Ecology – Biology 3500
Dr. Adams
Review Sheet Number 1 (Test 1):
I project NUMEROUS images in lecture, some from the book, but many not.
These
are organized in a manner to enhance the learning experience from the
book, and I expect
you to understand and use these images, not only during
lecture but outside of lecture as well.
They are all available 24/7 on my
website at www.galeps.org/jadams
Ecology – Study of
interactions between organisms and their environment. Understand
that "environment" includes virtually EVERYTHING that the organism can interact
with,
including individuals of their own species, all other organisms, and the
physical environment
as well -- the air, water, soil, weather events, fire, temperature extremes, and
even cataclysmic
events such as tidal waves, avalanches, volcanic eruptions (with all that comes
with it: ash, lava,
and related effluvia), and, yes asteroid impacts. Needless to say, these
interactions are, in turn,
intimately tied into the evolution of the organisms, as all of these
interactions are the natural
selective processes that shape the adaptations of the organisms through
time.
Chapter 1: What is Ecology?
Overview: can be studied on many levels -- individual,
population, community, ecosystem,
and larger regional and even global interactions. Know definitions of these terms. We will progress
this semester from the population level interactions to large scale interactions.
Types of research: observational, experimentation and modelling
Some quick examples:
Observational
1. MacArthur -- resource partitioning by forest
warblers; we will do a related lab on bird feeding
on bird feeding niche partitioning later in the
semester
2. Nadkarni -- plant nutrient resources in the tropical
rain forest, including epiphytes and the mats
they form in the canopy; host trees can tap into the mat with adventitious
roots.
Experimentation:
1. Galen and increasing flower size/seed set driven by bumblebees for high elevation Polemonium
viscosum (sky pilots); hand pollination and multiple pollinator flowers did not increase either
Climatic and Ecological Change: in the past and going forward
Davis -- plant community changes through time; the
soil pollen record in sediment
NATURAL HISTORY and EVOLUTION UNIT
Chapter 2: Life on Land
Biomes -- major divisions (large scale communities) of
the (terrestrial) environment
Most are named based on plant composition, because plants for the foundation for any
community (see Fig. 2.1)
Major atmospheric determinants of
biome (community) composition:
1.
Temperature -- heating by the sun; particularly important are the extremes
2.
Moisture -- precipitation (and humidity/dew points); again, the extremes are important
3.
Atmospheric Circulation (which is an important controller of temp. and precip.)
To keep in mind: geographic
variation in temperature and precipitation is complex, and
there is no
single one item that controls temp and amount of precip on Earth's surface
Additional determining components: Soil composition, of
course (see below).
Make sure to read about climate
diagrams (pgs. 15-17), and be able to interpret them.
Also understand, however, that a climate diagram represents average climate, and
that
individual years can vary a lot, leading to moist years versus drought years
(see pgs. 41-42).
Soils -- complex mixtures of living and non-living
material, typically with distinctive layering.
This, of
course, is another major determinant of biome composition
Horizons: O, A, E, B, C
(and the underlying bedrock - R)
Understand
general characteristics of each.
Horizons may
be of differing depths, depending on many factors (precip and leaching,
current biological activity, disturbance by man [tilling], etc.)
Dr. Gina Kertulis-Tartar will give a detailed discussion of this important topic
the first
week in lab. You will be expected to know those details for Test 1.
The Natural History of Biomes: For each of the listed biomes,
you should know basic
characteristics. These include: amount and timing
(wet/dry seasonality) of precipitation,
temperature driven seasonality (if apparent), location on the face of the planet,
characteristics
of the soils, and typical floral and faunal elements (and what
major groups of organisms are
lacking, such as reptiles/amphibians in subarctic/arctic)
Certain aspects to keep in mind as we go through:
Epiphytes and epiphytic growth (why do some plants do this,
which ecosystems have this
type of growth and why), wet/dry seasons and occurrence of drought, parallel evolution of
organisms with
similar forms in similar habitats in different places in the world (eg., cacti
and
certain euphorbs in
New World versus African deserts, respectively).
Types of biomes: (this is not an exhaustive list,
though all major biomes are listed here)
The Tropics:
What
distinguishes tropical biomes from temperate (or subarctic/arctic) types?
Rain Forest,
Dry Forest, Savanna (not listed are higher elevation biomes, which I
WILL
introduce you to and expect you to know something about)
The Desert:
Both
tropical and temperate deserts (and arctic tundra is, in many respects, a
desert)
Temperate Biomes:
Mediterranean (woodlands/shrub-, scrublands), Grassland,
Forest (includes a
variety of subsets:
deciduous, mixed, and even
rain)
The Subarctic and Arctic:
Boreal Forest
(Taiga), Tundra
Be aware that, in general, with
higher latitude (tropics to the arctic) comes cooler temps.;
similar temperature gradients occur, with shifts in biome composition, with
higher altitude. We
will, for example, talk about alpine taiga and tundra (in essence, alpine
islands) in addition to
arctic taiga and tundra
Mountains: though
islands typically make us think of
a piece of land surrounded by water,
mountaintops, in
essence, are islands "in the sky". This includes the higher
elevation tropics I
mention above. Note the convergence between
tropical alpine plants indicated on page 40.
Even ponds and lakes are actually islands for the aquatic
organisms that inhabit them (see below).
Chapter 3: Life in Water
Why is water SO important? solvent, temp. buffer, adhesive/cohesive, reactant/product,
lubricant, less dense as a solid than as a cold liquid
The Hydrologic Cycle -- evaporation-precipitation;
would happen without organisms.
Organisms, in essence, temporarily
but continuously insert themselves into the cycle.
Turnover time: amount of time
for a particular reservoir (body) of water to be completely
renewed
(recycled). Some rivers can be
as fast as 2 weeks, and even the entire 1.3
billion km3 of water in the oceans is turned over in 3100 years.
Aquatic Biomes -- again, for each you should know basic
characteristics:
distribution on the planet, typical floral and faunal elements.
Major influencing factors: temperature (including
extremes, though water buffers temp changes),
salinity, light, wind, oxygen, nutrient availability (Note:
moisture/precipitation NOT in the list --
we are, after all, talking about aquatic ecosystems!!
Moisture only becomes important
when the water is gone or almost gone. The original source of the water is
precipitation, and
continuously supplies the water to the aquatic ecosystems to
keep them in balance.)
Currents/tides (affected by wind, earth's rotation, moon/sun, and of course gravity for rivers)
Biomes (not an exhaustive list):
Marine ("Salt Water"): currents
play a major role in influencing temperature distribution
Oceanic:
divided into several zones
Pelagic -- open waters (not including interactions with the ocean floor)
includes epipelagic, mesopelagic, bathypelagic, abyssal, hadal
Benthic -- bottom habitat
deep ocean bottom: thermal vent communities, w/ chemosynthesis
in
bacteria as the producers for this community
Neritic
(continental shelf): from shore to about 200m deep
Intertidal
(littoral): the shoreline -- the epitome of the extreme ecotone
Kelp &
Coral -- in the neritic zone
Kelp tend to be in temperate coastal waters; coral in tropical
coastal water
Coral communities rival tropical rain forest in diversity (and productivity)
The
Intertidal: the most extreme ecotone
low, high, spring, neap tides; forces driving tides -- sun, moon
and local geography
Ranges from: supratidal fringe to subtidal zone; zonation of species obvious.
Height of tides and waves impact structure/diversity
Diversity influenced by rock (more diverse) or sand (less) diverse
Tide pools can experience significant extremes of temperature and salinity
Estuaries: where rivers meet the sea; extreme salinity changes,
technically part of
the intertidal
Salt Marshes and Mangroves -- in the intertidal
zone
As with kelp and coral, salt marshes tend to be in temperate intertidals;
mangroves
in tropical intertidals.
"Fresh" Water -- although much less
salinity than marine environments, clearly "fresh" water
contains dissolved minerals as well, and can be very variable between
rivers/lakes
Rivers and Streams:
Length/width,
speed/direction of flow; varies depending on availability of ground-
water/precipitation/snow melt.
Maximum/mininum flow (active vs. wetted channels); flooding.
Stratification -- riparian area; water column, benthic/hyporheic/phreatic zones
Oxygen
content inversely correlated with temperature, with cold water being richest in
O2
Lakes:
Littoral
zone; Limnetic zone with epi-/meta-/hypolimnion; benthic zone
Seasonal temperature turnover
Oligotrophic and euthrophic lakes.
Integrity (health) of aquatic systems:
assessment is done by species richness and using
indicator species.