Honors Biology Elephants
Biodiversity
The variety of life within an area.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the species range survey method?
There is only one organization that collects the data, it is unique and valuable, the availability of data is inconsistent, and it requires time, effort, and authority.
Why are elephants a keystone species?
They dig water holes for other animals, they knock down trees to allow for new growth in forests, their dung helps plant growth, and they disperse seeds.
How do carnivores like lions get nitrogen?
They eat other animals that ate plants that have nitrogen.
Survey Type: Acoustic Surveys
Uses infrasonic frequencies (the low-frequency sounds that elephants communicate with) by setting up audio recorders and simultaneously recording the elephants.
What are two properties of a good marker?
Variable among individuals, amplifiable across samples.
Why has tusklessness become a prevalent trait among elephants?
When elephants have no tusks, the poachers do not have any reason to hunt them. Therefore, elephants without tusks live longer and are able to pass on their traits (having no tusks) to their offspring.
Selective Pressure
A force that causes a particular organism to evolve in a certain direction.
What is nitrogen?
A gas that makes up 78% of the atmosphere.
Natural Selection
A mechanism by which individuals that have inherited beneficial adaptations show different reproductive success.
Gel Electrophoresis
A method of separating various lengths of DNA strands by applying an electrical current to gel.
Keystone Species
A species that an ecosystem is heavily dependent on.
Limiting Factor
Any environmental condition that limits population growth.
Survey Type: Dung Transects
Counts the number of dung piles by the line transect method or the recce method.
Survey Type: Individual Registration
Documents every animal by identifying what makes each animal unique. All the pictures are put into a digital database.
How does conflict with farmers decrease elephant populations?
Elephants sometimes destroy farmers' crops, so the farmers poison or shoot them.
Why are only female elephants tuskless?
Female elephants do not need to fight for a mate, but the males need tusks to fight to mate with the females.
What do animals use nitrogen for?
Forming DNA and proteins.
What do the bands in gel electrophoresis represent?
Fragments of DNA.
Which organisms can turn nitrogen into usable form for plants?
Free-living and symbiotic bacteria
Survey Type: Aerial Survey
Gathers a large-scale census of elephants across Africa with small planes with observers that note the number and gender of the elephants.
Survey Type: Individual Range
Gathers individual home range with daily, real-time movement tracking and GPS collars.
Survey Type: Species Range
Gathers where elephants occur in the wild through direct observation and indirect observation like dung and footprints.
Why is having tusks good and bad for elephants?
Good because it allows them to strip bark off trees, dig water holes, and fight for a mate. Bad because poachers will kill them for the tusks.
What does heterozygous mean? How can it be identified in gel electrophoresis?
Having two different alleles. In GE, there will be two separate bands representing the allele.
What does homozygous mean? How can it be identified in gel electrophoresis?
Having two of the same alleles. In GE, there will be just one band representing the allele.
Economic Value
Having value because it has financial value of some sort.
Aesthetic Value
Having value because it is attractive in some way.
Environmental Value
Having value because other organisms rely on it.
Intrinsic Value
Having value in and of itself, no direct human benefit.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the acoustic survey method?
It can cover large areas, is good in forests, reduces human bias, it requires training and specialized equipment, background noise can interfere, and no additional information is collected.
How does an elephant get nitrogen?
It eats plants that have nitrogen in them.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the dung transect survey method?
It generates lots of data, is easy to do, does not require specialized equipment, it is time and labor-intensive, and rapid changes in the population may not give accurate results.
Describe how nitrogen moves through the environment.
It is converted into solid form by lightning or symbiotic bacteria, taken in by plants, eaten by animals, and then when the animal dies the bacteria convert it back into usable form.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using an aerial survey?
It is the most common method, large animals are easy to spot, they can access areas that are not accessible from the ground, low cost, not effective in forests, and non-uniform distributions can skew data.
What is the relationship between the size of DNA fragment and the distance it travels in the gel?
Larger fragments travel slower, smaller fragments travel faster.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the individual registration survey method?
Lots of detailed information, shows population trends, gives insight into social behavior, it is labor-intensive, expensive, and requires years of observation.
DNA Fingerprints
Parts of an individual's DNA that can be used to identify a person.
Why are elephant populations declining?
Poaching, habitat loss/fragmentation, conflict with communities and farmers, food scarcity, drought.
Fitness
The ability of an organism to survive and reproduce in its environment.
What is habitat fragmentation?
The breakup of a habitat into smaller pieces, usually as a result of human activities.
Evolution
The change in a species over time.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the individual range survey method?
The elephants are tracked remotely, it is low cost and low effort, it can be done at night, it is dangerous to attach collars, the collars need to be replaced every 2-4 years, and the data is sometimes lost.
What happens when a keystone species goes extinct?
The entire ecosystem unravels.
Carrying Capacity
The largest number of individuals that an environment can support.
DNA
The molecule that stores genetic information in all organisms.
Why do scientists use multiple markers to identify individuals in gel electrophoresis?
The more markers used, the smaller the likelihood that two individuals will have the same results.
What is the nitrogen cycle?
The movement of nitrogen between the environment and living things.
RNA
The nucleic acid molecule that allows for the transmission of genetic information and protein synthesis.
Artificial Selection
The process by which humans change a species by breeding it for certain traits.
Genetics
The study of heredity patterns and variation of organisms.
