Ecology Exam 1

Mountains affect air movements by forming what?

"Rain shadows"

Ecology ultimately endeavors to explain what?

"why we see what we see"

What are the montane or mountain zones? From the base of the mountain to the top.

- Foothills zone (biome forests) - Montane zone (mixed forests) - Subalpine zone (conifer forests .. taiga) - Alpine zone (alpine meadows .. tundra) - Nival zone (perpetual ice .. moss and lichens) "Fix Me Some Apple Nut"

What factors can affect the soil make-up and profile?

- Topography (more drainage; less drainage) - Erosion - Animals (ex: fossorial animals) - Temperature - Time

What are some factors that affect microclimate?

-Vegetation (presence or absence) -Topography (ravine vs. slope vs. ridge top) -Aspect (North-facing vs. South-facing slopes) -Color of soil and composition -structural heterogeneity (boulders, burrows, etc.) -Presence of water

What are the five strata of the tropical rain forest from ground to sky?

-herbaceous stratum (ground cover) -shrub/immature stratum -understory stratum -canopy stratum -emergent stratum "Have Some UnCooked Eggs"

Nalini Nadkarni

-studied ecosystem in costa rica canopies -wanted to know how low-nutrient soils can support so many organism -brought understanding to nutrient economy of rainforests EPIPHYTES (now uses CRANE technology in temperate rainforests of Olympic Peninsula, WA)

The ___ horizon is under O and is a mixture of clays, silts, and sand. It is subdivided into two parts

A horizon

The A horizon is subdivided into A1 and A2 what are they comprised of?

A1 is the upper layer and is rich in unidentifiable OM called humus and gradually gives way to A2 which is rich in mineral nutrients from weathering minerals and detritus decomposition

Expanding gases lose kinetic energy and thereby cool so as air rises, there's less pressure on it, therefore it expands and cools. This is referred to as what?

Adiabatic cooling

Compressing gases increase in kinetic energy thereby heating. So as air sinks, increasing pressure compresses it and thus heats. This is called?

Adiabatic heating

____ is the interdisciplinary study of the ecology of the earth/atmosphere boundary

Aeroecology

Which of the following correctly describes an ecosystem?

All species that occur in a particular location, in addition to the physical and chemical factors that influence those species

Sarah Tominack a UNA biology grad studies archaean communities and uses PCR with archaean specific primers to amplify DNA from samples for forming a clone library from the gel electrophoresis bands. What is the purpose of this?

Allows for the ID of DNA sequences that are unique to different archaeans, referred to as Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs).

_____ would describe a subadult female elephant who is 14 years old

An organism

What is the effect of latitude on biomes?

As latitude increases biomes change in a fairly predictable manner. Tropical ---> temperate ---> taiga ---> tundra ---> arctic

___ is under A horizon and is mostly mineral with little or no OM. Leaching from A transports materials like Si, Al, Fe, etc. giving it a distinct color

B horizon

Heinrich (1979, 1993) combined field studies with laboratory studies to determine energy budget of bumble bees. Compared energy intake of flying/feeding in the field with energy expended in flight and body temperature in the lab. Combined the two observations to determine overall energy gains or losses he found what?

Bees only need to visit 1-2 flowers per minute to provide enough energy for flight BUT they visit 20-30 per minute. This is because bumble bees keep their thorax temp b/w 30-37 degrees C and shiver on cold days to raise body temp and this requires energy. So they visit 20-30 flowers instead of 1-2 for flight, maintaining body temp, honey for the nest

The interaction between different climates and soils results in large, distinct biological communities. Such large, essentially climate-controlled communities are called ____

Biomes

___ are major, large scale divisions of the terrestrial environment consisting of specific communities associated with certain climates

Biomes

_____ would be all the regions of Earth that support life

Biosphere

The ___ portion of the environment is the living portion while the nonliving portion is ____

Biotic .. abiotic

What biome does this describe? Also called "taiga" or "Christmas tree forests". It is found 50-65 degrees N latitudes and consists of long winter with short growing seasons and is relatively dry. Soils are podsoils due to having thick, slowly decomposing O horizon creating acidic conditions. Very few tree species compared to the tropics or temperate. Mainly consists of fir and spruce trees with some deciduous aspen and birch. Large carnivores; wolves, wolverine, black and grizzly bear, lynx. large grazers; moose, elk, snowshoe hair

Boreal forest

___ is the deepest layer of the soil and is composed of weathered parent material. Weathering breaks down parent material

C horizon

This describes what? Epiphyte mats of orchids, ferns, and organic matter provide nutrient stores for rainforest trees and habitat for animals

Community

Explain the effect conifers have on soil

Conifers produce detritis that makes tannic and other organic acids when decomposing. This replaces the cations in the soil with hydrogens. Those nutrients that were removed are then leached away to lower horizons as water perks through the soil and removes nutrients from plant root zone.

The ___ causes an apparent deflection of the winds. Northern hemisphere deflects to the right and the southern hemisphere to the left. Winds don't actually deflect the earth is simply rotating underneath them

Coriolis effect

Rich Aronson looked at coral reef cores and was able to do what?

Correlate historical changes in reef communities with global temperature, global CO2 levels, etc.

The U.S. Endangered Species Act serves the purpose of: a. Protecting internationally endangered species b. Protecting endangered species in U.S. c. I.D. of critical habitats d. All of the above

D. all of the above

What biome does this describe? - rainfall is usually less than 0.1 m/yr - evaporation and transpiration well exceed precipitation. Drought conditions persist for all of growing season. Temperature is variable. Found near 30 degrees N & S latitudes. Soils have little OM and lithosols (rock soils). Animals, especially fossorial ones

Desert

Ecologists study... a. communities b. ecosystems c. individual organisms d. populations e. all of the above

E. all of the above

Aeroecology is an interdisciplinary study of the ecology of organisms that function in which environment for their existence?

Earth-atmosphere boundary layer

____ is the study of relationships among organisms and b/w organisms and their physical environment

Ecology

A(n) ______ would be the community and abiotic conditions

Ecosystem

This describes what? Epiphyte mats contain quantities of nutrients equal to almost half the mass found in leaves of rainforest trees

Ecosystem

_____ studies focus on the movement of energy and nutrients among organisms and b/w organisms and their environment

Ecosystem

_____ studies mainly focus on the interactions b/w the environment and multi species systems

Ecosystem ecology

Populations ecologists do NOT study: a. reproductive ecology b. distribution and abundance c. energy flow d. extinction e. adaptation

Energy flow

____ form thick mats almost like soil on the tree limbs. Trees send out roots from limbs and trunks into this mat to get nutrients

Epiphytes

T/F: All soils have all four horizons, O, A, B, C

False

T/F? Ecology can be defined as the study of human impact on the environment

False

T/F? Norris and colleagues found that warblers using different habitats did not have different carbon isotopes in the tissues

False

Stable isotopes, carbon12 and carbon13 can be analyzed to show types of ____

Food or diet aspects

Likens and Bormann (1995) and Bormann and Likens (1994) manipulated an entire ecosystem by looking at adjacent watersheds and cutting trees in one watershed and left trees in the other what did they find?

Found nutrient loss in deforested watershed was 40-50x higher than in forested. Lost nutrients from run-off ended up in the stream

____ studies large-scale and long-term regional processes

Geographic ecology

As these air masses move, they set ocean waters in motion forming ocean ____, which are massive circular ocean currents

Gyres

The cycle of the Intertropical convergence zone cause a system of sinking and rising air. These circuler air patterns are known as ____

Hadley cells (also Ferrel and Polar cells) (responsible for surface winds)

Soil occurs in layers called ____ and there are four of these and the arrangement of these make up the ____

Horizons... make up the soil profile

Hotter gases are ___ dense and ___ and hold ___ moisture; cooler gases are ___ dense and ___ and hold ___ moisture

Hotter: more dense and rise and hold more moisture Cooler: less dense and sink and hold less moisture

What is the correct ordering of these levels of organization? population, interaction, ecosystem, community, individual. from most inclusive to least

Individual, population, interaction, community, ecosystem

Wherever solar radiation is most concentrated i.e., wherever solar radiation is perpendicular to the Earth's surface is known as the ____

Intertropical convergence zone (ICZ)

What does it mean by water having a high latent heat of vaporization?

It takes in a lot of heat to evaporate therefore cooling adjacent areas

When silicate is broke down and there are only Al or Fe oxides without clay micelles to hold nutrients in the soil that whole process is called ____ and such soils are called ___

Laterization ... latersols

What is climate?

Long term weather events

Ryan Norris found that carbon12:carbon13 was lower in ____ than in ___

Lower in scrub (high carbon13) higher in mangrove (low carbon13)

Clay along with humus forms _____

Micelles

Macroclimate interacts with the local landscape to produce ____ variation in temperature

Microclimate

In a climate diagram when the precipitation line is above the temperature line, ___ conditions prevail when below, ____ conditions prevail

Moist ... dry

Because micelles are covered with negative charges, positive cations adhere through loose electromagnetic attraction and then other negative anions attract to the cations. This allows soil to "store" what?

Nutrients

The __ horizon is the uppermost layer of organic matter (OM). Leaves, twigs, decomposing OM. Bacteria, fungi, insects, earthworms contribute to breakdown

O horizon

What are Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs)?

OTUs are groups of archaea with enough 16s rRNA gene sequence similarities to be considered the same "species". Can use OTUs to characterize archaean communities. Ex: used archaea for help in the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill of 2010 for cleanup

What portion of the biological hierarchy deals with ecology?

Organism, population, community, ecosystem, landscape, biosphere, and partly cells

The ___ uses temperature and precipitation to calculate moisture conditions relative to long-term averages. Suggests that climate is extremely variable

Palmer Drought Severity Index

____ focuses on how the environment influences form and function of an organism

Physiological ecology

The process of leaching away nutrients to lower horizons away from the plant root zone but does not remove micelles is called ____ and such soils are called ____

Podolization ... podsols

_____ is the study of a group of individuals of a single species

Population ecology

In order to _____ relationships b/w natural history and describe their locations ecology must use field experiments, lab experiments, or may combine both field and lab experiments

Quantify

Robert McArthur's observations on the Warblers of North America indicate that they...

Reduce competition by feeding in different zones

Margaret Davis' studies on lake pollen sediments indicated what about the shifts in predominant vegetation types over long periods of time?

She found that there was a change in tree species composition making up forests over time, saw a change from forest to field. found a change from spruce ---> beech ----> chestnut

According to Margaret Davis, who studied pollen contained within lake sediments, the vegetation landscape of the Appalachian Mountains from 12,000 years ago until approximately 100 yrs ago changed from..

Spruce ---> Beech ---> Chestnut "Sweet Black Coffee"

What biome does this describe? This is the biome in which we live. Get about 0.6-1.5 m/yr of rain fall (occasional seasonal drought). Warm/hot summers and cool/cold winters. Enough moisture and long enough growing season to support trees. Lightening-caused occasional fires contribute to woodland formation but was mostly suppressed until recently now controlled prescribed burns are used. strata are also present - canopy stratum - Understory stratum - shrub layer - herb layer/ground cover

Temperate forests and woodlands

What biome is this? these biomes are also called "prairies" and get 30-85 cm/yr rainfall. They have hot summers with cold winters giving a very short growing season and periodic droughts combined with high summer temperatures promotes occasional fires. Fires plus drought and overall low rainfall keeps trees from growing. soils are usually deep and fertile, making grasses abundant supporting grazing herbivores like bison and pronghorn

Temperate grassland

What biome does this describe? Also called mediterranean or chaparral this biome receives 25-50 cm/yr rainfall. It is located around 30-40 degrees N & S latitudes. Consists of hot, dry summers with cool, moist winters. Trees are generally short and only where it is moist. Shrubs and grasses where less moist. Frequent fires but plants are drought and fire resistant. Most animals browse on low vegetation

Temperate woodland/shrubland

Robert McArthur used field work and observation to study and quantify feeding zones of various coexisting warbler for hypothesis testing.... he found what?

That warblers can coexist because they feed in different areas

The pioneering work of Nalini Nadkarni in rain forest ecology revealed that....

The epiphyte mass in temperate rain forests may be four times the mass of leaves on their host tree and in both temperate and tropical rain forests, trees obtain nutrients by extending roots into epiphyte mats

Radioisotopes like carbon 14 and phosphorus 32 are esp convenient for ecological footprint tracing because...

The uptake rate is directly proportional to rate of photosynthesis and can be followed through the food chain

What are the effects of mountains on biomes?

There is a 6-10 degree Celsius decrease in temp for every 1,000 m increase in altitude. So climate changes as you go up the mountain. The montane or mountain zones change in a predictable fashion

Hadley cells, with Coriolis effect, gives us the ____, while the Ferrel cells give ____, and polar cells gives us the ___

Trade winds .... Westerlies ..... polar easterlies

What biome does this describe: About 10° latitude N & S of the equator Warm and wet year round - temp varies little (25-27°C) - rainfall frequently exceeds 2 m/yr some places Laterized soils (acidic, nutrient-poor) Presence of Mycorrhizae Organisms highly diverse with trees dominating A lot of epiphytes, lianas (vines)

Tropical Rain Forest

What biome does this describe? - Just tropical grasslands - located 10-20 degrees N & S latitudes - Distinctive wet and dry seasons - far less rain (0.3-1.5 m/yr) - Wet season can sometimes be relatively short (2-3 mos.) - fire prone due to lightening - not many trees due to fires and constant water standing from impermeable soils. Really dry during dry season. Large herbivorous animals dominate

Tropical Savanna

What biome does this describe? -Occurs between 10-25° N&S latitudes -distinct rainy and dry season -1.5-2.0m rain/year -more temp variation than tropical forest but still not much -trees dominate vegetation and are deciduous -soils are not laterized -erosion is prevalent esp in disturbed areas -animals tend to migrate tracking the rains

Tropical dry forest

What biome does this describe? Cold and dry (20-60 cm/yr) with a very short growing season. Characterized by permafrost (underlay of soil that remains frozen at all times, allowing little room for deep rooting plants and trees.) Vegetation is mostly grasses, sedges, mosses, lichens, and low-growing shrubs. Severely wind-blown habitat; contributes to low growing for and permafrost as well as wind prevent tree growth

Tundra

____ is studying urban areas as complex, dynamic ecological systems; looking simultaneously at biological, physical and social interactions

Urban ecology

Explain the effect warm, wet climates have on soil

Warm, wet climates breakdown clay by dissolving the silicate. Leaving only the Al or Fe oxides with no clay micelles to hold nutrients. Nutrients are leached away.

As air masses move they are warmed or cooled by the ocean waters and lands they traverse. _____ air gains more moisture, ____ air loses moisture. As these air masses move onto land, it creates specific climates

Warming- warm moist air Cooling- cool dry air

____ would describe elephants, lions, and acacia trees

a Community

____ would describe an elephant herd composed of 3 males and 7 females

a population

This describes what? Rainforest trees have the ability to grow aerial roots in high branches and trunks

an organism

_____ studies focus on interactions b/w species, such as competition and predation

community ecology

Transition zone between two ecosystems or communities is a(n) ____

ecotone

Because tropical rainforest soils are so poor in nutrients how is their so much life that is able to live on the nutrient-poor soils of the tropics?

epiphytes make it possible

Ryan Norris (2005) used stable carbon isotope ratios to elucidate where wintering birds ___

feed

Douglas Morse then shows that interactions among warblers determined ____

feeding zones

What is microclimate?

is climatic variation on a scale of a few kilometers, meters, or even centimeters, usually measured over a short period of time

____ is the prevailing weather conditions in a region over a long period of time

macroclimates

Ryan Norris found that early arriving male isotope ratios indicate winter feeding from ____ while late arriving males from _____

mangrove... scrub

Soil formation is referred to as ...

pedogenesis

Ecology can be described as a ____ science; i.e., tries to understand the abundance and distribution of the various organisms by elucidating nature in a ____ fashion

quantitative .. quantitative

Ecology is best defined as:

the study of relationships between organisms and the environment

What causes weather?

uneven heating of the earth's surface