BIOL208 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Water, Photosynthesis, Water Vapor
12 Oct 2018
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BIOL208
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Lecture 1 What is an Ecology
Definition: An arbitrarily defined geographic volume connected to other ecosystem by a series of
inputs and outputs.
• Additionally, they have a time, dimension and humans can either be a part of the system, or
apart from the system.
Autoecology (or autecology): the ecological study of an individual organism or of an individual
species, particularly interactions with the
Hierarchy of ecology
Biosphere: All space occupied by living things on Earth. Total global ecosystem
Ecosystem: a region containing interacting abiotic and biotic factors. The subdiscipline of
ecology that focuses on the flow of energy and nutrients among the biotic and abiotic
components of an ecosystem.
Community: Population of species that occur together I the same space and time. The
scientific study of interactions among species within a community.
Population: individuals of the same species that co-occur in space and time. The scientific
study of the structure and dynamics of populations.
Individual: living entities that are genetically and physically discrete
The scientific method:
• Allows for scientists to test ideas of what the mechanisms are behind observed phenomena
• • Developed hypotheses must be:
o •Testable
o Designed in a way that they can potentially be refuted
o Synthesized along side alternative hypotheses and a null hypothesis
• Hypotheses are tested through experiments
• Sometimes many hypotheses must be tested to figure
• out the answer to a question
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Biology 208
September 10, 2018
Covering chapter 9
Key concept: What is niche?
• Need to understand the diversity of species
• Set of environmental conditions (abiotic and biotic), in which an organism can survive and reproduce.
Reproduction is key
• If it does’t reprodue, it is outside the ihe rage
What compromises a niche
According to the great ecologist, G.E Hutchinson
• A niche is a multidimensional space of environmental factors.
• These environmental factors are almost endless: What it eats, when it eats, where etc
Two types of niches
1) Fundamental niche: the full range of environmental tolerance of a species, under circumstances in
which it is free from interference from other species
• More of a theoretical niche, can avoid interaction
2) Realized niche: the range of environmental tolerance of a species, including interactions with other
organism. Is the range of environmental components in which it actually lives
• The real species where competition and interaction occur
• the actual niche of a species whose distribution is restricted by biotic interactions, such as
competition, predation, disease, and parasitism.
Ex: Darwin finches: different species are differing because of environmental adaptations. Descendent of one
parent finch
- Finche needs to live in the forest and eat medium sized insect
- Realized one is different than fundamental
• The realized feeding niche occupied by each of the finch species (fig. 9.28) represents a portion of
total fundamental niche.
• this population, individuals with the deepest beaks fed on the hardest seeds, while individuals
with the smallest beaks fed on the softest seeds.
• As seeds were depleted, the birds ate the smallest and softest seeds first, leaving the largest and
toughest seeds
• at the end of the drought, the G. fortispopulation on Daphne Major was dominated by individuals
with deeper beaks that had survived by feeding on hard seeds, and by descendants of these
individuals
•
Resourced partitioning: when different species in a community use limiting factors in different ways. Allow them
to co-exist without driving each other to extinction.
I.e: they different realized niches. Share the resources
I.e: different reproductive time, types of food, or occupied in different spaces.
- Can occur in other than food. Ground finches eat medium seeds due to fundamental niche from
resource partitioning. Over time, it can start to have a new fundamental niche.
Adaptive radiation: organism diversity and evolved from ancestral one species. It evolved to fill a specific niche.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Definition: an arbitrarily defined geographic volume connected to other ecosystem by a series of inputs and outputs. apart from the system. Additionally, they have a time, dimension and humans can either be a part of the system, or. Biosphere: all space occupied by living things on earth. Ecosystem: a region containing interacting abiotic and biotic factors. Autoecology (or autecology): the ecological study of an individual organism or of an individual species, particularly interactions with the. Hierarchy of ecology ecology that focuses on the flow of energy and nutrients among the biotic and abiotic components of an ecosystem. scientific study of interactions among species within a community. study of the structure and dynamics of populations. The scientific method: developed hypotheses must be: Allows for scientists to test ideas of what the mechanisms are behind observed phenomena. Community: population of species that occur together i the same space and time. Population: individuals of the same species that co-occur in space and time.
