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33 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
what is species richness? |
number of species in an area
-proxy for bio diversity |
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what is relative abundance? why is it a useful measurement? |
-proportional representation of a species in a sample or community
-useful for |
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The figure above shows communities of birds in a deciduous forest in West Virginia;vascular plants in a subalpine fir forest in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee And vascular plants in a deciduous cove forest in the Great Smoky Mountains. What does the rank-abundance plot tell us about how rare or common each species is? |
more rare plants in great smokey mountains than rare birds in west virgina |
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is the relationship between species richness and area typically positive or negative? |
positive
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why is species richness positively correlated with area at different scales? |
more animals in total are sampled
-more habitat types in a state, more in continent |
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how does species richness change from north to south? |
richness increases from north to south
-increase as temperatures warm |
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how does mammal and bird species richness change from east to west? |
increases from east to west
due to habitat heterogeneity (variability) |
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how does reptile and amphibian species richness change from east to west? |
increases from north to south.
reptiles no change east to west amphibians increase west to east because more soil moisture |
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how does species richness change with increasing habitat heterogeneity? how does species richness change with increasing primary productivity? |
bird species richness increases as habitat heterogeneity increases primary productivity and number of bird species have positive relationship |
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how did robert and john macaruther study the relationship between species richness and habitat heterogeneity? what did they find? |
species richness of bird in different habitats vs foliage height
-richness increased with foliage height |
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how does solar energy input and precipitation influence species richness? |
In northern regions, solar energy was best predictor of species richness In southern regions water availability was better predictor of species richness |
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what is potential evapotranspiration? (PET) |
amount of water than can be evaporated from soil and transpired by plants, given average temperature and humidity of area
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how does PET influence species richness? |
both positively correlated
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why does the relationship between species richness and PET plateau at a certain point? |
reaching threshold, increasing temp fails to improve ability of environment to suppose additional species
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Define local and regional diversity |
local = number of species in a small area of homogenous habitat
region= total number of species observed in all habitats within a geographic area |
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define beta diversity |
difference in species composition from one habitat to another
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what do high and low jaccard index values indicate? |
0 = species composition between habitats is low
1= species composition between habitats is exactly the same |
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why is the slope of the best fit line greater in zone A than in zone D |
slopes refelect difference inspecies compostion between habitats -greater slope = greater the beta diversity |
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why are all members of the regional species pool not present in each total community? |
each local community is made up of a subset of the regional species pool
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define fundamental niche, realized niche, and species sorting. |
fundamental = range of conditions and resources within which individuals of a species can persist
realized = range oh physical conditions and resources within which individuals of a species can persist in the presence of competitors and consumers species sorting = process that determines membership in a local community based on the tolerance of species from the regional species pool to local conditions, also resource requirements and interactions with other species |
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how does mark bertness' study of mussels and algae illustrate the species sorting process? |
rock exposed to waves are dominated by mussels -upper intertidal zone rock is mostly bear as both mussels and algae are excluded. -lower intertidal zone the algae outcompetes and excludes the mussels |
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how does the figure above provide evidence of ecological release? |
when there are fewer species to compete with for resources, the indvidual species experience ecological release -can use more habitat type and resources and increase in abundance |
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what is niche diveristy? |
different types of specialization and different ways of life that species exhibit
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how does ecological specilization reduce competition between species? |
less competition for resources
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describe the two axes scientists used to describe the morphological adaptations of tropical and temperate bats? |
ear length to forearm length
distance between 3rd and 5th digit |
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how do tropical and temperate bats differ in terms of niche diversity? |
temperate bats are all morphologically similar -tropical have greater bat species richness due to promotion of greater niche diversity (specialization to eat fruit, nectar, fish, other bats, etc.) |
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the figure above describes species diversity and resource use of fis in the rio taresi drainage. How does species diversity change as the habitat and food resources become more diverse? |
species diversity increased with more diversity for niche
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what does the equilibrium theory of island biogeography argue? |
number of species on an island balances regional processes governing immigration against local processes governing extinction
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what is the stable equilibrium? |
point where colonization and extinction curves cross
colonization and extinction balance |
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what predicitions can be made about small and large islands? |
large harbor greater habitat variability than small islands and means greater niche diversity
-lower extinction rate on small islands -stable equilibrium is smaller number of species for small islands |
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what predictions can be made about island that are near or far from the mainland? |
near mainland receives more immigrants, rate of colonization will be higher
-stable point is smaller number of species for far islands than near islands |
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what process occurs in continental communities (and influences species richness) that does not occur on islands? |
speciation
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why is it difficult to make predicitions about rates of speciation and extinction? |
-rate of extinction may increase as species richness increases because of competetion between species -speciation can decrease as species richness increases because decreased opportunities for diversification. |