Ch.

53: Populations: -Population Density: - Given that a population is defined in terms of some natural or arbitrarily defined geographical range, then population density may be defined as simply the number of individual organisms per unit are. -Different species, of course, exist at different densities in their environments, and the same species may be able to achieve one density in one environment and another in a different environment. -Population densities may additionally be determined in terms of some measure other than population size per unit area such as population mass per unit area -Dispersion: -Individual members of populations may be distributed over a geographical area in a number of different ways including 1. Clumped distribution (attraction): may result either from individual organisms being attracted to each other, or individual organisms being attracted more to some patches within a range than they are to other patches; the net effect is that some parts of the range will have a large number of individuals whereas others will contain few or none 2. Uniform distribution (repulsion): means that approximately the same distance may be found between individual organisms; uniform distributions result from individual organisms actively repelling each other 3. Random distribution (minimal interaction/influence): means that where individual organisms are found is only minimally influenced by interactions with other members of the same population, and random distributions are uncommon -Survivorship Curves: -Observing age structure graphically can provide insights into a species' (or a population's) ecology -Survivorship curves graph cohort size against relative age -The typical survivorship curve shows cohort size declining with age -Three general types:

T1. Because individuals tend to die exponentially due to accidents or predation, it often is a good strategy to reproduce relatively early in a life span rather than relatively late. Humans, of course, have a type I survivorship curve; evolution makes us get married young and have lots of babies before a saber toothed tiger comes along and picks us off. T2. The simplest type of decline is exponential, i.e., the death rate for every cohort is the same. These survivorship curves graph as a straight line on semi-logarithmic graph paper. Individuals are lost in these populations mostly to accidents and predation. T3. The other side of the survivorship coin is the degree of investment in individual progeny. Some organisms invest a great deal in each offspring and those organisms are (ideally at least) rewarded with relatively high survivorship at early ages. Other organisms invest little in individual offspring, and display very low early-age survivorship. Organisms produce large numbers of cheap progeny and which display minimal declines in fecundity with age, if they survive their youth. -Age Structure Growth: -Age structure refers to the size of cohorts within a population. - Parameters related to age structure include: 1. Fecundity (birth rate) 2. Generation time 3. Death rate -Life Tables: - Life tables are tables of data on survivorship and fecundity of individuals within a population. -A standard method is to collect data on a cohort, or group of individuals all born in the same time period. -Life tables constructed this way are called cohort life tables. -They can then be used to determine age- or stage-specific fecundity and mortality rates, survivorship, and basic reproductive rates, which in turn can be compared from cohort to cohort enabling an analysis of their annual variation. -Zero Population Growth: - The limiting of population increase to the number of live births

needed to replace the existing population. Never grows because when organisms die, new ones replace them. Ch. 51: Behavior: -Innate Behavior: -Developmentally fixed. -Despite differing environments, all individuals that can exhibit the behavior do exhibit the behavior. -This does not mean the environment doesnt play a role; innate behaviors are triggered by a stimulus, which must occur within the context of the animals environment. -Learned Behavior: -Modified by experience. -There is no hard-and-fast distinction between the two, many learned behaviors have a strongly pre-determined chronology and many innate behaviors are improved by experience. -Optimal Foraging Behavior: -States that organisms forage in such a way as to maximize their energy intake per unit time. In other words, they behave in such a way as to find, capture and consume food containing the most calories while expending the least amount of time possible in doing so. -The understanding of many ecological concepts such as adaptation, energy flow and competition hinges on the ability to comprehend what, and why, animals select certain food items. -Courtship and Mating Behaviors: -Courtship interactions are complex, species specific behaviors. -Mating relationships which change widely among different species include promiscuity, monogamy and polygamy. -Females invest much time and energy in carrying the young before birth, thus discriminate selection of a mate is important. Animals communicate with one another through their various senses. Odors are particularly effective signals in many species as shown by the evolution of pheromones. -Fixed Action Patterns: -A sequence of innate behavioral acts that is essentially unchangeable unusually conducted to completion once it is started. -It is triggered by a sensory environmental stimulus called a

sign stimulus -Because the animal responds to the sign stimulus, rather than the environment as a whole, the animal may be tricked by signals that are out of their usual context. -Imprinting: -Occurs when an animal learns to make a particular response to a particular object. -Process is very rapid. -Can be altered, but the usual pattern is an instantaneous and irreversible alteration of behavior. -Process by which animals develop a social attachment to a particular object. -Sexual imprinting is a process by which animals learn to direct their sexual behavior at particular objects or stimuli. -Kinesis: -A movement behavior such that movement randomly occurs given the presence of a stimulus; in practice, an organism will tend to settle down in a region that is preferred by tending to move particularly when not present in the preferred location. -Taxis: -Directed movement either toward or away from a stimulus. -Pheromones: -Pheromones are chemicals released by an organism into its environment enabling it to communicate with other members of its own species. -Altruism: -A behavior that benefits another individual at the expense of ones self. -From an evolutionary standpoint, the trouble with altruism is that if an altruistic behavior is costly for example dying for someone else then the genes that promote it should quickly disappear from the population. -Yet examples of self-sacrifice abound in animal societies. The most conspicuously selfless are the social insects, the ants, bees and wasps in which most individuals work tirelessly for the good of the colony and never reproduce themselves. -Classical Conditioning: - Classical conditioning is the occurrence of associative learning following repeated, correlated exposure to two stimuli.

-In classical conditioning each stimulus becomes equivalent in terms of the behavioral response. Thus, otherwise irrelevant correlates to relevant stimuli can come to induce identical responses. -Operant Conditioning: -The mechanism by which an organism learns to associate its own behavior with a result (can either be positive or negative) -A desired output is paired with a result, such as food, electric shock, etc. Ch. 52: Intro: -Ecological Changes: -Evolution is the change in the inherited traits of a population of organisms through successive generations. -Abiotic: -Meaning not alive, are nonliving factors that affect living organisms. -Environmental factors such habitat (pond, lake, ocean, desert, mountain) or weather such as temperature, cloud cover, rain, snow, hurricanes, etc. are abiotic factors. -Biotic: -Meaning of or related to life, are living factors. -Plants, animals, fungi, protist and bacteria are all biotic or living factors. -Biomes: -Desert: A terrestrial biome characterized by very low precipitation. -Savanna: A tropical grassland biome with scattered individual trees and large herbivores and maintained by occasional fires and drought. -Tropical rain forest: A terrestrial biome characterized by high levels of precipitation and high temperatures yearround. -Tundra: A terrestrial biome at the extreme limits of plant growth. At the northernmost limits, it is called arctic tundra, and at high altitudes, where plant forms are limited to low shrubby or mat-like vegetation, it is called alpine tundra. -Chaparral: A scrubland biome of dense, spiny evergreen shrubs found at mid-latitudes along coasts where cold ocean

currents circulate offshore; characterized by mild, rainy winters and long, hot, dry summers. -Northern coniferous forest: A terrestrial biome characterized by long, cold winters and dominated by conebearing trees. -Temperate broadleaf forest: A biome located throughout mid-latitude regions where there is sufficient moisture to support the growth of large, broadleaf deciduous trees. -Temperate grassland: A terrestrial biome dominated by grasses and forbs.