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Ecology

Ecology- study of the interactions between organisms and the environment
Study of Ecology occurs at a hierarchy of scales

Most significant influence on the distribution of organisms is the climate
 Temperature, Precipitation, Sunlight, Wind
o This is what drives where diff
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ecosystems

Macroclimate
 Seasonality
o Climate at the global, regional, and landscape level
o Dictated by properties of the Earth
 Tilt – important b/c w/o tilt the world would have the same sunlight in certain
places all of the time, no changes
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 Buffers local climates
 Think of wine production regions
*CALI waters are more waves, darker, no corals, and colder, deeper waters
*OUR WATERS warm waters, corals, clear colors, shallow waters
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Mountains
o Rain shadow effect
 Similar to Hadley Cells
 Air is forced to travel over top of mountains
 As air raises, it cools, and condenses
o Lapse rate – decrease in temperature with increasing altitude
o 5
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Climate produces the distribution of major biomes

Global Climate change
o Marked increase in CO2 levels produced an increase in global temperature
 Showing how humans are contributing to Global Warming
 Huge increase from 1900 to 2000
 Air temp
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S
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S
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 Organisms cant establish new homes that quickly
o Let alone it took humans very long to make it to the East cost to
the West coast
o Phenological mismatches
 Phenology - the study of organisms’ life cycle events and how these are
influenced by climate or other factors
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This lower variance indicates higher stability
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Insurance Effect - If an ecosystem contains more species then it will have a greater likelihood of
having redundant stabilizing species, and it will have a greater number of species that respond
differently to perturbations
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Thus invaders may have

reduced success in diverse ecosystems, or there may be a reduced likelihood that an invading
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species will introduce a new property or process to a diverse ecosystem
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Population Ecology
 Population – group of individuals of the same species living together in the same general area
 Population Ecology - Study of organisms through the dynamics of population size and structure
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 Speculated that at high densities a roundworm can easily transmit between
individuals
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intraspecific competition
o deer on Debar mountain in the Adirondacks
 count corpus luteums for known ovulations
 if egg is fertilized the CL turns into a C
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7 surviving embryos per pregnant female
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8 embryos per female
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 Community Ecology - Study of the interaction between multiple species in a similar geographic
area
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F
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Change the niche of species

Niche- species use of the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment
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(Chthalamus versus Balanus)
o Experimental removal of Balanus by Joseph Connell

Character displacement – tendency for characteristics to diverge in sympatric populations of
multiple species
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Keystone species – A species that influences a community proportionately more than its
abundance
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What are the different scales Ecology is studied at?

Organismal ecology: physiology and behavior; observations on how animals adapt to its
environment

Population ecology: looks at how the size and growth of a population changes thru various
factors
Community ecology: groups of population in an area

Ecosystem ecology: the community and the impacts it has on weather etc
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Explain why the Earth has seasons?

Seasons are determines by the tilt towards or away from the sun:
Tilt towards the sun – summer, more sun (longer days)
Tilt away from sun – winter, less sun (shorter days)
*Fall & Spring more sun blast on the equator

*Summer more sun blast on the north tropics
*Winter more sun blast on the south tropics

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This is why
during the summer seasons in the U
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we will experience heavier rainfalls than in the winter,
since the sun is hitting us more
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This is also why the equator is very tropical rainforesty and the more you go away from the
equator it is dryer and deserty
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What is the intertropical convergence zone? What seasons is it responsible for?

The ICZ is a belt of low pressure near the equator, where the winds are rising
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The ICZ is responsible for wet seasons
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What is the rain shadow effect? Explain how does it works
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As the air rises, it cools, and it condenses
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As the air goes down the other
side of the mountain it warms up and moisture uptakes occur, causing a drier area on the side
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w/ the increase of altitude
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How does global warming influence biodiversity? Are certain types of organisms more
susceptible than others?
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Increase of CO2 levels produce an increase in global temps
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What is a phenological mismatch?

The effects of life cycle events happening at different times and not coinciding like they once
used to
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Bee’s come out 12 hours a day to do their work in pollination

Flowers stopped because now stopped going w/ time but with temp because it’s getting hotter
and hotter thru time
Less time for bee’s to pollinate that thru time these bees can get extinct

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Explain the sigmoid shape [S shape] of logistic growth curves
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What are factors that limit population growth? Provide examples in support of each
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What are the types of interactions that occur between species? Explain the payoffs for the
different interaction types with +,-, and 0
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What is the competition exclusion principle? How does it relate to Character displacement?

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What is aposematic coloration? How did this play out in the example where they predator
does not use vision?



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