Class notes
Summary of lectures Animal Ecology
- Course
- Institution
Course of bachelor biology year 2, summary of lectures animal ecology.
[Show more]
1 review
By: daanreijnders • 5 months ago
Seller
Followilonadeweert
Reviews received
Content preview
Animalecology
Ilona de Weert
,Inhoud
1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 2
2. Variation in the environment and life histories .............................................................................. 3
3. Feeding guilds, specialists and generalists ...................................................................................... 5
4. Herbivory 2 – the arms race ............................................................................................................ 7
5. Predation ......................................................................................................................................... 8
6. Parasitoids ..................................................................................................................................... 11
7. Parasites ........................................................................................................................................ 12
8. Commensalism and mutualism ..................................................................................................... 14
9. Detritivory ..................................................................................................................................... 15
10. Nutrition in Animal Ecology ....................................................................................................... 17
11. Trade-offs and Bet-hedging ....................................................................................................... 19
12. Reproduction forms................................................................................................................... 21
13. Sex and gender .......................................................................................................................... 22
14. Sex differences .......................................................................................................................... 25
15. Per capita investment................................................................................................................ 26
16. Development and longevity ...................................................................................................... 29
17. Synchronization ......................................................................................................................... 31
18. Dispersal .................................................................................................................................... 33
19. Functional ecological analysis ................................................................................................... 34
20. Heathland fauna and food quality – Guest lecture 1 ................................................................ 36
21. Examples from the field in Animal Ecology – Guest lecture 2................................................... 38
22. Tracking animal movement and behavior – Guest lecture 3 .................................................... 40
23. Scavenging, the importance of carcasses in nature – Guest lecture 4 ..................................... 41
24. Course Animal ecology – summary lecture ............................................................................... 43
1
, 1. Introduction
Basic principles 1
- Feeding
- Not be eaten
- Grow, develop, learn
- Reproduce
Basic principles 2
- All matter that contains energy will be used sooner or later
Basic principles 3
- Variation is self-sustainable
Species traits
- Limitation of the building plan at one hand
- And using different types of variation at the other:
o Tolerance – basic physiology
o Learn (to adapt) – behavioural aspects
o Phenotypical plasticity – reaction norms
o Genetic variation – population effects
Plasticity and genetic variation
- Phenotypical variation or plasticity means:
o Variation in fitness
o Survival probability
o Natural selection
- Although… the selection is only kept in the population when there is a genetical basis.
Variation 1:
Descriptive
- What do we see?
- What is happening?
- Demography (birds were feeding with syphon instead feeding on the whole animal)
Variation 2:
- The genetical basis (quantitative genetics)
- Which traits are subject to selection?
Singular genes or complex reaction norms: = the mapping of the genotype onto the phenotype
as a function of the environment. (What do we see on the population in different
environments?) For instance: when the amount of food is increasing, the size of the organism
is much bigger.
Variation 3:
Trade-offs
- Currency = fitness (but for convenience we charge in energy)
- In the reaction norm of G2 we see less investment in size; apparently more energy of the food
is invested in another trait than in size compared to G1.
Variation 4:
Lineage specific effects
- The construction plan dictates the preconditions (no duplication of arms, legs)
- How small can an egg be, or how big?
- Stearns indicates in chapter 1 that snakes can only lay eggs (as opposed to give birth alive).
Eggs hatch immediately after laying.
- Here the viper is oviparous, just as with the lizards it is the viviparous lizard
2
, - Why do these species keep the eggs inside? Advantage: keeping them warm because when
cooling in the water, the eggs can’t.
Variation 5:
Different types of variation
- How does the environment select?
- What kind of variation arises from the non-living environment?
2. Variation in the environment and life histories
Types of environmental variation
- Predictable variation with predictable amplitude
o Rotation of the Earth around the Sun and tilt of the Earth’s axis of rotation results in
seasons per year.
o Rotation of the Earth around its own axis (24 hours) results in a day and night rhythm.
o Rotation of the Moon around the Earth in combination with the Earth-Sun position
and the Earth rotation gives the tidal rhythm (twice a day).
- Predictable variation with unpredictable amplitude
o Like raining, not predictable in 5 minutes, but in a week it is predictable.
- Unpredictable variation
o Large scale
▪ Earthquakes and tsunami’s
▪ Volcanic eruptions resulting in large amount of ash in the atmosphere and
thus drop in temperature
o Smaller scale
▪ Rain showers, flooding, landslides
▪ Extra cold or warm periods out of the season
▪ Periods of drought
Species that live 100 years, where every 10 years there is a flood -> predictable. When a species live
only one year -> the flood will be unpredictable.
Attenuation of that amplitude
- The vegetation layer dampens in many areas differences in temperatures and moistures
content
- Thus, removal can have irreversible consequences
- Some soils also dry out irreversibly.
Relation environmental variation and life history
- Cycle of environmental variation is only experienced by an induvial when the lifespan exceeds
the cycle
o A tide cycle is already too long for a bacterium
o A summer aphid will never experience a winter
Life history
- Comparison of life histories is always relative
o Related species lay more or less eggs, larger or smaller ones, have brood care or not,
etc
- With one generation per environmental cycle, each generation will have to survive the
unfavourable time: have an obligatory adaption (have to come through the winter as an
individual).
- Option for several generation per cycle.
Classification of biotopes, habitats
- Distinguish between predictable and unpredictable
- Cyclical or non-cyclical (in relation to environmental cycle) in time
3
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller ilonadeweert. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $11.33. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
66579 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now