BIO 201 Final Exam Study Guide: Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology

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Introduction to Ecology

Scope and Questions in Ecology

Ecology is the study of interactions among organisms and their environment. Ecologists investigate questions at multiple levels, from individuals to ecosystems, focusing on how biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) factors influence the distribution and abundance of organisms.

Species Range: The geographic area where a species is found.
Niche: The sum of a species' use of biotic and abiotic resources in its environment.
Abiotic Factors: Non-living components such as temperature, water, sunlight, and soil.
Biotic Factors: Living components like competition, predation, and symbiosis.
Variability, Extremes, and Averages: All aspects of environmental conditions (not just averages) affect species distributions.

Climate and Weather

Climate: Long-term patterns of temperature and precipitation in a region.
Weather: Short-term atmospheric conditions.
Global Temperature and Rainfall Patterns: Shaped by solar radiation, Earth's tilt, and atmospheric circulation (e.g., Hadley cells).
Seasonality: Caused by Earth's axial tilt, leading to variation in sunlight intensity throughout the year.
Global Wind Patterns: Driven by uneven heating of Earth's surface and the Coriolis effect.
Regional Rainfall Patterns: Influenced by mountains (rainshadow effect), ocean currents, and proximity to water bodies.
Oceans and Climate: Oceans moderate climate due to water's high specific heat capacity.

Productivity and Biomes

Net Primary Productivity (NPP): The rate at which plants and other producers build biomass, minus the energy they use for respiration.
Biomes: Major ecological communities defined by climate and dominant vegetation (e.g., tundra, desert, rainforest).
Ocean Zones: Includes intertidal, neritic, oceanic, benthic, and photic/aphotic zones.
Water Depth and Sunlight: Deeper water receives less sunlight, limiting photosynthesis and affecting organism distribution.
Lake Zones: Littoral (near shore), limnetic (open water), benthic (bottom), and profundal (deep water).
Seasonal Turnover in Lakes: Occurs due to temperature changes, causing mixing of water layers and redistribution of nutrients and oxygen.

Behavioral Ecology

Types of Behavior

Behavioral ecology examines how animal behavior is shaped by ecological pressures and evolutionary history.

Flexible vs. Fixed Behavior: Flexible behaviors can change with experience; fixed behaviors are innate and stereotyped.
Innate vs. Learned: Innate behaviors are genetically programmed; learned behaviors are acquired through experience.
Choice and Flexibility: Flexible behaviors are influenced by environmental cues and internal states.

Fitness Trade-offs and Foraging

Fitness Trade-offs: Costs and benefits associated with different behaviors.
Optimal Foraging Theory: Predicts that animals maximize energy gain per unit time spent foraging.
Example: Fruit fly foraging strategies vary based on food availability and predation risk.

Predation, Mating, and Signaling

Predation Avoidance: Includes camouflage, mimicry, and behavioral strategies.
Mating Behavior: Involves mate choice, courtship displays, and different mating systems (monogamy, polyandry, polygyny, polygynandry).
Honest vs. Dishonest Signals: Honest signals reliably indicate quality; dishonest signals may deceive receivers. Selection favors honest signals when they are costly to produce.

Altruism and Kin Selection

Altruistic Behavior: Actions that benefit others at a cost to oneself.
Kin Selection: Favors altruism toward relatives, increasing inclusive fitness.
Hamilton's Rule: (where r = relatedness, B = benefit to recipient, C = cost to actor).
Examples: Alarm calls in ground squirrels, cooperative breeding in birds.

Population Ecology

Population Structure and Dynamics

Population: Group of individuals of the same species in a given area.
Distribution Patterns: Clumped, uniform, or random.
Mark and Recapture: Method to estimate population size using captured, marked, and recaptured individuals.
Demography: Study of birth, death, immigration, and emigration rates.
Life Table: Summarizes survival and reproductive rates by age.
Net Reproductive Rate (): (where = survivorship, = fecundity at age x).
Survivorship Curves: Type I (high survival early), Type II (constant survival), Type III (low survival early).

Population Growth

Per-capita Rate of Increase (r): (birth rate minus death rate).
Exponential Growth:
Logistic Growth: (where K = carrying capacity).
Density-dependent vs. Density-independent: Density-dependent factors intensify as population increases; density-independent factors affect regardless of population size.
Life History Strategies: r-selected (high reproduction, low survival) vs. K-selected (low reproduction, high survival).
Top-down vs. Bottom-up Control: Population size regulated by predators (top-down) or resources (bottom-up).
Population Pyramids: Graphical representation of age structure.

Community Ecology

Community Structure and Interactions

Community: All populations of different species in an area.
Species Interactions: Competition, predation, mutualism, commensalism.
Ecological Niche: Role and position a species has in its environment.
Competition: Can lead to competitive exclusion or niche differentiation.
Asymmetric Competition: One species suffers more than the other.
Character Displacement: Evolution of differences to reduce competition.
Defense Mechanisms: Constitutive (always present) or inducible (produced in response to threat).
Mimicry: Batesian (harmless mimics harmful), Mullerian (two harmful species resemble each other).
Host Manipulation: Parasites alter host behavior to increase transmission.
Community Structure: Influenced by species richness, relative abundance, and interactions.
Disturbance: Events that change community structure (e.g., fire, storms).
Succession: Primary (on new substrate) and secondary (after disturbance).
Fire-adapted Ecosystems: Some communities require periodic fire for regeneration.
Theory of Island Biogeography: Species richness on islands depends on island size and distance from mainland.

Ecosystem Ecology

Energy Flow and Nutrient Cycling

Ecosystem: Community plus abiotic environment.
Trophic Levels: Producers, consumers, decomposers.
Energy Flow: Energy decreases at higher trophic levels due to inefficiency.
Biomass: Total mass of living matter; decreases with each trophic level.
Biomagnification: Increase in concentration of toxins at higher trophic levels.

Nutrient Cycles

Generalized Nutrient Cycle: Movement of elements among reservoirs (e.g., atmosphere, soil, organisms).
Water Cycle: Involves evaporation, condensation, precipitation, runoff, and infiltration.
Aquifer: Underground water reservoir; recharged by infiltration.
Threats to Water Cycle: Overuse, pollution, deforestation.
Nitrogen Cycle: Includes nitrogen fixation (conversion of N2 to usable forms), nitrification, assimilation, ammonification, and denitrification.
Nitrogen Fixation: Performed by bacteria (e.g., Rhizobium), lightning, and industrial processes.
Carbon Cycle: Photosynthesis fixes atmospheric CO2; respiration, combustion, and decomposition release it.
Carbon Sinks: Forests, oceans, soil.
Greenhouse Effect: Greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O) trap heat in the atmosphere.
Global Climate Change: Rising atmospheric CO2 leads to warming, altered weather patterns, and ecosystem impacts.

Conservation Biology

Biodiversity and Conservation Strategies

Biodiversity: Variety of life at genetic, species, and ecosystem levels.
Measuring Diversity: Species richness, relative abundance, genetic diversity, ecosystem diversity.
Conservation Decisions: Prioritize areas (hotspots), species, or ecosystem services based on threat and value.
Conservation Hotspots: Regions with high biodiversity and high threat levels.
Threats to Biodiversity: Habitat loss, fragmentation, invasive species, overexploitation, pollution, climate change.
Conservation Strategies: Protected areas, restoration, ex situ conservation, sustainable management.
Ecosystem Services: Benefits humans derive from ecosystems (e.g., pollination, water purification, climate regulation).

Comprehensive Concepts

Scientific Process and Evolution

Scientific Process: Observation, hypothesis, experimentation, analysis, and conclusion.
Proximate vs. Ultimate Causes: Proximate = immediate mechanisms; Ultimate = evolutionary reasons.
Characteristics of Living Things: Organization, metabolism, homeostasis, growth, reproduction, response to stimuli, evolution.
Evolutionary Processes: Natural selection, genetic drift, gene flow, mutation.
Biological Fitness: Ability to survive and reproduce.
Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium: (allele and genotype frequencies remain constant in absence of evolutionary forces).
Species Concepts: Biological (interbreeding), morphological (physical traits), phylogenetic (evolutionary history).

Physiology and Cell Biology

Diffusion and Osmosis: Movement of molecules from high to low concentration; osmosis is diffusion of water.
Water Potential: Determines direction of water movement.
Endothermic vs. Exothermic: Endotherms regulate body temperature; exotherms rely on environment.
Homeothermic vs. Poikilothermic: Homeotherms maintain constant temperature; poikilotherms vary.
Membrane Transport: Includes passive (diffusion, osmosis) and active (requires energy) mechanisms.
Homeostasis: Maintenance of stable internal conditions.
Countercurrent Exchange: Efficient transfer of heat or substances between fluids flowing in opposite directions.
Cell Size and Shape: Affect surface area-to-volume ratio and function.

Signaling and Reproduction

Chemical and Neural Signaling: Used by plants and animals for communication and response.
Reproductive Strategies: Vary from asexual to sexual, with different investments in offspring.

Role of Organisms in Biogeochemical Cycles

Fungi and Plants: Key roles in carbon and nitrogen cycling through decomposition and nitrogen fixation.

Tissue Types and Data Interpretation

Tissue Types: Plants (dermal, ground, vascular); Animals (epithelial, connective, muscle, nervous).
Charts and Graphs: Understand dependent (y-axis) and independent (x-axis) variables.

Key Terms Table

Term	Definition
Population	Group of individuals of the same species in an area
Community	All populations of different species in an area
Ecosystem	Community plus abiotic environment
Range	Geographic area where a species is found
Niche	Sum of a species' use of resources
Abiotic	Non-living environmental factors
Biotic	Living environmental factors
Hadley Cell	Atmospheric circulation pattern near the equator
Coriolis Effect	Deflection of moving air/water due to Earth's rotation
Rainshadow	Dry area on leeward side of a mountain
Gyre	Large system of ocean currents
Net Primary Productivity	Rate of biomass production by producers
Biome	Major ecological community type
Innate Behavior	Genetically programmed behavior
Learning	Behavioral change from experience
Fixed Action Pattern	Innate, stereotyped behavior sequence
Mimicry	Resemblance of one species to another
Altruism	Behavior benefiting others at a cost to self
Kin Selection	Selection favoring altruism toward relatives
Metapopulation	Group of spatially separated populations
Survivorship	Proportion surviving to a given age
Fecundity	Reproductive output
Intraspecific Competition	Competition within a species
Interspecific Competition	Competition between species
Fundamental Niche	Full range of conditions a species can use
Realized Niche	Actual conditions used due to competition
Character Displacement	Evolution of differences to reduce competition
Batesian Mimicry	Harmless species mimics harmful one
Mullerian Mimicry	Two harmful species resemble each other
Producer	Organism that makes its own food
Consumer	Organism that eats other organisms
Decomposer	Organism that breaks down dead matter
Autotrophic	Self-feeding (e.g., photosynthesis)
Heterotrophic	Feeds on others
Biomagnification	Increase in toxin concentration up food chain
Aquifer	Underground water reservoir
Nitrogenase	Enzyme for nitrogen fixation
Leghemoglobin	Oxygen-binding protein in legume nodules
Eutrophication	Excess nutrients causing algal blooms
Global Warming	Increase in Earth's average temperature
Greenhouse Effect	Warming due to trapped heat by gases
Biological Hotspot	Area with high biodiversity and threat
Ex situ Conservation	Conservation outside natural habitat
Ecosystem Services	Benefits humans obtain from ecosystems