THINGS TO STUDY FOR THE FINAL INDEX GENERAL ECOLOGY FALL 1994 Note: Shannon-Weaver Index = Shannon-Wiener Index = Shannon Index. I will refer to it as the Shannon Index. Review your previous examinations for this course, because we may ask the same one again. Be able to do the following: 1) Calculate the Shannon index and species richness for a given set of data. 2) Compare and contrast the major climax concepts. 3) Contrast the holistic and the individualistic concepts of the community. 4) Describe the relationship between genetic diversity, inbreeding, and population bottlenecks. 5) Describe the salient features of each biome (e.g. roughly where it is located, what its climate is like, and what its physiognomy is like). 6) Draw a continuum with two ecotones. Label all axes, and indicate the ecotones. 7) Draw species response curves for a generalist and for a specialist. 8) Give three of the conditions of the competitive exclusion principle. Give one specific example of how each of these conditions might be broken, thus allowing coexistence of species. 9) Graph a continuum with high alpha diversity and low beta diversity, and another continuum with low alpha diversity and high beta diversity. 10) Graph GPP as a function of time since disturbance (assume succession is autotrophic). Mark respiration in the appropriate place. 11) Graph immigration rates and extinction rates as a function of island species richness for a large island and for a small island. Label the equilibrium species richness for each island. Which island will tend to have more species, and why? 12) Graph immigration and extinction rates as a function of island species richness for an island near the mainland, and an island far from the mainland. Which island will tend to have more species, and why? 13) How big is a community? How does it compare in size to an ecosystem? 14) Insecticide use has increased dramatically during this century, yet the proportion of crops lost has remained roughly constant. Why? (Give at least two reasons). 15) Is it ever possible to have a climax community for heterotrophic succession? Why or why not? 16) It is possible that climax never exists, yet species composition is roughly constant on the landscape scale. What is the name of this concept? How does this happen? What conditions must hold for this to work? 17) List Connell and Slatyer's three mechanisms of succession, and give an example of each. 18) List five different reasons for the worldwide decline of biodiversity. 19) List four different reasons people have given for preserving biodiversity. 20) Name two variables which are usually positively correlated with species richness, two variables which are usually negatively correlated with species richness, and two variables which have a complex relationship with species richness. 21) Suppose you abandon farmland in a normally forested region. Graph biomass as a function of time, and label the four stages of forest succession. Also describe what happens to the following characteristics of plants: number of seeds, seed size, dispersal, seed viability, root:shoot ratio, growth rate, mature size, and shade tolerance. 22) Suppose you have four islands: one with five species, one with three species, one with two species, and one with only one species. How many species are on all four islands combined? Be as specific as possible. 23) There is an ongoing debate about whether it is best to preserve species in single large or in several small preserves. What is the name of this debate? What are the chief advantages and disadvantages of large vs. small preserves? 24) What are the components of biodiversity? 25) What is allometry? Give an example of how it relates to the study of habitats. 26) What is ecological release? Under what circumstances will it happen? What are the two major components of ecological release? 27) What is the greenhouse effect? What are its major causes? What are its major consequences? 28) What is the intermediate disturbance hypothesis? How does it allow coexistence? What conditions of the Competitive exclusion principle are broken? EXAMPLES OF POSSIBLE EXAM QUESTIONS (some of these have been used in past years, and some will be used this year) __________A term meaning the percentage of sites or quadrats occupied __________The stable end community of succession; does not necessarily exist __________Plant succession taking place on sites that have already supported life; the soil is still in place __________a series of sites of different ages, used to study succession __________The term describing the outward appearance of the landscape, or the physical structure of vegetation __________a list of the species present in a community, along with some measure of their relative abundance __________Another name for the Competitive Exclusion Principle __________a continuum with time as the environmental variable __________Pocosin, shinnery, and chapparal belong to this biome type __________The symbol representing the equilibrium species number __________The acronym (i.e. abbreviation) for the discussion concerning whether it is best to try to preserve species in many small preserves vs. just one big one. __________True or false: in succession, the climax species are always trees. (Spell out TRUE or FALSE). __________refers to a property which is not predictable based on the sum of the parts of a community __________The degree of equitability in the distribution of individuals among a group of species __________High species richness is expected if a region is surrounded by different habitats, because of constant dispersal from these other habitats. What is the name of this phenomenon? __________Scientists who believe that communities are best understood by studying each part separately. __________the change in species composition from site to site; also known as species turnover __________the situation in which at least one species is driven to local extinction (that is, excluded from a community) by interspecific competition. __________the most common kind of disturbance in temperate shrublands __________the most common kind of disturbance in temperate and tropical forests __________= GNP - Plant R __________The term for a plot of the species response curves of all species together, as a function of position along an environmental gradient. __________A term meaning a major regional ecological community __________The term referring to a species which is only present at one location (this condition is common on old islands). __________The name for the idea that communities are merely functions of populations, and are not organized in any way. __________Which biome has high seasonality in precipitation, but not in temperature, and is dominated by deciduous trees? __________Which biome is present at all latitudes, but especially at 30ø N and S, in rainshadows, and near cold ocean currents? __________Which biome has many succulents with CAM photosynthesis, many spine-bearing plants, and is very dry? __________What climax theory was espoused by Clements, and states that all vegetation within a region will converge to the same vegetation type, which is regulated by homeostasis. __________The term for a species which influences the entire community so much that its removal will cause ecosystem collapse. __________True or False: Increasing ozone levels in the stratosphere have increased primary productivity in the Oceans surrounding Antarctica. __________The term meaning the condition in which a population exists for a period at very small size, during which the population may lose genetic variation by drift. __________Name a component of biodiversity, other than species diversity, community diversity, and landscape diversity. __________True or False: species richness is generally positively correlated with altitude. __________The term for the study of organism's response to the disturbance regime __________The term for a sequence of communities developing in a newly exposed habitat devoid of life (eg. succession on bare rock, newly deposited sand, but not on established soil). __________sequence of communities taking place on sites that have already supported life (eg. oldfield succession, clearcut forests, burned areas, etc.). This kind of succession occurs on soil __________Are all rainforests in the tropics? __________The term for the kind of stability in which communities return quickly to the original condition. __________Which of the following is bigger: a community or an ecosystem? Answer either "COMMUNITY", "ECOSYSTEM", OR "IT DEPENDS". __________What is the name of the author of your textbook? __________The term for a series of successional stages __________Which of the following has the coldest climate: taiga, tropical savannas, temperate deciduous forests, tropical rain forests. __________The term for a long, skinny quadrat. __________A term describing a recognizable type of community during succession. __________A term describing the outward appearance of the landscape; the exact species present are ignored but the physical structure is emphasized. __________Suppose you had 6 bird species in forest A, 8 bird species in forest B, and 12 bird species in forest C. How many species are in all three forests combined? Be as specific as possible (hint: answer is not a single number). __________a term referring to change in species composition as a function of time __________A term referring to the number of species in a community __________a theory which states that succession will result in a continuity of climax types, varying along important environmental gradients. __________another name for the boreal forest __________the biome with the most permafrost __________the term referring to a species which influences the entire community so much that its removal will cause ecosystem collapse __________Which community has higher equitability: (A) a forest with 60 blackjack oaks, 72 sycamores, 61 post oaks, and 56 hickories, or (B) a forest with 6 blackjack oaks, 221 sycamores, 1 post oak, and 5 hickories. Answer either A or B. Suppose you had three communities: A, B, and C. Numbers represent numbers of individual butterflies captured. Community Species A B C Viceroy 120 592 10 Monarch 14 0 0 Painted Lady 11 0 10 Black Swallowtail 22 1 10 Zebra Swallowtail 18 0 10 __________Which community has the highest richness? __________Which community has the highest evenness? __________Which community has the lowest H'? __________What is the richness of Community C? __________What is the Shannon Index (H') for community C? Essay Questions Suppose you have three watersheds in a forested region. The forest in Watershed A has been cut last year. The forest in Watershed B has been cut 20 years ago. The forest in Watershed C has never been cut. Which watershed has the stream with the cleanest water (i.e. fewest nutrients)? Why? Define Stability, resistance, and resilience, and give an example of each. Draw one continuum with high beta diversity, and another with low beta diversity. Label all axes. Which continuum has more specialist species? Which has more generalists? Graph the nutrient balance (in terms of output minus input) for essential nutrients, limiting nutrients, and nonessential elements as a function of time since clearcut. Explain how each curve is shaped the way it is. Also mark on the graph the time at which NPP is highest, and the time at which a steady-state is reached. Label all axes and curves. The ecologist Robert Whittaker was the first person to define alpha, beta, and gamma diversity. Whittaker studied the vegetation in the Siskyou mountains of Northern California and in the Santa Catalina mountains of Southern California. In both mountain ranges, there are approximately the same number of species in any given location. However, the species composition changes very rapidly as you climb the Santa Catalina Mountains, but not as you climb the Siskyou mountains. Compare the alpha, beta, and gamma diversity in the two mountain ranges. Suppose you are in a forested region. Plot total biomass (living plus dead) as a function of time since disturbance (such as clearcutting). Label the stages of forest recovery. Label all axes. Plot GPP as a function of time since disturbance. Label all axes. At what value does GPP level off? Gause's principle states that given enough time, one species will competitively exclude all other species, if seven conditions hold. Of course, we usually find many species coexisting in nature, so at least one of these conditions must be broken. Name five of these conditions. It is possible that climax never exists, yet species composition is roughly constant on the landscape scale. What is the name of this concept? How does this happen? What conditions must hold for this to work? Graph a continuum for a region with low alpha diversity and high beta diversity. On another graph, graph a continuum for a region with high alpha diversity and low beta diversity, but with the same gamma diversity as the first one. label all axes. Which region has more specialists? Draw a light saturation curve for an early successional plant and a late successional plant on the same graph. Label the compensation point for the sun leaf. Label all curves and axes. Also label the light intensity below which there is insufficient light for either plant to grow. ____________________________________________________________ Terms to study for Unit IV ABUNDANCE ACID RAIN AGROECOSYSTEMS ALIEN (EXOTIC) SPECIES ALLOMETRY OF HABITATS ALPHA, BETA, AND GAMMA DIVERSITY ANTHROPOGENIC EXTINCTION AUTOTROPHIC SUCCESSION BACKGROUND EXTINCTION BELT TRANSECTS BIODIVERSITY BIOGEOGRAPHY BIOLOGICAL CONTROL BIOME BIOMONITORING BLUE BABIES BOREAL FOREST CHAPPARAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PLANTS DURING SUCCESSION CLIMAX CLIMAX-PATTERN THEORY COMMUNITY COMPETITIVE EXCLUSION PRINCIPLE COMPLEX-GRADIENT CONNECTANCE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY CONTINUUM CONVERGENCE CYCLIC SUCCESSION DENSITY COMPENSATION DESERTS DISPERSION DISTURBANCE DISTURBANCE REGIME DIVERSITY DIVERSITY INDEX (KNOW EQUATION) DOMINANT DYNAMIC EQUILIBRIUM ECOLOGICAL AMPLITUDE ECOLOGICAL OPTIMUM ECOLOGICAL RELEASE ECOTONES EDGE EFFECT ENDEMISM ENERGETICS ENERGY FLUX IN AGROECOSYSTEMS ENVIRONMENTAL GRADIENT ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABILITY HYPOTHESIS EQUILIBRIUM SPECIES NUMBER EQUILIBRIUM THEORY OF ISLAND BIOGEOGRAPHY EQUITABILITY (=EVENNESS) EXTINCTION FACILITATION FERTILIZER FREQUENCY GAUSE'S PRINCIPLE GAUSSIAN MODEL OF SPECIES DISTRIBUTIONS GENERALIST GENETIC EROSION GRADIENT ANALYSIS GREENHOUSE EFFECT GUILDS HABITAT EXPANSION HABITAT FRAGMENTATION HABITAT ISLANDS HETEROTROPHIC (DEGRADATIVE) SUCCESSION HOLISTIC CONCEPT IMMIGRATION INDIVIDUALISTIC CONCEPT INHIBITION INTERMEDIATE DISTURBANCE HYPOTHESIS ISLAND BIOGEOGRAPHY KEYSTONE SPECIES LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY MASS EFFECT MONOCLIMAX THEORY MVP NICHE BREADTH NICHE SPECIALIZATION HYPOTHESIS NONEQUILIBRIUM HYPOTHESES NUTRIENTS AND SUCCESSION OLDFIELD SUCCESSION OVERGRAZING PATCH PATCH DYNAMICS PATTERNS OF SPECIES RICHNESS PEST PRESSURE HYPOTHESIS PESTICIDE TREADMILL PESTICIDES PHENOLOGY PHYSIOGNOMY POCOSIN POLYCLIMAX THEORY PRIMARY SUCCESSION QUADRATS RELATIVE ABUNDANCE RESILIENCE RESISTANCE RESTORATION ECOLOGY RETURN INTERVAL (TURNOVER TIME) RICHNESS AND SUCCESSION SECONDARY SUCCESSION SERAL STAGE SERE SHANNON-WEAVER INDEX SHIFTING MOSAIC STEADY STATE SHINNERY SLOSS SOIL EROSION SPECIALIST SPECIES COMPOSITION SPECIES RESPONSE CURVE SPECIES RICHNESS SPECIES-AREA RELATIONSHIP STABILITY STAGES OF FOREST RECOVERY SUCCESSION SUCCESSION AND ENERGETICS TAIGA TEMPERATE DECIDUOUS FORESTS TEMPERATE EVERGREEN FORESTS TEMPERATE GRASSLAND TEMPERATE RAIN FOREST TEMPERATE SHRUBLAND TIME HYPOTHESIS TOLERANCE TRANSECTS TROPICAL RAIN FORESTS TROPICAL SAVANNAS TROPICAL SEASONAL (DECIDUOUS) FORESTS TUNDRA