CH 1:
Bios = life
Logia = study of
Exploring life:
properties of life
Biological themes
Scientific method
Properties of life:
order
Evolutionary adaptation
Response to the environment
Living things reproduce
Energy processing - all living things produce energy
Skin out: whole organism and interaction with the world around
Hierarchy of life:
Ecosystem → communities→ Populations → Individual →
All living stuff is a community
Individual = one
Population = EX: such as a plant that covers the hillside
Community: the plant plus other 40-50 species of plants in the environment
Ecosystem: rain, sun, minerals in the soil
Ecology: the science of how things interact with each other: pollinating flowers, eating
eachother
evolution= biodiversity
Biodiversity: ​
The world is not random it has patterns
Evolution- gives you good enough not perfect
Interrelated things are connected — they compliment or depend on each other
Data: plural
datum= singular
Science can be shared and repeated
Scientists are skeptical, critical thinkers
-things outside of pattern are of interest
Scientific method:
Exploration and discover
Forming and testing hypotheses
Societal benefits and outcomes
- Community analysis and feedback
-traditional approach is:
​
- observation
​
- question
​
- hypothesis
​
- experiment
​
- prediction
​
- experiment
​
- prediction confirmed
-hypothesis is not being proven but tested
-ecology:
How living things interact with each other and their environment
biotic= green word for life means living stuff including recently living: dead leaves, animal poop
Abiotic: nonliving things: minerals, mist, lighting
Ch. 40: Ecology:
-​ The study of how living things interact w/ each other and the nonliving environment
-​ Individual: hierarchy of life starts of individual
-​ population: all of one particular species all of one type of plant or animal Ex: zebras (Ex:
mountain lions here in california are not the same mountain lions in new mexico)
Community: all living stuff in a particular area Ex: zebras, lions, plants gazelles
Ecosystem: = nonliving environment: sun, moisture, minerals in soil (the whole package)
Ecology: the study of how organisms interact with each other and their
environment.
Population Ecology: ex: winter deer count ( same kind of deer in the same area)
-​ How many deer license to issue for the following year
Community ecology: Ex: fish community survey ( different fish species in the same area)
Ecosystem ecology: looking at stream probably measuring minerals
Population Ecology: important to understand for how evolution works
-conservation biology: ex: looking at manatees
Range: distribution = where would you find individuals of a population
-​ Can increase Ex: an african bird picked up by a storm
-​ Can decrease: Ex: due to human activity usually
Population attributes: how many variations of size are there
-​ Pupfish developed in devils hole death valley
-​ Small population: california condors
Large vs. small populations:
​
-Behave differently as far as evolution, genetic integrity, evolve differently
​
-dispersion: spots about individuals are spaced out in their range.
-this is sometimes random
Dispersion: how individuals are spaced out
Random dispersion: random, no pattern like flowers there are in patches or alone
Uniform dispersion: some organisms space themselves out, something about their
biology makes them do this
Creosote bushes: look like a farmed plant because they are disbursed
They spread their roots, and spread posion to the soil, they are trying to cover territory to
take up the water
Clumped dispersion: exist in groups, because their biology ( schools of fish, clumps of
mammals) ex: swans
sometimes clumped because their habitat is uneven
Ex: clams because of the water, growing in the crack where the water sticks around a bit
Birds clump together sometimes
Words that sometimes define disbursement Social: things that are clumped they are social because their biology says they
wanna be a group
territorial : things that space themselves out, territorial they defend certain things
like plants defending their water
Populations shrink and grow:
Population size: can stay the same, grow, or shrink
Population dynamics: can shrink with emigrants and mortality
Survivorship curve: shows 3 curves - the way to read it is x 0 at the bottom
Fitness: = also called darwinian fitness this is measure of success at life
Ex: fitness at life
Fitness at life is reproduction level
Evolution comes at individuals and favor those with higher fitness
Reproductive output = success at life
What words for one species does not work for the other species
Adaptations: to name aspects of an organism that bring them success
EX: giraffes - adaptation is their very long neck, which lets them eat vegetation that
nobody else can reach
Fitness unit: the baby
Half unit is hers, and half the unit goes to the dad of the baby
Life history: what works for an elk does not work for a salmon
Ex: salmon
Adults live in the ocean, 5-6 years eating and growing not working on fitness
When of size, they realize they need to take their shot at fitness, then swim into fresh
waters and migrate up rivers to look for the stream they are hatched identifying by taste
and smells
-obstacles include droughts and predators
- taking the run for 1 shot at fitness
- if they don't make it, they are a failure at fitness
- after they spawn they have worn themselves out, they drift off, eggs in gravel and die.
Salmon spawning = they don't survive
Semelparity= breed once and die
-why salmon spawn in freshwater
​
-predators
​
- alot of salmon don’t make it, they don’t save any gas in the tank they are all in
​
- the fish corpse becomes nutrients for the algae that feed the shrimp that the
babies eat
Semelparity: plants do this its called annual
Iteroparity: breeding multiple times
R&K
R- selected life history strategies high levels of reproductive output, not heavily investing
in any of those offspring hoping they make it
K - not putting out as many offspring, in it for the long haul, longer life, heavy investment
of offspring, long term.
-​ Get to same place of fitness but different ways
-​ EX: K = elephant low reproductive value, lots of parental care, heavy investment
-​ EX: R field mice, make 5 or 6 at of time but if compared to fish fish are the R
mice are the K
EX: ​ R - atlantic cod - female cod make half a million eggs a year
​
K -spiny dogfish - carry fish internally, the pups develop inside her body births 7-8 a year
Population growth:
Exponential growth: grows tall, theoretical
Logistic growth= more real - gets steeper = higher reproduction
limit= carrying capacity - maximum size the environment can support
-​ Every population has a carrying capacity in its habitat
-​ But can change based on environmental changes such as food, water, space
Ch 41: Community ecology - niche, competition, predation, symbiosis, keystone,
succession
Niche- specific in that community
-​ Habitat: can be part of that niche
-​ Diet: example being a carnivore
-​ Being nocturnal
-​ Habitat choice, activity pattern, diet
-​ no two niche is exactly the same
-​ Niches may overlap BUT never exactly the same
CI habitat:
-​ Mammals are 1 type of animal, have some niche overlap because of their similar biology
-​ not all using the same resources
-​ EX: carnivores like foxes, coyote, bobcats,
-​ Share a community
Very narrow dietary niche:
​
EX: koala bears eat only eucalyptus leaves
Very broad dietary niche:
​
EX: Racoons eat animals, plants, trash
Closely related species:
-​ Different niches
-​ Long eared and red eared same habitat big separation
-​ EX: red eared has special teeths that can crush snails and eat them
Niches are different for competition
Competition: individuals need the same resource and the source is in short supply
Joshua trees: fighting for water
Rainforest: trees competing for sunshine
When there is competition both competitors lose (-/-)
​
EX: lioness you are suffering and competitor
​
-what suffers things such as fitness
Interspecific:
-​ Specific means species
-​ Inter means between
Intraspecific:
-​ Intra- within a species
-​ Specific- means species
Competition explains ecology and evolution Georgii F. gause
-​ Experimented with competition
-​ Paramecium and yeast
-​ Assumed they have different niches
-​ Treated them all the same then threw them together
-​ They population changed due to competition
-​ Some got along and could coexist
When two things compete for the same thing one will be better and the other will not succeed
Barnacles:(competition ex)
-​ Compete for space (spot on the rock)
-​ Different niches
-​ Found that the ones up on the top are not good competitors even though they can
survive lower on the rock but cant compete the lower barnacles can compete and if the
other barnacles come down to far the others will pop them off and take their place
Overlap: causes character displacement
Reducing overlap+ avoiding competition
Competition w/ conservation implications:
Sonora desert stream - nonnative fish that has come into contact with native fish
Predation (+/-)
Predator gains/ prey loses
-​ If predator is successful preys fitness is unsuccessful and vice versa
Anti predation: adaptation to reduce the risk
Plant defenses:
Spikes on stems
Hair on stems
Poison in plants
Secondary compounds :
-​ Chemical defenses
-​ Makes them unpleasant to eat
-​ Ex: onions, peppers
-​ A lot of our spices
-​ Caffeine
Secondary compounds: plants
Poison ivy
Poison oak
Willows - anti inflammatory ( aspirin)
Pacific yew: - called taxol = shrinks ovarian cancer cells ON EXAM(
possibly as a structure)
Eucalyptus - the oils are toxic except for the koala
milkweed: sappy white milk is poisonous but not for monarchs
Caterpillars save
Animal defenses:
-​ Caterpillars save the the cardiac glycosides that they get from the
milkweed which passes to the monarchs
-​ Monarchs become toxic
Toads - have toxins (poison glands)
Aposematic coloration: ( warning) coloration (yellow, red) they are letting you know they
are dangerous
-​ Ex: blister beetle does not blend in has glands that spray a blistering agent
-​ Ex: coral snake - red by yellow will kill a fellow
-​ Red by black friend of jack
-​ Poison dart frog - orange and blue
-​ Skunk- white stripe spray
Crypsis: meaning hidden
-​ Tree frog looks like rocks
-​ Hide from visual predators
-​ Birds
-​ Snakes (copperhead)
-​ Hide from prey also
-​ Snowy plover eggs look like rocks on the beach their babies blend with the sand
Countershading: 3 dimensional organisms
-​ Dark on the top, white on the belly
-​ If underneath light belly
-​ Looking down blends with the dark ocean
Disruptive coloration
-​ Ex: zebras
-​
-​
Live in vertical environments
Move in packs Hard to pick out one zebra in a group
-​ Fish that blend with coral or water because this is their environment by nature
Pattern recognition:
Some species can change pattern
-​ Humans see faces on sand or clouds
Pareidolia:
Reduce visibility of eyes:
Ex: fish so predators cant see you
Startle display:
-​ Bugs with flashy wings to startle
-​ Or butterflies with eye spot
-​ Toad w/ eye spots
Mimicry:
-mimicking (pretending to be something your not
Ex: from pretending to be dead leaves
Bee Fly: mimic color as a bee to act as a threat
Batesian mimicry:
-​ Bee Fly: mimic color as a bee to act as a threat
-​ Snakes: similar color to poison snake but not
Monarch and viceroy are both poisonous - NOT BATESIAN MIMICRY because both came
upon their color and are both poisonous
Mullerian mimicry:
When we have several things mimicking each other but are both toxic
Ex: bees and wasps
-​ Beetle and moth that both feed on toxic plants
Aggressive mimicry:
Something aggressive but pretends to be something friendly
Ex: a spider pretending to be an ant
Ex: frogfish has an antenna that looks like bate and uses it to catch little fish
Ex: another bug mimichs a fireflys
Ex: praying mantis mimicking a orchid to catch pollinators
Ex:cleaner fish
Mimicry - startle display:
​
Ex: caterpillar mimics a snake
Egg mimicry:
When a butterfly lays eggs doesnt want lay eggs where there are lots of eggs, or caterpillars so
there are leaves that have spots that looks like eggs
Mimicry & sexual deception:
An orchid that is pretending to be a female so the male will mate with it to pollinate in reality
Symbiosis:
sym=shared life= biosis
-​ 2 species living together
-​ 3 categories:
-​ Pollination symbiosis
Mutualism (+/+)
-​ Both parties benefit
-​ Everybody is in it for their own benefit their fitness
-​ Ex: acacia and ants - acacia feeds the ants, makes little protein packs and the
pant is protected from other insects
-​ Eel and a little cleaner fish
Commensalism (0/+):
-​ One partner could care less( does not gain or lose) and one partner benefits
-​ EX:Orchids grow on trees trees don't care and orchid gets a home
-​ Ex: abalone covered as living organisms the abalone doesnt care, and the living
organisms get a home
-​ Antelope and tick bids ( bird gets food, and antelope gets relief)
Parasitism (+/-) Does Not fully consume host
Ex: parasite and free living host like fleas and a dog
-​ Ectoparasites: lives on outside Ex: hair follicle mite
-​ Ex: Mistletoe dig roots into tree to absorb food and moisture from the tree
-​ Deerweed: the flowers dig the roots onto a plant and absorb the nutrients
Endoparasite: (lives inside):
-​ Malaria
-​ Tapeworm
Brood parasite: drops eggs in other neds the baby bird kicks out the other birds from the next so
they are cared for
-​ Parasitism : can be a wasp or fly to lay eggs inside of other insects, eggs eat the
insect from the inside out
Keystone: a different shape than other ones - if you remove it the arch will collapse
Animals are also keystones: a species that has a large impact on the balance of organisms in
an ecosystem and can increase biodiversity
​
Ex: often times are predators
​
Ex: timber wolf
​
Ex: beaver like to live in ponds or lakes - it is their niche
​
Ex: west coast starfish - aggressive carnivore they eat mussels and sea urchins
Ecological succession:
Natural communities (on land)
-​ Disturbance → succession
-​ disturbance= ​
-​ Fire
-​ lumbering
Takes decades, centuries, and millennials to recover
Ex: glacier bay the glacier is a huge disturbance
Recovery process:
-​ Different stages of recovery
-​ 1: recovery stage (sere 1) = the plants not picky (called pioneers) where they live,
grow fast, reproduce aggressively short lives, there for a long time, their leaves
feed the soil they alter the environment
-​ Sere 2: Seeds blow in can land and grow because of the 1st sere softening the
land, but chokes out the plants from sere 1
-​ Sere 3: they are bigger, more selective, grow more slowly
-​ Sere 4: eventually final sere comes and gets habitat - these will stay here until
there is another disturbance
-​ Each sere kicks out the previous sere
-​ ***can be several seres, and named differently depending on where it is
Primary succession - starting at ground 0
secondary succession - soil is still there,less severe disturbance Ex: farmland, fires can see it
in rainforests such as a treefall
Ch. 42 Ecosystem ecology: organisms in the ecosystem regulating the capture and
expenditure of energy and the cycling of chemicals
Energy
Nutrients
Trophic levels
Food chain
Productivity
Cycles
Energy and ecosystem:
energy= a form of energy plant takes the light energy and makes it chemical energy
Cycle of energy: transfer of chemicals
Nutrients =chemicals
Ecosphere: a closed system
Glass globe with 3 living components algae, shrimp, and bacteria only thing coming in is
sunshine
-we live in a closed system: planet
Food chain:
-​ Energy is moved up between the different stages
Trophic levels:
-​ troph=something to do with food
-​
Nutrients get passed through trophic levels - nitrogen, phosphorus, iron,
magnesium, calcium
-​ Molecules that store energy
-​ Store energy= sugar, carbs, fats and other organic molecules
-​ producers= bottom level almost all are photosynthetic (plants)
-​ Harvesting energy - they are storing in
Biomass: photosynthesis creates biomass
-​ Gathering nutrients
Everybody else is a consumer- if eating the plant you are called a primary consumer or
herbivore
-​ If eating another consumer you are a meat eater (carnivore)
-​ If carnivore eating a herbivore you are a secondary consumer
Producers = autotroph
primary consumers- herbivore (after plants)
secondary consumers- carnivore ( eatis the herbivores)
Tertiary consumer - top consumer
Autotrophs: self feeder producers are autotrophs
-​ Only place where the energy is added to the system
-​ More biomass is where more sun hits
-​
Consumers- heterotrophs
Tertiary consumer - top consumer
Detritus:
-​
all the dead stuff, dead leaves, dead animals animal waste
-​
if you eat the stuff you are a detritivores
​
- Ex: rolly polly, crabs, worms
Decomposers:
-​ Breaks them down into nutrients, iron nitrogen, and phosphorus give it back to the soul
which feed the producers
-​ Ex: fungi and bacteria
Detritivores: are consumers
Omnivore:
-​ Both eaters:
-​ Ex: racoons
-​ bears
Photosynthesis:
6CO2 + 6H2O→ C6H12O6+6O2
Photosynthesis: energy is stored in organic molecules during photosynthesis
Producers accumulate energy and biomass
Nutritional cycle: used over and over again
Energy: energy used once and goes away
​
Where does the energy go? Lose 90% 10% is kept to build body, or grow
-​ Food chains:
-​ Energy enters the system at the bottom with consumers
Food chain efficiency:
-​ Is pretty low
-​ The fewer the steps the less efficient
-​ The more steps the more efficient
Metabolism Cold blooded don't maintain a constant body temp
​
Fish
Insects
Not burning energy to raise the temperature to a set level
They retain a lot more energy
Bird maintain a constant temperature
Their biochemistry works more efficiently
They burn more energy
Warm blooded animals are very inefficient
Most energy taken in is burned
Food chain with high efficiency:
​
Aquatic or marine
Needs to be cold blooded
Food chain with low efficiency:
-​ Terrestrial food chain
-​ Bird or mammal less
Deep ocean:
​
Complex food chains
​
No photosynthesis down there
​
But there is life down there - who are the producers?
​
In the deep ocean - the producers are called snow(dritus)
-​ Up at the top where photosynthesis occurs and the creates live they create waste
and or die, this creates the snow
-​ Tritavors eat the snow
Galapagos vent community:
​
Dense life, vibrant community of organisms but no photosynthesis
​
The producers
-​ Minerals and gasses shoot out - hydrogen sulfide is broken apart and a little energy
spills out
Chemosynthesis: not fueled by sunshine
-​ Food is made by bacteria using chemicals as the energy source
Productivity:
-​ A measure of how much photosynthesis a particular system is doing
-​ How productive it is
-​ How much carbon is being captured
They pick up the biomass weight it g/biomas per meter to see how productive some systems are
Tropical rain forest is the most productive
-producers here are mostly plants, the conditions here make the plants happy
- plants get all the water, sunshine, and nutrients they need
Ex: Coastal wetlands - algae are the producers
Ex: death valley - low producers there is not alot of moisture tridal cycles here are slow
Ex: tundra - high elevation, or far from the equator, these habitats are frozen half the year so
their habitats aren't doing anything these systems are super productive when not prozen
Cycles: c, n, o, Ph,H2O move in the community and back in the environment, back to the
community and back to the environment
Water cycle- goes to living community to environment and back to community
-​ Goes to ground water and the atmosphere
-​ When we step in we disrupt the system
Transpiration: plants don't have a circulatory system so this is their system to move water,
N,Ph,Fe, and moved it through the body of the plant to the leaves
-​ A significant amount of moisture comes from the plants
Desertification: if you remove the plants you impact the land significantly and make a desert
land sometimes happens from grazing
Hard to recover this habitat
Carbon cycle:
-​ CO2 is a gas in the atmosphere its a raw material for photosynthesis
-​ When used the CO2 goes back in the air (cellular respiration)
-​ When we burn fossil fuels it's become too much for the earth
Cause of global warming: fossil fuels
-​ Natural gas
-​ Oil
-​ Coal
-​ fossil fuels are ancient : natural gas and oil they were in shallow oceans with a
massive amount of biomass were on the floors, got buried, decomposed and became
natural gas and oil
-​ Coal = ancient forests that once covered the planet got buried, under pressure and
temps got pressed into coal
-​ Greenhouse effect: the atmosphere is transparent to light once the light gets in some is
reflected into space, and alot of it hits the earth and is converted to heat energy and
trapped by the atmosphere, the more greenhouse gases the more heat we conserve
-​ One is water and one is CO2 that absorbs the heat
-​ Nitrogen cycle: ammonia comes out as waste of nitrogen
-​ But feeds the organisms in nature
-​ NO2→NO3 in animals waste but feeds the plants
Wetlands: alot of this cycling happens in wetlands
Eutrophication: Eu= lots troph=nutrients
-too much nutrients from human sources for troph to handle so you get algae and bacteria
-happens when waste products are dumped and we overwhelm the system
Cattail- go to marshy wet areas
Biomes: terrestrial major biomes
-​ Tropical rainforests - lots of rains not very harsh winters
-​ Disturbance are low happens over a long period of time
-​ Very long spans of time to develop biodiversity
-​ Canopy trees have a whole community of plants and animals that never come down
-​ Very productive
-​ The soil is very nutrient poor because of the amount of water
-​ Rainforest habitats have not sustained long term dense human civilizations
-​ * extremely productive
-​ Very diverse
-​ More fragile than appears
Tropical biome: tropical grassland Savanna
-​ In the tropics
-​ Always warmer
-​ Home for lions and zebras
-​ Very productive habitat - lots of photosynthesis occurring
-​ Fire is apart of this cycle (fire tolerant)
Desert ​
​
- not a lot of water
-​ Active communities
-​ active ecosystems but not alot of photosynthesis
-​ Not very productive
-​ Not very diverse
-​ Desert Soils:
-​ Biogenic crust - when wet very active: everything is in suspended
animation but when it rains it gets wet and all kinds of activity of fungus
starts to occur
-​ When it is disturbed it takes decades to recover which is bad because this
is very important to the community
-​ Not productive but still important
Temperate grassland:
-​ more rain than desert, but not enough to become a rainforest
-​ Temperate means to be away from the equator
-​ The soil is what contributes to the very tall grass
-​ We flipped the top layer upside down and this is what wheat and grains is grown
in
Temperate deciduous forest:
​
In this zone we get more water
-​ Forest
-​ temperate= away from the equator
-​ forest= trees
-​ deciduous = sheds
-​ In winter they shed their leaves, and go dormant
-​
Fall colors= preparing for winter because the green is expensive so they tree pulls it into
the drunks
-​ This is the adaptational response to cold weather
Taiga: coniferous Forest
-​ Carnivores are pine, fern any tree with needles - they are located in high latitude
-​ - short growing season
-​ Cold winters
-​ These trees are adapted to that
-​ In winter the trees do not shut down
-​ They are called evergreen trees
-​ Adaptive To short growing seasons and short winters
Tundra:
Arctic Tundra:
-​ extreme latitude - far north
-​ Extreme cold
-​ Harsh winters
-​ Short growing seasons(3-4 months)
-​ With small growing area
-​ Far enough north the days are long
-​ When snow and ice melt the photosynthesis is productive
Alpine Tundra:
-​ Far North, high alleviation looks like the hills of a tundra area
-​ Short growing season
-​ Harsh winters
-​ Permafrost: soil that never thaws the ground is permanently frozen
-​ This is part of why there are no trees in tundra because the roots can't get past the ice
-​ Has been known to preserve boats and humans who has passed there
Our biome is the chaparral
-​ Mild winters (doesnt freeze)
-​ Wet winters
-​ Dry summers
-​ Fire tolerant
-​ Aquatic biomes:
-​ Oceans: are huge and stable dont change rapidly such as temperature like smaller
freshwater habitats
-​ Most of it is deep, dark oceans
-​ Aphotic - means no light
-​ Climate change can change the currents which could make life dangerous for organisms
that live in the ocean
-​ Ocean productivity - no shortness of photosynthesis what limits this is the lack of
nutrients the dark area = more nutrients so the areas around washing out of river into
ocean and the shallow areas so the sunshine and the bottom of the ocean are near each
other the dark areas are great fishing regions because nutrients is where the fish go
-​
Upwellings- when nutrient waters go to the surface so there is an uptick in algae and
little fish feed on it which bring whales and birds to the surface
-​ Shallow oceans:
-​ tend to be productive
-​ Normally near land
-​ Close to photosynthesis
-​ Humans can damage them by polluting or damaging the ocean plants
Intertidal zone:
-​ The are where the ocean covers it and uncovers it- known as tide pools
-​ Diverse creates that live there
-​ Challenging environment
Estuary:
-​ Freshwater meets seawater
-areas we have sacrificed because of because of industrial zones, miliary sites, garbage dumps
Lots of photosynthesis
-​ Detritus are working well here helps to give nutrients to the ocean
-​ Candlestick park S.F( ballpark) was built on a estuary land it use to be all wet land that
use to feed the ocean
Coral reef:
-grown in shallow oceans
- in tropics
Water warm and sunlit
The most complex community
Lots of photosynthesis all done by algae
Open ocean:
-​ Deep water
-​ Photosynthesis - not very productive
-​ 25 % of our oxygen and carbon removal is photosynthesis all done by silenobacteria
Deep ocean:
-​ No sunshine
-​ No photosynthesis
-​ Whale fall - big detritus because it provides nutrients for the deep ocean
-​ Lots of diversity
-​ Life is sparse
-​ Deep sea fish have alot of adaptations to not lose a meal
-​ Can swallow things almost as large as he can
-​ Angler fish have little lights on their heads
-​ Food is hard to find in the deep ocean
-​ Some of these fish have an adaptation to never lose their mate
Fresh water:
-​ Much much much smaller than oceans
-​ Not nearly as stable
-​ Conditions can change fast
-​ Can be very cold at night
-​ The things living in them must be able to deal with them
Limnology: fresh water meaning pond or lake
-​ Trophic means food/nutrient
Oligotrophic:
-​ MEANS FEW nutrients in the water
-​ There are lakes that have fresh water and are super clear because there is very little
algae
-​ Nutrient poor
Eutrophic:
-​ Means nutrient rich
-​ Lots of nutrients