Exam V Study Guide
1) Define “ecology”
2) What is natal dispersal? What example was used and why? Discuss dispersal in male ground squirrels
3) What is a trophic cascade?
4) What is the relationship between mammal richness and energy
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5) What is net primary productivity? What is the general relationship between NPP and species richness? What are some exceptions?
6) Why might birds, in general, be more prone to extinction than mammals?
7) What is sexual selection?
8) Distinguish between ultimate and proximal causation in migratory behavior
9) Describe the costs and benefits of social behavior
10) Discuss the costs of sex for males and females
11) What is the difference between direct and indirect fitness?
12) How is the size of populations determined?
13) Be able to calculate population size given mark recapture data
14) Distinguish between density dependent and density independent growth and the forces that regulate each
15) How are most populations structured?
16) What is a survivorship curve?
17) What are the consequences of niche overlap?
18) Describe how and why human population growth became exponential
20) Define “community ecology”
21) Distinguish between intraspecific and interspecific competition
22) Define “ecological niche”
23) Define “character displacement”
24) What are the possible outcomes of interspecific competition?
25) Describe resource partitioning in Anolis lizards
26) Define food chain
27) Describe energy transfer between trophic levels
28) Define food web
29) Distinguish between primary and secondary succession
30) Define: Ecosystem, Biome, Trophic level
31) Relationship between biomes, NPP, precipitation and temperature
32) Energy flow through ecosystems
33) Pyramids of energy, numbers, biomass
34) Carbon, nitrogen and hydrological cycles (and humans impacts on each)
35) Hubbard Brook
36) CO2 (humans and natural fluctuations)
37) Define Conservation Biology
38) 3 levels of biodiversity
39) Major threats to biodiversity
40) Small population approach
41) Extinction vortex
42) Effective Population Size
43) Reserves