- producer
- consumer
- primary
- secondary
- tertiary
- makes their own food (plants)
- eats the food
- eats the producers
- eats the primary consumers
- eats the secondary consumers
- scavenger
- parasite
- saprphyte
- decomposer/detrivore
- epiphyte
- eats dead stuff
- lives off of a living host
- draws energy from dead plants and animals
- breaks town dead things (bacteria)
- gets nutrients from the air (spanish moss)
- food chain
- energy pyramid
- food web
- biomagnification
- biomass pyramid
- shows what eats what
- shows the amount of organisms and how much energy is in each
- combined food chains
- the increase in concentration of a pollutant from one link in a food chain to another (pesticides build up in bugs, things eat bugs)
- shows how many producers and consumers there are
the nitrogen cycle
- nitrogen (N2) goes from the air into the ground attached to precipitation
- nitrogen fixation: the roots of legumes combine N2 with ammonia
- nitrification: a bacteria combines oxygen (O2) and ammonia (the plant absorbs nitrate)
- the bunny eats the plant and poops, gets NO3-+NO2- (the form of nitrogen it can use)
- bacteria takes the oxygen away from the nitrogen compound and the N2 goes back into the air
symbiotic relationships
- Mutualism: both parties benefit
- parasitism: one party benefits, the other is harmed
- commensalism: one party benefits, the other is unaffected
the carbon cycle
- carbon is taken from the air and used in photosynthesis, then emitted back into the air by cellular respiration
- when plants and animals die and when fossil fuels are burned, carbon goes into the air
- community
- niche
- carrying capacity
- fundamental niche
- realized niche
- competition
- intraspecific vs interspecific
- populations of different species living in the same environment
- how an organism fits into an ecosystem
- how many individuals an environment can sustain
- a species is capable of using more of its environment than it actually does
- the lifestyle a species actually pursues based on its resources
- when organisms/species use the same resources but there’s not enough
- intra: between members of the same species
- inter: between different whole species (competition exclusion)
- limiting factors in communities
- abiotic living factors
- biotic living factors
- density dependent limiting factos
- density independent limiting factors
- environmental factors that limit an organism’s ability to survive
- water, fire, pH, temperature, viruses
- food supply, competition, bacteria, predators
- as population size increases, birth rate decreases and death rate increases (tends to regulate a population size)
- amounts of food, habitat, water, disease
- regulates the population size but isn’t influenced by changes in the population
- natural disasters
predation strategies
physically/mentally larger, mimicry (turtles with tongues that look like words), camouflage for ambush, claws and fangs and poison, speed and agility and acute senses
prey strategies
batesian mimicry (prey mimic predators), mullerian mimicry (mimic each other), cryptic coloration, aposomatic coloration, hiding and fleeing, dilution effect and confusion effect and odd prey effect
population growth charts
- J shaped, until they flatline (hit the carrying capacity) and become S shaped
- how often you reproduce, how big your litter is, and the death rate affect this curve
semelparous and iteroparous reproducing
- single immense reproductive effort, then die
- salmon, annual flowers
- repeated reproductive cycles
- humans, perennial flowers
-mass spawning: when all of the organisms in a population reproduce at the same time (salmon)
R-selected and K selected reproductive traits
- traits that contribute to high population growth (found in unpredictable environments)
- large number of offspring, early maturity, high chance of young death, little parent care
- bugs and sea turtles
- maximize the chances of survival when the environment is at carrying capacity
- few offspring, lots of parent care, stable environment
- humans
survivorship curves
-type I: convex (the young have a high probability of surviving, mortality is concentrated late in life
-humans
-tupe III: backwards J (probability of death is greatest early in life)
-sea turtles
type II: (straight horizontal even line) probability of death is equal all throughout life
-squirrels
human impact on the environment
- acid rain: caused by pollution, pH decreases and its more acidic
- CFC (chloroflorcartons): destroy the ozone layer from aerosol cans
- greenhouse effect: increases CO2 and causes global warming
succession
- primary succession: starts with no soil
- pioneer species: first species present
- secondary succession: soil is already present
