food chain differ from a
food web?
Food chains are _______________; food
webs show all possible feeding
relationships / are more complex.
Q: What are the 1˚ producers?
_________________ / “self-feeders”
(e.g. plants, algae, phytoplankton).
Q: What are krill in this food web?
Both ___ consumers and ___ consumers.
Q: What is missing from these 2 images?
Arrows pointing towards
__________________ (fungi, bacteria,
etc.) Q: Which way are the arrows pointing?
Towards who is __________ the eating.
Photosynthetic autotrophs are not always the 1˚ producers. Deep-sea communities exist around
___________________________ vents in the ocean where light does not penetrate. Therefore,
the 1˚ producers are _____________synthetic organisms that live off of _____________
chemicals such as hydrogen sulfide (_____________).
Most food webs consist of ____ or fewer trophic levels. This is because:
A) ___________________ hypothesis- inefficiency of energy transferred between levels.
B) Dynamic ___________ hypothesis- long food chains are less stable than short chains.
E.g. If an environmental shock occurs (such as an extreme ____________), food supplies
will be reduced all the way up the food chain. The longer the food chain, the more
the __________ predators will be affected.
C) Carnivores tend to be ____________________ at successive trophic levels and most
cannot live on very small food items because it will not meet their metabolic needs.
species- the most abundant species in a community
(e.g. ______ trees used to be a dominant tree species before a disease called
___________ elm disease killed them. This is caused by a _____________
carried by beetles).
Q: Name some organisms
living amongst the
geothermally heated waters
around the black smoker sea
vents?
Q: What percent of energy is transferred from the 1˚
producers to the 1˚ consumers?
Q: What percent of energy is lost between trophic
levels?
Q: In what form is the energy lost/ dissipated as?
Q: What is the rule that explains this concept?
The “__________ rule”.
Q: What animal is the largest to ever live
and an exception to a large animal who
does eat much smaller prey?
__________ whales (type of baleen whale
that has bristles and not teeth) which are
suspension feeders that feed on shrimp-like
___________ and plankton.
Pyramid of
energy / net
production
________________ species- not dominant in a community, but they exert a strong impact on
community structure.
(e.g. Lake Victoria in Africa (the world’s 2nd
largest freshwater lake) once contained ~400
species of _____________ fish found nowhere else in the world) / ______________ to Lake
Victoria. To help the fishing industry, the 200 lb.______ perch were introduced and this has
caused ~50% of the cichlid populations to go extinct.)
Ecosystem _____________________- species that alter their environment (e.g. beavers build
dams and transform forests into _____________________).
_________________________ such as a flood, overgrazing, or human activity change a
community by ____________________ organisms or altering resource availbility. These
disturbances keep a community from reaching _____________________ so that communitites
are constantly changing (the ______equilibrium model).
Q: Which fish is the keystone species?
Q: Look at the food chain and graphs. When
sea otters are abundant, there are few
________________ and an increase in
_____________.
Q: When sea otter populations plummet, there
is an _____ in sea otters, but a _____ in kelp.
Q: What is the keystone species in this
example?
Q: Why do beavers build dams?
To create still, deep waters to ____________ their
family from predators (like bears), wood and bark is
their __________ source, and to have a lodge for their
beaver family.
Q: Moderate levels of disturbance foster greater species diversity than high
or low levels of disturbance because some niches become available for new
species to enter, while keeping some of the original species intact. What is
this called?
___________________________ disturbance hypothesis.
Q: Would you expect to have greater species diversity near a path in a
forest or deeper in the forest?
Ecological _________________________-transition in the species composition following a
disturbance. There are two types of ecological succession:
A) ______ succession- No fertile _________ present initially.
B) ______ succession- Existing community is cleared
by some disturbance that leaves the soil ___________.
Q: Yellowstone National Park is dominated by
lodgepole pine (low species diversity), a tree that
requires periodic fires. What type of disturbance is
fire considered?
Q: Describe the community in the pictures of
Yellowstone one year after a fire.
Covered with ______ vegetation (the species are
adapted to rapid recovery after a fire).
Q: What biome is this?
Q: What situations lead to 1˚ succession?
New ____________ island forms, on the rubble
left behind from a retreating _______________, on
a ____________ dune, or when a ______________
bottom lake undergoes weathering.
Q: What are the pioneer species in 1˚ succession?
_______________, mosses, and bacteria.
Q: When the pioneer community dies and decays,
they facilitate the appearance of later successional
species by creating fertile soil for herbs, grasses,
and small plants. What is this fertile soil called?
Q: What are oak trees in this example?
Q: How long can it take for 1˚ succession to occur?
_____________ to _______________ of years
(but sometimes quicker).
Q: What two things make up lichens?
_____________ + a photosynthetic partner
(e.g. green ___________ or __________bacteria.
Q: What type of symbiotic relationship do most lichen have?
_______________ (the fungus provides water, nutrients and a
place to live; the photosynthetic partner provides sugar / food).
Q: If you see lichens growing on trees or rocks, what is this an
indicator of?
_____________ air quality.
________________________ gradients- lower latitudes have _________ species than higher
latitudes (E.g. Michigan deciduous forests have ~____ species of trees, tropical Malaysia has
~_____ tree species on the same size plot).
Species-____________ curve- the larger a geographic area of a community, the ________
species it has.
Q: What situations lead to 2˚ succession?
After a forest ________, abandoned
__________land, deforestation, or a
_____________/ soil bottom lake dries up or
undergoes erosion.
Q: What are the pioneer species in 2˚
succession?
First ____________ then perennial plants,
_______________, and weeds.
Q: Which is faster paced, 1˚ or 2˚ succession
and why?
______ succession is faster since soil is
already present and _________ are in the soil.
Q: How many ant species are there in Alaska?
Q: How many ant species are there in Brazil?
Q: Why do leafcutter ants collect leaves?
To farm a ___________ that grows on the leaves
that they then eat (mutualistic relationship).
Q: The famous ecologist E.O. Wilson and a colleague developed these models for island species
diversity (called the island equilibrium model). The “equilibrium number” (the balance between new
species immigrating to the island and those on the island going extinct) is what to focus on in
interpreting these. Based on these graphs, which type of island will have the greatest species diversity?
________________ islands that are _____________ to the mainland.
Q: Why is this the case?
Large islands are easier for colonizers to land on, have more __________________, a larger gene
_________ (more variety amongst organisms, so more resistant to _________________), and closer
islands are easier to access than distant ones.
_________________________ (e.g. disease-causing microorganisms) can alter community
structure quickly and extensively.
___________________ pathogens- those pathogens transferred from ____________ to humans.
This can be through direct contact with an infected animal or through an intermediate species
called a _____________.
Q: The Irish potato famine (period of mass starvation, disease, and
emigration from 1845-1852) caused ~1 million people to die.
What disease was affecting the staple food crop/ the potatoes?
Q: What does the term “blight” mean?
______________ infected by pathogens.
Q: What organism causes potato blight?
A ______________-like protist called a water mold (also called
an oomycota).
Q: Potato tubers (the enlarged portion you eat / the potato) can
grow leafy branches from the “eyes”. Is it safe to eat these
potatoes sprouting shoots?
Q: What about green potatoes (resulting from exposure to sunlight
and making chlorophyll)?
_____, they contain a bitter chemical called __________ (a nerve
toxin that has effects only in large doses, 4.5 lbs eaten).
Q: Corals have photosynthetic golden-brown algae (called zooxanthellae) living within them. Under stress,
the corals expel their algae and this causes them to turn white. What is this called?
Q: What are some causes of stress to coral reefs?
Multiple factors: ____ water temperatures is the #1 stress (global climate change), also ____ water
temperatures, ____ pathogen infections, ____ pH (more acidic), ____ UV radiation, ____ food availability
(zooplankton), ____ salinity, etc.
Q: What human fishing practice is also killing the reefs?
Ocean _______________-boats dragging weighted nets on the seafloor to capture seafood.
Q: What zoonotic disease transmits the pathogen Plasmodium and uses
mosquitoes as its vector?
________________ (believed to have originated in gorillas).
Q: Which gender of mosquito is seeking mammalian blood?
_______ (need proteins and iron to produce eggs).
Q: How do mosquitoes find mammals?
They detect organic (carbon containing) substances such as ______ and another
chemical in human breath and sweat with a “meaty” odor called octenol.