Reference no: EM133312223

Assignment:

Questions

1. What is the definition of ecology? What is a major goal of ecological studies?
2. List the four levels within the hierarchy of ecology from least inclusive to most inclusive. Provide a brief description of each.
3. What is the difference between an animal's environment and its habitat?
4. What are resources? What classifies a resource as expendable or nonexpendable?
5. What is a niche? What is the difference between the fundamental and realized niche of an animal?
6. What is demography? What are demes?
7. What are the three principal types of survivorship?
8. Briefly describe how the age structure profile of a growing population differs from that of a stable population?
9. In nature, why does the growth of a population not typically align with its intrinsic rate of increase?
10. Why are abiotic limiting factors considered density-independent while biotic limiting factors are considered density-dependent? How density dependence illustrated by the predator-prey cycle?
11. How do ecologists characterize interspecific interactions within communities?
12. What is the principle of competitive exclusion? How do species overcome this?
13. What are two mechanisms of resource partitioning? Provide a brief description of each.
14. What is the benefit of Mullerian mimicry?
15. In ecosystems, what is the meaning of productivity and how is it categorized? What is the difference between producers and consumers?
16. How is a food chain different from a food web?
17. Why is the pyramid of energy an example of the second law of thermodynamics?
18. What is the relationship between the geographic range of a species and its probability of speciation or extinction? How does habitat fragmentation form a paradox of biodiversity?