Behavioral & Population Ecology

1. Behavioral & Population Ecology AP Biology Unit: Ecology Ch 50, 51, 52 Miss Hanna

2. Journal 1

3. What is Ecology? • Ecology - scientific study of the interactions between organisms and the environment. • “Richness of the biosphere” • These interactions: • Determine both the distribution of organisms and their abundance • What does distribution mean? • Where organisms are found and how many of them there are.

4. What is Ecology? • Ecology is both observational/descriptive and experimental • Observational - what’s there and how does it change. • Experimental - rigorous due to mathematical modeling of populations and ecosystems which relies on innovative experimental design and statistical inferencing. • Changes in Ecological time (minutes, months, years) result in changes in Evolutionarytime (decades, centuries, millenia +) • Predators eat prey, kills off individuals which lowers the population size (ecological effect) and changes the gene pool (evolutionary effect)

5. What is Ecology? • For example: • Hawks feeding on field mice have an immediate impact on the prey population by killing certain individuals which lowers the population size. • What kind of an effect is that? Ecological or Evolutionary? • Ecological • The hawks feeding on the field mice alters the genes available in the mouse population • What kind of an effect is that? Ecological or Evolutionary? • Evolutionary

6. Environmental Factors • Abiotic factors: • non-living chemical & physical factors • Temperature • Light • Water, including salinity • Nutrients, including soil and rocks • Dissolved oxygen • Biotic factors: • living components

7. What is Biotic? What is Abiotic?

8. Dispersal • Dispersal - the movement of individuals away from their area of origin or from centers of high population density. • Natural range expansion • Cattle egrets • Originally found in Africa and Australia. Only found in Americas 200 years ago. • Early humans “out of Africa” • Different from migration • Species transplants (Human involvement) • Potential vs. actual ranges • If transplant is successful (survives and reproduces) you can conclude that the potential range is larger than its actual range • Where organisms could be versus where they are. • Invasive/introduced species. • Transplants can be disruptive to natural ecosystem- Asian Carp in Mississippi threaten Great Lakes

9. What is Ecology • What factors prevent some organisms from occupying all of their potential range? • Behavior – animals may avoid certain habitats that are suitable; anopheline mosquitoes do no lay eggs in rice fields potentially because they have not adapted to this new habitat • Biotic Factors – other species, predation, parasitism, disease, competition, or the area lacks a necessary organism (ex. pollinator) • Abiotic Factors – temperature, water, sunlight, wind, rocks and soil

10. Earth’s Biomes- What can you notice about this map?

11. Environmental factors • Climate - Long-term prevailing weather in a particular area. (temperature, sunlight, water, and wind) • Macroclimate - Patterns on a global, regional and local level. • Microclimate - Patterns on a smaller scale. • Ex. A community living under a log. Lichen Rotting Logs Tide Pools

12. Why do we have weather? • Latitudinal variation in sunlight intensity.

13. Why do we have weather?Seasonal variation in sunlight intensity.

14. Why do we have weather?Global air circulation and precipitation patterns.

15. Terrestrial Biomes • Climograph – temperature and precipitation plot for a region

16. Tropical rainforest distribution: equatorial precipitation: very wet temperature: always warm characteristics: many plants & animals, thin soil

17. Savanna distribution: equatorial precipitation: seasonal, dry season/wet season temperature: always warm characteristics: fire-adapted, drought tolerant plants, herbivores, fertile soil, between a desert and rainforest

18. Desert distribution: 30°N & S latitude band precipitation: less than 30 cm per year temperature: variable daily & seasonally, hot & cold characteristics: sparse vegetation & animals, cacti, succulents, drought tolerant, reptiles, insects, rodents, birds

19. Temperate Grassland distribution: mid-latitudes, mid-continents precipitation: seasonal, dry season/wet season temperature: cold winters/hot summers characteristics: prairie grasses, fire-adapted, drought tolerant plants; many herbivores; deep, fertile soil

20. Temperate Deciduous Forest distribution: mid-latitude, northern hemisphere precipitation: adequate, summer rains, winter snow temperature: moderate warm summer/cool winter characteristics: many mammals, insects, birds, etc.; deciduous trees; fertile soils

21. Coniferous Forest (Taiga) distribution: high-latitude, northern hemisphere precipitation: adequate to dry (temperate rain forest on coast) temperature: cool year round characteristics: conifers; diverse mammals, birds, insects, etc.

22. Arctic Tundra distribution: arctic, high-latitude, northern hemisphere precipitation: dry temperature: cold year round characteristics: permafrost, lichens & mosses, migrating animals & resident herbivores

23. Alpine Tundra distribution: high elevation at all latitudes precipitation: dry temperature: cold year round characteristics: permafrost, lichens, mosses, grasses; migrating animals & resident herbivores

24. Behavioral Ecology

25. What is behavior? • Behavior-everything an animal does & how it does it • response to stimuli in its environment • innate • inherited, “instinctive” • automatic & consistent • learned • ability to learn is inherited, but the behavior develops during animal’s lifetime • variable & flexible • change with experience & environment