Ecology Pt.2

the study of how animals move in their environment, how they socially, how they learn about their environment, and how an animal might achieve cognitive understanding of its environment

the nondirectional movement of an organism or cell in response to a stimulus

an innate behavioral response by an organism to a directional stimulus.

arbitrary stimulus associated with particular outcome

a type of associative learning that’s based on reinforcement or punishment to modify a conditioned behavior

process of knowing that involves awareness, reasoning, recollection, judgment

dN/dT = B - D (dN = change in pop size; dT = change in time; B = birth rate; D = death rate

ideal conditions; population grows rapidly

dN/dT = rN (dN/dT change in population; r = growth rate of pop.; N = population size)

population expansion decreases as resources become limited; levels off when carrying capacity is reached

dN/dt = rN((K-N)/K) (dN/dT change in population; r = growth rate of pop.; N = population size; K = carrying capacity)

• Population close to carrying capacity

• Live around K

• High prenatal care

• Low birth numbers

• Good survival of young

• Density-dependant

• Maximize reproductive success

• exponential growth

• little or no care

• high birth numbers

• poor survival of young

• density independant

factors that affect the population based on density

• Predation

• disease

• competition

• territoriality

• toxic wastes

• physiological factors

factors that affect the population size and doesn’t depend on density or size

• natural disasters (fire, flood, weather)

• the number of people, other living organisms, or crops that a region can support without environmental degradation.

• when close to it, resources become more partitioned, resulting in niche partitioning

decrease in competition over limited resources because each species is accessing the resource in different ways

used to estimate the size of a population

N = MT/R (N = predicted pop. size; M = Marked; T = total # of organisms in second collection; R = # of recaptured that are marked)

interactions between species

the direct or indirect interaction of organisms that leads to a change in fitness when the organisms share the same resource; bad for both species

the preying of one animal on others

the consumption of plant material by animals

create new landscapes or habitats (ex: beaver or sea otters)

2+ species live in direct contact with one another

\n parasites attatches to and harms organisms by draining nutrients

both species benefit (ex: bee and flower)

species 1 benefits, 2 isn’t affected

exert control on community structure by their important ecological niches - increase community diversity (wolves and sea otters)

one species positively impacts the fitness of another (intertidal mussels)

diversity based on species richness & relative abundance; higher diverse communities are more resistant to invasive species

D = 1- Σ(n/N)^2