Biology 2483A Quiz: Ecology.docx
2 Jan 2015
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Tuesday september 9, 2014: the scientific study of interactions between organisms and their environment. Doesn"t have to be a natural setting just need organisms: the scientific study of interactions that determine the distribution (geographic location) and abundance of organisms. Differs from environmental activism and environmental science (solutions to environmental problems: politics environmental science. Square km of tropical rainforest can"t determine large difference at functional level: lose 1 species from the system, not a large impact on function of system. Ecological maxims (guiding principles: organisms interact and are interconnected, everything goes somewhere. Challenge of ecology is tracking where things end up: no population can increase in size forever. What factors cause it to level off: finite energy and resources result in tradeoffs allocate resources to one function comes at a cost to all other functions. Defining tradeoff that determines when one organism benefits over another: organisms evolve, communities & ecosystems change over time.
