ECS Exam 1.docx

ecosystem science - correct answer study of the inter-relationships among living organisms, physical features, biochemical processes, natural phenomena and human activities in ecological communities ecosystem goods - correct answer food, fuel, medicine ecosystem services - correct answer pollination, pest control, recreation "wicked problems" - correct answer complex, unforeseen outcomes, no clear solution The Sustainable Biosphere Initiative - correct answer report from the ecological society of America, "call to action" looking towards future, effective environmental decision making depends on scientific understanding of 1) global change 2) biological diversity 3) sustainable ecological systems human footprint - correct answer quantitative measurement of humanity's impact on the environment, measured in terms of the area of land and water required to produce the goods consumed and to assimilate the wastes generated trade-offs - correct answer between human health and economic welfare and the protection of natural ecosystem function natural economies - correct answer ecosystems as assemblages of species that create a natural economy that includes a chain of production and consumption, natural resources flow through the economy and end up as waste ecology - correct answer study of the abundance and distribution of species and their interactions with each other and the environment biodiversity - correct answer the variety of life (at global and local scales), the complexity underlying ecosystem structure competitive interactions - correct answer 1) contest (interference) competition: species directly interfere with each other's access to resources 2) scramble (exploitative) competition: indirect and results from a mutual effort to exploit the greatest share of a common resource how is species diversity maintained? - correct answer in food chains- maintained vertically by consumptive interactions between trophic levels in competitive systems- maintained horizontally through resource partitioning in reality- far more complex and species interactions evolve over time keystone predation - correct answer one species is critical to maintaining diversity of ecosystem (starfish/mussel/barnacle example) trophic cascade - correct answer an ecological phenomenon triggered by the addition of removal of top predators and involving reciprocal changes in the relative populations of predator and prey through a food chain, which often results in dramatic changes in ecosystem structure and nutrient cycling top down cascade - correct answer predators control lower trophic level populations bottom up cascade - correct answer resources or lower trophic levels control upper trophic level populations 3 conditions for evolution by natural selection - correct answer 1) biological differences in a trait among individuals 2) must pass trait to offspring 3) relationship between the trait and fitness science methodology - correct answer 1) induction- observation 2) reproduction- hypothesis 3)