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Keystone Species
Species that play roles affecting many other organisms in an ecosystem
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Why are sharks important?
Because they remove injured or sick animals from ocean(ocean would be filled with dead and dying fish). We can learn why they almost never get cancer.
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What threats do sharks face?
- Many Sharks are
- caught for their valuable fins and then thrown back alive into the water (fins
- removed). They vulnerable because they grow slowly, mature Late, and have only a
- few offspring per generation.
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Name three reasons why insects are important to us?
- -Many of the earth’s plants species depends on insects to pollinate
- their flowers
- -Insects that eat other insects such as Praying Mantis to help control
- the populations of at least half the species of insects we call pests
- -Some insects also play a key role in loosening and renewing the soil
- that supports plant life on land
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Why are alligators so important?
- -Because of its important ecological role in helping to maintain the sustainability of the
- ecosystems in which it is found
- Alligator eat large gar, a predatory fish, which helps maintain the population of game fish such as bass and bream that like to eat gar.
-As alligators create gator hole and nesting mounds, they help to keep shore and open water areas free of invading vegetation
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The Theory of Evolution
explains the idea that all species descended from earlier, ancestral species in other words, Life Comes From Life
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3 reasons why the fossil record is uneven and incomplete.
- -Some forms of life left no fossils
- -Some fossils have decomposed.
- -The fossils found so far represent probably only 1% of all species that have ever lived
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Describe how natural selection works.
Is Genes mutate, Individuals are selected, and populations evolve such that they are better adapted to survive and reproduce under existing environmental conditions.
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What three conditions are necessary for evolution to occur by natural selection?
- -Adaptive trait
- -Differential trait
- -Some traits favor individuals over others
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One common misconception about evolution is that humans descended from apes, what are two other common misconceptions
- -Survival of the fittest means survival of the
- strongest is another misconception; Fitness is a measure of reproductive success not strength
- -Another misconnection is organisms develop certain traits because they need them
- (-Ex:giraffe ancestor had a gene for long necks that gave it an advantage over other members of its population in getting food, and that giraffe produced more offspring with long necks)
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What is the theory of plate tectonics?
The continents are in constant motion and when they collide it makes a mountain
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Speciation? 2 Phases?
Speciation is formation of two species from one species because of divergent natural selection in response to changes in environmental conditions
- -Geographic Isolation
- -Reproductive Isolation
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Background and Mass Extinction
-Background extinction rate normal extinction of various species as a result of changes in local environmental conditions.
-In Contrast, Mass Extinction is a significant rise in extinction rates above the background level
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How many mass extinctions have we had in the past?
Are we currently in a mass extinction?
-5 mass Extinctions
-Yes because of human activities
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What occurs after a mass extinction and how long does it take to rebuild biological diversity?
- -An increase in species diversity over several million years as new species have arisen to
- occupy new habitants or to exploit newly available resources
- -What occurs is the evolution of new species that can fill unoccupied ecological roles or newly
- created ones
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What is the difference between an ecological niche and a habitat?
- -Ecological Niche it is a species’ way of life in a community and includes everything that
- affects its survival and reproduction, such how much water and sunlight it needs and etc.
-Habitat is where specie lives while Niche is the pattern of living
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Generalist Species? Give an example
- Generalist Species have Broad Niches, which mean they can live in many different places,
- eat variety of foods, and often tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions (ex; are flies, cockroaches’ mice rats’ raccoons and humans.)
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Specialist Species? Give an example
- Narrow Niches they may be able to live in only one type of habitat, use just one or only few
- types of food, or tolerate narrow range of climatic and other environmental conditions, (Ex; Shorebirds, Chinas Giant Panda)
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Cockroaches rule! What makes them so successful?
They are Generalist, they can eat almost anything and live anywhere except in polar regions, some can go a month without food and can withstand a massive doses of radiation, can survive being frozen for 48 hours lastly they have a high reproductive rate
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Why should we care about the loss of global (or
local) biodiversity?
Because they play a major role in our ecosystems and can preform more than one task to the ecosystem
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Why are amphibians vanishing?
- -Because of the rapid changes in the air and water over the past few
- decades
- -The eggs of frogs have no protective shell to block UV radiation or
- pollution
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Why should we care about Amphibians Vanishing?
- Because adult frog play an
- important ecological role in our biological communities such as eat insects and
- also we have been using them for medical treatment and they are sensitive to environment change are indicators of dramatic changed in our environment
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