Bio Final

• Camouflage


  • Avoiding detection by predators
• Aposematic coloration


  • Warning predators
• Mimicry


  Allows one species to capitalize on the defense strategies of another
• Batesian mimicry


  Mimics look distasteful or predatory species
• Mullerian mimicry


  Several unrelated but poisonous species come to resemble one another
• Symbiosis


  2 or more organisms interacting in a long-term association
• Types of symbiosis


  • Commensalism
  • Mutualism
  • Parasitism
• Commensalism


  One group wants to be with the other and the other doesn't care
• Mutualism


  Both organisms benefit
• Parasitism


  One organism benefits while the other suffers
• Ectoparasites


  Feed on the exterior surface of an organism
• Endoparasites


  Live inside the host
• Parasites have extreme specialization as to which host they invade</b>
• Endoparasites have life cycles involving multiple hosts
• Parasitoids


  Insects that lay eggs on/in living hosts
• Predation


  Reduces competition
• Predator's choice


  Depends on relative abundance of prey options
• Superior competitors


  May be reduced in number by predation
• Predation


  Allows other species to survive when they could have been outcompeted
• Predation


  • Starfish eat barnacles, allowing other species to thrive instead of being crowded out by the explosive population of barnacles
• Keystone species


  Species whose effects on the communities are greater than one might expect based on their abundance
• Foundation species


  Species that have large effects on other species by their considerable abundance or biomass
• Indirect effects


  The presence of one species may affect a second by way of interactions with a third species
• Primary succession


  Occurs on bare, lifeless substrate
• Pioneer species


  First organisms to become established in primary succession
• Secondary succession


  Occurs in areas where an existing community has been disturbed but organisms remain
• Early successional species


  1. selected species
• Late successional species


  1. selected species
• Facilitation


  Early successional species introduce local changes in the habitat that allow for late successional species
• Intermediate disturbance hypothesis


  Communities experiencing moderate amounts of disturbance will have higher levels of species richness than communities experiencing either little or great amounts of disturbance
• Patches of habitat will exist at different successional stages
• Ecosystem


  A community of living organisms and their interaction with their abiotic environment
• Broad ecosystem categories


  • Freshwater
  • Ocean water
  • Terrestrial
• Equilibrium


  The steady state of an ecosystem where all organisms are in balance with their environment and with each other
• Resistance


  The ability of an ecosystem to remain at equilibrium despite disturbances
• Resilience


  The speed at which an ecosystem recovers equilibrium after being disturbed
• Trophic levels


  • Producers
  • Primary consumers
  • Secondary consumers
  • Tertiary consumers
  • Detritivores
  • Apex consumers
• Producers


  Synthesize the organic compounds of their bodies from inorganic precursors; provide all nutrients
• Consumers


  Cannot synthesize organic compounds from inorganic precursors; must consume their organics from another source
• Trophic cascade


  The process by which effects exerted at 1 level flow to influence 2 or more other levels