ap bio unit 8

• innate behavior: genetically hardwired and are inherited by an organisms' parents
• learned behaviors: NOT inherited, developed through experience
• innate behaviors example:

  • reflex action- involuntary and rapid response to a stimulus
• • kinesis- organism changes its movement by speeding up or slowing down
  • taxis- movement towards or away from a stimulus
• Biological fitness- an individual’s contribution to the gene pool (if you are sterile, you have a fitness of 0)
• why does entropy increase in environments?

  because only around 10% of energy is passed on from one trophic level to the next, and the rest is lost as heat
• organic vs. inorganic compounds: organic compounds have carbon
• habituation: animal stops responding to a stimulus after repeated exposure

  ex. prarie dog warning call to humans --> exposure to humans --> stop warning call
• imprinting: highly specific type of learning that occurs at a specific point in development

  ex. ducklings hatch and imprint on the first adult they see --> adult acts as a cue to survival, promoting behavior
• animal communication: usually occurs between animals of the same species

  • pheromones- chemicals (ex. dogs peeing)
  • auditory cues- ex. bird song
  • visual cues- ex. fear grin
  • tactile cues- ex. waggle dance
  • these all arise from NATURAL SELECTION
• organization of ecosystems:

  • individual
  • population- same species
  • community- all biotic factors in an area
  • ecosystem- all biotic and abiotic factors in an area
• fixed action pattern- predictable series of actions triggered by a sign stimulus

  • actions are unchangeable
  • triggered by a sign stimulus (external cue)
• spatial learning: establishing memories based upon the spatial structure of the animal's surroundings

  • ex. some animals form a cognitive map or use landmarks as environmental cues
• associative learning: the ability to associate one environmental feature with another

  • ex. associating monarch butterflies with a foul taste
• social learning: learning through observations and imitations of observed behaviors

  • ex. fish learn mating sites by following each other
• as humidity increases, transpiration decreases since there is already so much water in the air
• endotherms: animals that use internally generated heat to maintain body temperature

  • metabolic rate increases as temperature decreases
• ectotherms: animals that use external heat sources and their body temperature changes with the temperature of the environment
• basal/standard metabolic rate: baseline metabolic rate of an animal (metabolic rate in animals that are at rest)
• endotherms have higher basal metabolic rates than ectotherms
• in endotherms, the smaller the organism's mass, the higher its basal metabolic rate is
• hibernation: a state in which animals slow their metabolism and maintain a reduced body temperature during the winter
• the higher the oxygen consumption rate, the higher the metabolic rate of an organism (because oxygen is used during cellular respiration)
• photoautotrophs: use energy from sunlight to make organic compounds (ex. plants, algae, cyanobacteria)
• chemoautotrophs: use energy from chemicals to build organic compounds out of carbon dioxide or other similar molecules
• heterotrophs: other-feeders, obtain energy by eating other organisms (ex. animals and fungi)
• decomposers: organisms that break down dead organic material and wastes (ex. fungi and bacteria)
• trophic level: position of an organism in a food chain

  • reflects the transfer of energy between each organism (only 10% of energy consumed is transferred higher)

  
• density-dependent regulation: factors that affect the per capita growth rate of a population differently depending on how dense the population already is

  • ex. competition and disease
• density-independent regulation: limiting factors that affect per capita growth rate independent of how dense the population is

  • ex. natural disasters
• mutualism: both organisms benefit
• commensalism: one benefits, other is unaffected
• parasitism: one benefits, other harmed
• competition is minimized if two species with overlapping niches evolve by natural selection to utilize less similar resources, resulting in resource partitioning
• symbiosis: when two species live in direct contact with one another

  • ex. mutualism, commensalism, parasitism
• competitive exclusion principle: two species can't coexist if they occupy exactly the same niche (competing for identical resources)
• foundation species: most abundant species in forming the community
• keystone species: species that belong to higher trophic levels and help maintain species diversity in their ecosystems
• invasive species: species that has been introduced to an area outside its native range and has the potential to cause harm (they compete for limited resources)
• Phytoplankton are photosynthetic organisms meaning they use energy from the sun to create carbohydrates. The zooplankton eats the phytoplankton to obtain energy