Ecology Final Guide PDF

History, background and study of ecology 1\. Explain the origins of ecology (origins of the study, origins of the term, modernization of the field) and a couple of the major players (Esp. Elton and Hutchinson) 2\. Explain how ecology is relevant to everyone, not just ecologists 3\. Explain the ma...

History, background and study of ecology 1\. Explain the origins of ecology (origins of the study, origins of the term, modernization of the field) and a couple of the major players (Esp. Elton and Hutchinson) 2\. Explain how ecology is relevant to everyone, not just ecologists 3\. Explain the main arguments of Diamond 1983 4\. Explain the main strengths and weaknesses of the 3 main types of ecological experiments 5\. Explain the importance of multiple lines of evidence and multiple types of experiments for using strong inference in ecology 6\. Explain why strong inference is important to ecology Niches 7\. Explain the origin of the term niche 8\. Explain how the niche can be quantified 9\. Explain two main application of niche theory -- competitive exclusion and niche partitioning and identify how/when they apply and do not apply 10\. Explain the main arguments presented in Hutchinson 1961 (paradox of the plankton) 11\. Identify some of the main arguments as to why we often do not see competitive exclusion 12\. Explain the idea behind succession theory 13\. Explain the idea behind the intermediate disturbance hypothesis 14\. Explain the idea behind source-sink dynamics 15\. Explain how the concept of a niche can be quantified by layering an organisms environmental tolerances into the N-dimensional hypervolume 16\. Explain the difference between a FUNDAMENTAL and a REALIZED niche, and how each can be used in the study of ecology 17\. Explain how an organism's niche can be used to predict how it will interact with other organisms (niche breadth, niche overlap, etc) 18\. Explain how ecosystem engineers complicate our ability to predict species interactions/distributions using fundamental niches 19\. Identify applications and limitations of using niche theory in ecology 20\. Explain the idea behind the biogeochemical niche (BN) (Peñuelas et al. 2019) 21\. Explain the 3 main patterns seen in BNs 22\. Explain how the BN relates to the Hutchinsonian n-dimensional hypervolume Trade-offs 23\. Explain the fundamental idea of a trade-off using major limiting factors for organisms (time, energy, elements) 24\. Explain the main findings and ideas behind Grime 1974 (trade-offs in plants, Grime's triangle) 25\. Explain the general patterns to species richness in a trade-off triangle 26\. Explain how optimality theory can be used to explain differences in life-history traits between different organisms 27\. Predict what types of conditions will favor certain life-history traits (e.g. high reproductive output vs high growth, few high quality offspring vs many low, etc) 28\. Explain Leibig's law of the minimum and how it can be used to predict what types of trade-offs will be selected for 29\. Explain the role of uncertainty in predicting life-history traits 30\. Explain when we expect to see natural selection favor highly 'optimized' phenotypes vs 'generalized' phenotypes 31\. Explain the idea behind bet-hedging -- both conservative and diversified and when this strategy may be selected for 32\. Explain what factors tend to favor investment in maintenance (K-selection) vs investment in reproduction (R-selection) 33\. Explain what factors tend to favor high homeostasis vs plasticity in an organism's elementome Energy flow 34\. Explain how energy is moved between organisms 35\. Explain why ecologists who study food webs care about NPP (net primary productivity) 36\. Compare and contrast using standing stock vs flow to examine food webs 37\. Compare and contrast 'typical' food webs in aquatic vs terrestrial systems 38\. Identify the 3 stages required to move energy between levels (consumption, assimilation, production) 39\. Explain some factors that affect all 3 aspects of trophic transfer efficiency 40\. Explain some of the general patterns of trophic transfer efficiency across ecology 41\. Explain the main argument behind the 1960 paper by Hairston, Smith, and Slobodkin (world is green hypothesis) 42\. Explain some of the main criticisms of the world is green hypothesis 43\. Compare top-down vs bottom-up foodwebs 44\. Explain some limitations to using foodwebs in understanding ecology Nutrient cycles 45\. Define nutrients 46\. Explain the main arguments behind Peñuelas et al 2019 (biogeochemical niche, elementome) 47\. Explain why certain minerals may be more or less important in understanding an organism 48\. Explain the idea behind stoichiometry and limiting nutrients 49\. Explain the ways carbon enters, cycles, and exits ecosystems 50\. Explain the ways nitrogen enters, cycles, and exits ecosystems 51\. Explain the ways phosphorus enters, cycles, and exits ecoystems 52\. Explain how humans influence nutrient cycling 53\. Explain the main argument behind the Julia Rosen 2021 article "Humanity Is Flushing Away One of Life's Essential Elements: We broke phosphorus" Evolutionary Ecology 1\. Explain the basic definition of evolution 2\. Understand the role of genes, alleles, individuals, and populations in scientists looking for signs of evolution 3\. Explain the role of ecology in shaping evolution, especially in the context of natural selection 4\. Explain how we define fitness and how we measure it in ecology 5\. Understand the limitations of using fitness proxies, and which proxies are more accurate 6\. Understand the consequences of the mismatch between evolution acting on alleles and natural selection acting on organisms 7\. Identify the 3 main types of selection (stabilizing, directional, disruptive), and describe scenarios that would lead to each type 8\. Understand the role of meiosis in reducing the impact of the mismatch 9\. Explain linkage disequilibrium and how it is relevant to ecology 10\. Understand the consequences of genetic hitchhiking 11\. Identify under what circumstances genetic hitchhiking is likely to occur 12\. Explain pleiotropy and antagonistic pleiotropy 13\. Identify what circumstances are likely to lead to antagonistic pleiotropy 14\. Understand the role of evolution in ecology, and explain how it challenges assumptions made in classical ecology 15\. Understand the basic idea of Hard-Weinberg equilibrium and how it relates to actual populations 16\. Explain the basic idea and consequences of eco-evolutionary feedbacks 17\. Understand and explain the ecology of the pink shower tree and the osage orange tree, and why it does not make sense outside the context of evolutionary ecology 18\. Using Janzen and Martin (1982), explain how ecological study of large-fruiting neotropical trees does not make sense without taking evolutionary history into account, and in fact will lead ecologists to draw false conclusions about selective forces. 19\. Explain how historical contingency can affect ecological patterns 20\. Understand the role of constraints in evolution and natural selection 21\. Explain how evolution may also be shaped by genetic drift, and how this can confuse efforts to understand ecological natural selection. 22\. Explain the basic arguments behind costly signaling theory 23\. Identify an honest signal based on descriptions 24\. Explain why, despite initial appearances, sexual selection is simply a sub-type of natural section and can be explained using the same principles (anti-Charlie Brown hypothesis) 25\. Explain the central idea behind the principle of niche conservatism (Wiens et al. 2010) 26\. Explain how niche conservatism can help us understand the effects of historical contingency Species interactions 27\. Explain and provide examples of the 6 types of species interactions: competition, exploitation, mutualism, commensalism, amensalism, neutralism 28\. Identify and explain how indirect effects may regulate species interactions 29\. Describe the main objective of He et al 2013 30\. Explain the Stress-Gradient Hypothesis and its operating logic 31\. Describe what a meta-analysis is, and be familiar with some of its strengths and weaknesses 32\. Be able to describe and interpret all figures and tables from He et al. 2013 33\. Describe He et al.'s general conclusions, as well as discuss broader implications (why it matters to other people) 34\. Explain how facilitative species interactions can confound our predictions of species distributions using the fundamental niche 35\. Describe how different factors will influence whether competition will result in competitive exclusion, stable coexistence, or unstable coexistence 36\. Describe the role of priority effects in competitive interactions 37\. Describe how evolutionary pressures will act to reduce competitive interactions 38\. Predict how interaction strength will affect different exploitative interactions 39\. Identify how different factors will influence whether exploitative interactions are stable, unstable, or result in extirpation 40\. Describe how co-evolution may affect exploitative relationships 41\. Identify factors that determine the stability of mutualistic relationships 42\. Explain why modeling mutualisms is kinda hard 43\. Predict when we would expect selection AGAINST mutualisms Population ecology 1\. Define a population 2\. Explain how we estimate growth rates 3\. Describe the 3 main types of survivorship curves 4\. Define the terms of the equation dN/dT = B + E -- D -- I 5\. Be able to describe net growth rates based on figures of population size over time 6\. Explain how dN/dT = aN(1-N/K) differs from the above equation, and how it affects population growth rate 7\. Interpret graphs of λ and r and use them to predict whether the population is growing, shrinking, or staying constant 8\. Compare/contrast a logistic vs exponential growth curve, and identify scenarios in which one might more accurately describe a population's growth pattern 9\. Explain what carrying capacity is, and factors which determine it 10\. Identify factors as density dependent or density independent, and understand how they will affect population growth rates 11\. Identify whether a population is stable over time, and what stable populations may look like at different rmax values 12\. Define and explain the 4 major methods of estimating population (complete counts, subsamples, indirect counts, and mark-recapture) and when they are most useful/practical 13\. Explain the importance of age/stage models in studying population demography 14\. Explain how population ecology is used in studying evolution, conservation biology and resource management Communities and Ecosystems 15\. Be able to define a community and explain how we might measure it 16\. Be able to demonstrate with an example what the difference is between species richness, species evenness, and species diversity 17\. Be able to define an ecosystem and explain how we might measure it 18\. Provide an example of how ecosystem-level questions often focus on functions, and explain how we might quantify this 19\. If given a hypothetical function, identify probable factors which regulate its input/output 20\. Explain how α (alpha) diversity and β (beta) diversity are different 21\. Explain the reasoning behind the Biodiversity/Ecosystem Function argument 22\. Present a solid argument about the strengths and weaknesses of the theory that greater biodiversity = greater ecosystem function Tilman, Isbell, and Cowles (2014) 23\. Outline the general questions evaluated by the authors (there are 4) 24\. Compare and contrast diversity-productivity theory, diversity-stability theory, and diversity-invasibility theory 25\. Explain multiple mechanisms that may drive the BEF pattern (there are 3) 26\. Explain the difference between BEF and selection effects, and how we can distinguish between them (hint: you should use the graphs) 27\. Explain the importance of overyielding, and whether it provides support for or against BEF (and why?) 28\. Describe Tilman 2014's general conclusions Emergent Properties 29\. Define an emergent property 30\. Provide an example of an emergent property in ecology 31\. Explain why emergent properties present a problem for making ecological predictions 32\. Present an argument about the strengths and weaknesses of holistic and reductionist ecology 33\. Describe the 'problems with pattern and scale in ecology' according to Levin 1992 34\. Describe solutions to the problems brought up by Levin 1992 35\. Explain the connection between Levin 1992's argument for conducting ecological research and the argument for using strong inference in ecology 36\. Explain the role of holistic and reductionist approaches in ecology according to Levin 1992 37\. Explain the role of basic life history and natural history, according to Levin 38\. Describe the correct scale for a question, according to Levin Environmental Variation 39\. Explain the link between environmental variation and an organism's niche 40\. Explain the role of solar radiation in driving large-scale environmental variation across latitude 41\. Explain how climate cells cause variation in rainfall across latitudes 42\. Explain how incorporating the Coriolis effect changes our model 43\. Explain how incorporating altitude changes affects our model 44\. Explain how aquatic and marine system biomes are broadly grouped 45\. Contrast how environmental extremes influence organisms vs environmental averages (hint: think about edges vs optima) 46\. Explain how physiology is affected by environmental variables 47\. Read and explain a hypothetical figure showing a physiological response curve to changes in an important environmental variable 48\. Explain why something as simple as average annual minimum temperature (USDA zones) can predict species distributions 49\. Explain why something as simple as an average annual minimum temperature (USDA zones) can fail to predict species distributions 50\. Define acclimatization vs adaptation, and explain the time scale each one operates on 51\. Explain the various strategies organisms use to cope with non-ideal temperatures (different enzymes, membrane composition, isozymes, thermoregulation, etc) 52\. Explain the difference between plastic and constitutive responses 53\. Predict under what conditions we would expect to see plastic vs constitutive traits 54\. Explain the main strategies for A. tolerating and B. avoiding stress 55\. Explain the role of predictability in stress responses, particularly with plasticity 56\. Explain the connection between changes in stress and changes in community, and the concept of successional responses 57\. Identify under what conditions shifts in stressors will result in community shifts, and what conditions lead to predictable community turnover 58\. Explain a diagram of community succession, and propose hypothetical traits that will become more or less common in organisms as the community shifts over time 59\. Explain the role of both Niche theory and Neutral theory in determining community responses to stress and turnover 60\. Describe patterns where niche theory (determinism) is more important for explaining community composition, and describe patterns where neutral theory (stochasticity) is more important for explaining community composition 61\. Explain the idea behind a 'stable state' and how that is different than communities structured by stochastic effects like historical contingency 62\. Provide an example of how priority effects can stochastically structure communities 63\. Relate the idea of environmental filtering in community composition to the idea of the realized niche Climate Change 64\. Explain climate change from the perspective of carbon cycling as an ecological process 65\. Create a diagram showing the main pathways carbon cycles through and highlight the vectors humans have impacted the most 66\. Identify major ecological challenges posed by climate change 67\. Describe how climate change may alter global ecological processes, like net primary productivity 68\. Describe the two main strategies for organisms to deal with environmental change, and which types of organisms are least and most likely to persist under rapid environmental shifts 69\. Describe important model components when making predictions about the future of a given species 70\. Define phenology, and explain why phenology is often studied when looking at how organisms are affected by climate change 71\. Provide a hypothetical example of a phenological mismatch and explain its ecological consequences 72\. Explain the anthropogenic mass extinction, and generally what evidence we have it is happening 73\. Explain the concept of ecological mitigation of climate change, and identify the two main strategies we can use 74\. Present an argument for how ecological principles can be used to increase sequestration of atmospheric carbon 75\. Present an argument for how ecological principles can be used to decrease loss of carbon from ecosystems where carbon is currently sequestered 76\. Identify some ways in which personal choices can affect your overall carbon footprint 77\. Identify some ways in which large-scale governmental intervention can affect climate change 78\. Outline how ozone depletion and acid rain can be used as examples of successful governmental intervention into ecological problems 79\. Describe some ways in which climate change may benefit from a similar approach to dealing with ozone depletion and acid rain, and some ways in which climate change is much more difficult to grapple with Ecosystem Services 80\. Explain the concept of an ecosystem service 81\. Explain why the concept is gaining popularity in ecology 82\. Explain the strengths and weaknesses of this approach, and why despite its popularity it is also commonly criticized 83\. Explain the general idea behind NYC's upstate land purchases and how it demonstrates the value of ecosystem services 84\. Summarize the main objectives/arguments, findings, and conclusions from Costanza et al. 2014 85\. Present an argument as to why Costanza et al.'s approach is the best (or at least close to it) way to protect ecological services, or present an argument that a different approach is superior to Costanza et al.'s approach 86\. Identify one strength and one weakness of Costanza et al.'s approach and arguments Unit 1 readings Diamond (1983) -- types of experiments Identifies 3 types of experiments: natural experiments, lab experiments, field experiments Each has unique strengths and weaknesses: lab experiments good for isolating variables, but only feasible on small fast-growing organisms and cannot capture the complexity of natural systems. Natural experiments are excellent for capturing complexity and large-scale (either time or space) processes as well as things that are not ethical to actively manipulate but variable isolation is impossible and you have limited access since you're reliant on things out of your control to create them. Field experiments lie somewhere in between with some of the strengths and weaknesses of both. All 3 types of experiments are necessary for ecology, and compliment each other Hutchinson (1961) -- paradox of the plankton Niche theory predicts two sufficiently similar organisms cannot indefinitely coexist without either natural selection driving them apart (niche partitioning) or driving one extinct (competitive exclusion) Observation of ecology shows many organisms with very similar phenotypes all competing for the same limited resources -- what maintains this diversity? Several possible explanations: environmental variability means insufficient time for competitive exclusion to apply in many cases high levels of environmental heterogeneity mean that organisms aren't actually 'overlapping' Overlap may be result of source-sink dynamics Ecological principles can be axiomatically true without being particularly useful in understanding what the heck is going on Grime (1974) -- characterizing plants Given a limited allocation of resources, plants invest in some traits at the cost of others Generally speaking, plants can be good at living in stressful areas, highly disturbed (ruderal) areas, or highly competitive areas Being better at one trait comes at the cost of being good at other traits Habitats that are extreme in one way will have few species Moderate habitats have the most species Rosen (2021) -- Humanity is flushing away one of life's essential elements Phosphorus is historically a major limiting nutrient for plants Humans have radically increased the rate at which phosphorus enters the environment Increased phosphorus does all sorts of whackadoodle things to ecology Mined phosphorus is pretty essential for feeding people We can't rely on mined phosphorus forever Peñuelas et al. (2022) the bioelements, elementome, and biogeochemical niche Organisms require environmental inputs of many different elements (bioelements) Each organism has its own specific elemental requirements (the elementome) Every organism has strategies for acquiring the elements it needs, and these needs/strategies can be used to make ecological predictions (biogeochemical niche) Taxonomic relationships, traits, and competition for nutrients can be used to predict an organism's biogeochemical niche Stoichiometric needs of organisms are somewhat flexible, depending on stuff. Unit 2 readings He et al. (2013) -- species interactions and stress As stress increases, organisms increasingly rely on facilitative interactions, or reduce competitive interactions Only studied in plants, but it had pretty universal support Species traits/evolutionary history did seem to affect strengths of interactions Janzen & Martin (1982) -- the fruit the gomphotheres ate Many north American trees have large heavy fruit that do not spread from underneath the parent tree Looking at the ecology of these plants in their CURRENT settings, it's basically impossible to explain why on earth they're like this Looking at their evolutionary PAST, they may have been dispersed by large land mammals that are now extinct, and now these trees are stuck (megafaunal dispersal syndrome, evolutionary anachronism) Historical contingency and evolutionary constraints mean that an organism's ecology can only be understood when taking into account its evolutionary history in addition to its present Wiens et al. (2010) -- Niche conservatism as an emerging principle Emphasis is placed on natural selection causing change over time, but much of a species' niche is determined by traits retained over its evolutionary history. Many ecological processes will conserve traits over time, not select for new traits (stabilizing selection) Principle of niche conservatism can be used to detect potential new areas of study and ask ecological questions Use assumptions that traits are conserved, then look at when they are not -- means strong selective pressures have occurred. The more different you are from your closest relatives, the stronger the pressures must be Unit 3 readings Tilman, Isbell, and Cowles (2014) Using a meta-analysis approach, wanted to answer 4 major questions: Are diversity effects real---that is, can they be documented in well-designed experiments? 2\. What underlying processes and mechanisms could cause changes in diversity to impact ecosystem functioning? 3\. How general are diversity effects? 4\. How important are diversity effects---that is, how large are they relative to effects of other factors? Found that diversity effects ARE real, and commonly documented. Found support for all 3 mechanisms they were interested in: niche complimentarity, resource-use efficiency, and trophic complexity Found that diversity effects are VERY general, and while most commonly studied in plants, they can be found pretty much everywhere Found that diversity effects have effect sizes larger than other ecological factors, particularly at low richness Overall, they're real, they're driven by a bunch of different processes, and they matter a lot Levin (1992) Every ecological question/hypothesis has a different scale at which it can be studied When studying organisms, life history/natural history determine the scale, as organisms have to be studied at the same time/space scale they experience Patterns often appear at one scale, while the mechanisms driving those patterns appear at a different scale When scaling up and down, it's essential to consider what factors are important to keep and what can be thrown away (separating signal from noise) Theoretical models are essential to prediction, but must be constructed carefully using traditional ecological knowledge and simplifying as much as possible without losing too much information Costanza et al. (2014) Costanza et al. (2014) -- Value of ecosystem services Ecosystem service valuation is potentially problematic, but may be a useful tool for conveying the importance of ecosystem services for keeping people alive and happy When we valuate ecosystem services, the numbers get mondo big, and they're even bigger than when we did it in 1997 We lost a bunch of ecosystem services since the initial study We'd all be dead without ecosystem services, please stop taking them for granted, pretty please??? Most ecosystem services are in fact public goods and so cannot be managed through a market framework