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Ecological Studies: To investigate ecosystems, scientists make use of two…
Ecological Studies: To investigate ecosystems, scientists make use of two broad means of study: observational studies and hypothesis-driven controlled experiments. pg 320
Community Ecology: A community consists of all the populations (of multiple species) living in a particular place. Questions in community ecology focus on interactions between species and how this affects the makeup and organization of the community. pg 322
Interspecific Interactions: Interaction between members of different species. The effect on each species may be beneficial, neutral, or harmful. pg 332
Competition: Such interspecies competition means that reproductive success by one species harms the chances of survival of the other, and vice versa. pg 332
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Mutualism: Mutualism is a form of interspecific interaction in which both populations benefit. Mutualism often occurs among species that are symbiotic, living in close physical association with one another. pg 333
Symbiotic: symbiotic, living in close physical association with one another. pg 333
Commensalism: egrets eat insects stirred up during cattle grazing, but the egrets don't affect the cattle at all. pg 332
Predation: Predation is an interaction in which a predator species kills and eats a prey species. pg 333
Herbivory: Herbivory is the eating of plant parts by an animal. Plants evolve adaptations that provide defense against herbivores, such as the spines of this barrel cactus, or chemical toxins. pg 333
Parasites: A parasite lives on or in (but does not kill) a host, from which it obtains nutrients. Both plants and animals may have parasites. pg 333
Pathogens: Pathogens are disease-causing microorganisms—most often bacteria, viruses, fungi, or protists. pg 333
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Population Ecology: The study of how members of a population interact with their environment, focusing on factors that influence population density and growth. pg 320
Survivorship: The chance that an individual organism within a given population will survive a given period of time. pg 326
Survivorship Curves: A plot of the number of individuals that are still alive at each age in the maximum life span; one way to represent age-specific mortality. pg 326
Growth Models: Population ecologists have developed idealized models that can be used to predict and explain changes in populations in the real world. pg 328
Logistic Model: Logistic growth is where the size of a population grows rapidly until it nears its carrying capacity for that environment pg 328
Carrying Capacity: The carrying capacity is the maximum population size that can survive in an environment, given the limiting factors that exist. pg 328
Limiting Factors: most environments have limiting factors, environmental constraints that put a cap on the size of a population. pg 328
Density Independent: Factors for which the effect does not relate to population density are called density-independent limiting factors. pg 329
Density Dependent: Factors that increase or decrease their effect depending on the density of the population are called density-dependent limiting factors. pg 329
Exponential Model: Exponential growth occurs when the population size of each new generation is a multiple of the previous generation pg 328
Population Density: The number of individuals of a species per unit area or volume of the habitat. pg 328
Dispersion Patterns: The manner in which individuals in a population are spaced within their area. Three types of dispersion patterns are clumped (individuals are aggregated in patches), uniform (individuals are evenly distributed), and random (unpredictable distribution). pg 326
Random: Rarely, individuals in a population are dispersed with no pattern. Such a distribution may arise, for example, when windblown wildflower seeds are randomly dispersed. pg 326
Uniform: A uniform dispersion pattern often results from competition between individuals for the same resource. pg 326
Clumped: The most common dispersion pattern in nature is clumped, with individuals found in small groups with spaces between groups. pg 326