Define what is meant by a community.
What are some of the reasons plant
communities are described and mapped out? What statistical
and computer tools aid in this endeavor?
Short of listing every single species in a community, what approaches are used to describe the physical and biological nature of communities? i.e. growth-forms...
The boundary between two communities is called what?
Communities are often defined informally based on the dominant species. How is dominance in a community evaluated?
What is a "keystone" species?
What techniques are used
to determine community composition, and subsequent clustering of species
groups based on similarity or dissimilarity based on the composition of
species in a sample?
Would you expect distinct community zonation to be found across a landscape with very gradual environmental change?
What are the Clementsian and Gleasonian views of communities? What evidence is there for either case? If there is a synthetic or middle ground, what is it?
What is gradient analysis?
What properties of a disturbance determine the magnitude of its impact on a community?
What is the general relationship between intensity and frequency of disturbances, particularly floods, wind events, and fires?
What are 3 requirements for fires in plant communities?
What are 3 general categories of fires, based on their intensity?
Why aren't fires more frequent in desert ecosystems? Why are fires more frequent in chaparral and some Great Basin ecosystems than they were historically?
What tools do ecologists use to reconstruct the frequency and spatial extent of historic fires?
How can plants adapt to natural fire regimes?
How does the post-fire environment change relative to pre-fire conditions?
Is competition more or less intense following fire for the plants that survive it?
What landscapes in Boulder County experience more catastrophic crown fires now as a result of fire suppression in the early to mid-20th century? What landscapes have been unaffected by fire suppression?
In what ways have humans interfered in disturbance regimes? What is meant by "novel disturbance regimes?" [This topic was also covered in the lecture on Succession]
How are some communities fire-dependent? What is meant by saying that some communities are "pyrogenic?"
Under what disturbance conditions
is selection pressure likely to give rise to adaptations to fire?
Such selection pressure may act on what 2 main aspects of a plant's life
history strategies (i.e., adaptations to what 2 parts of a plant's life
cycle)?
Define "succession" in an ecological context.
What is the difference between primary and secondary succession? How do the early physical and biological environments differ between these types of succession. How would life history characters of the plants differ in the early stages of succession?
How have the stages of primary succession in Glacier Bay been studied to describe the vegetation types associated with glacial recession?
Early conceptual models of succession emphasized what factor as the principal control on vegetation turnover? Later models refined this, and included what other biotic interactions and physical environmental factors?
What is a Species-Area Curve, and how is it constructed? What can it be used for? What would a Species-Area Curve look like if sampling crossed into a different community?
Describe how a mosaic of different
communities might develop and be maintained across an otherwise uniform
landscape.
What are the 2 components of diversity in an ecological context?
What is meant by alpha, gamma, and beta diversity?
What factors influence variation in gamma diversity? What biotic interactions influence alpha diversity?
What factors may limit competitive exclusion, and promote higher diversity in communities?
What is the "intermediate disturbance hypothesis?"
Diversity is hypothesized to influence what ecosystem properties? [covered in lecture on Conservation Biology (L23) - 12/9/05]
Of the 2 components of diversity mentioned in the first question of this section, how are these represented in the Shannon-Wiener index (H)?
What is the Jaccard Index?
How is it calculated?
What tools or proxies are used to reconstruct climate trends over time scales of 100's to 1000's of years?
What tools or proxies are used to reconstruct plant communities over the same time scale?
Following Pleistocene glaciation, did species recolonize North America at the same rate? Were communities the same as those that occur today?
What does the paleoecological record of vegetation change over the last 18,000 years suggest about how current vegetation will respond to climate change?
What are the general features of the climate record since the last glacial maximum?
What are “refugia”for species? Where were they during the last glacial maxima (18,000yr ago)?
What role have refugia played in determining diversity of today's plant communities? [some information on this is also discussed in the lecture on Hotspots, L25]
What are the reasons for and limitations of using the paleoclimate and paleoecological record as analogs for the future?
Are all rare plants endangered?
What are the leading causes of human endangerment of rare plant populations?
Why are small populations more susceptible to local extinction?
What are the pros and cons of one large versus several small reserves to protect rare plants? [covered in lecture and text - 12/9/05]
What steps should be taken before undertaking a species restoration project?
What is "biodiversity" as distinguished from community (species) diversity (what aspects of ecology are also considered under biodiversity)?
What is the value of biodiversity (considering ecological, economic, and cultural aspects)?
What are biodiversity "hotspots?" What are their utility in conservation?