Exam 1 Study Guide - Honors-Fundamentals of Ecology | RENR 205, Study notes of Ecology and Environment

Download Exam 1 Study Guide - Honors-Fundamentals of Ecology | RENR 205 and more Study notes Ecology and Environment in PDF only on Docsity! RENR 205, Fall 2014 EXAM I STUDY GUIDE How to study:  Focus on understanding and applying the concepts – o describe/explain the concepts and distinguish between concepts through your own analysis (e.g., compare and contrast); o pay special attention to the examples, figures, and tables – explain/interpret the examples in your own words. Make your own examples when possible.  Develop your own organization of the materials – for each topic area, develop your own outline or concept map to show the organization and relationships; look for connections among different concepts.  Explain to someone – the best way to learn is to teach; share with each other your own examples and organizational outlines and provide reciprocal feedback.  Study the slides, pre-lecture and post-lecture quizzes, LearningCurves, and clicker questions; and make use of the book chapters in the process. Topic discussed: What is Ecology • Species interactions • Habitat and Niche • Organization of ecology (organism, population, community, ecosystem, landscape, biome and biosphere) • System; emerging properties, system hierarchy • Structure and function Chapter 18 Community Structure • Communities can have distinct or gradual boundaries. Holistic and individualistic concepts (interdependent vs. independent) Gradient analysis Ecotone and edge Density, dominance, frequency, and importance value • The diversity of a community incorporates both the number and relative abundance of species. Species diversity; richness vs. evenness Rank-abundance curve Log-normal distribution of relative abundance Diversity indices • Species diversity is affected by resources, habitat diversity, keystone species, and disturbance. Effect of resources on diversity Effect of habitat diversity Keystone species