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Study Guide
Test 3
Biology 122
Concepts, ideas and information you should know and understand:
1. Define: community, guild, trophic level, food web, trophic pyramid, horizontal interactions,
indirect interactions, interaction web, species diversity, species richness, species evenness.
2. Why is a community more than the sum of its parts (species)?
3. Describe a rank-abundance curve, noting what is plotted along each axis. How would the curves
differ for communities with relatively higher vs. lower species richness and for higher vs. lower
species evenness?
4. What 2 pieces of information are used in calculating species diversity (such as the Shannon
index)?
5. What would cause a community with low species richness have a higher species diversity than
another community with higher species richness?
6. Define: foundation species, ecosystem engineer, & keystone species. Provide an example of
each.
7. What is a species accumulation curve and why would you create one?
8. Michelle provided an example from her coral reef work of using functional groups/guilds of fishes
as a way of looking at ecosystem function rather than using species diversity. What insight could
be gained from this method?
9. Define alternative stable state.
10. What is parasitism? What is a parasite?
11. Be able to describe an example of the effects parasites can have on their hosts.
12. Know what a foundation species is.
13. With respect to species interactions (competition, predation), understand how direct and indirect
effects affect species diversity.
14. What 2 pieces of information are used in calculating species diversity (such as the Shannon
index)?
15. Define succession. Provide an example of the steps of succession in a community, being clear
as to what happens to allow each step to proceed into the next.
16. At what point in community succession is species richness the greatest? Why?
17. What role does disturbance play in a community?
18. What is meant by “space for time substitution” of succession?
19. Define alternate stable states and give an example.
20. Know what biogeography is and the scales at which the variation can be studied.
21. Understand the factors that control species diversity at the local scale.
22. Understand the feeding relationships and how energy flows through an ecosystem.
23. Draw a trophic chain including detritus.
24. What does a trophic pyramid show and why is it shaped that way?
Study Guide
Test 3
Biology 122
25. Understand why the amount of the first trophic level (NPP) consumed is less in terrestrial than in
aquatic systems (list 3 reasons)
26. Understand what is meant by trophic efficiency. Consumer efficiency. Assimilation efficiency.
Production efficiency.
27. Know what is meant by a trophic cascade.
28. Be able to describe, using an example, of a top down and a bottom up cascade.
29. Understand why most ecosystems have <5 trophic levels. Be able to explain the factors that can
affect them.
30. Understand what causes complexity in food webs. List at least 5 factors.
31. Know what a nutrient is and be able to give an example.
32. Know the sources of nutrients are.
33. Know what “fixation” means with respect to nutrients and be able to give an example.
34. Know what decomposers are, be able to give an example, and understand why they are
important.
35. Understand the factors that affect the rate of decomposition (list 5 factors).
36. Know what is meant by residence time, limiting nutrients and plant recycling.
37. Understand what bioaccumulation/biomagnification is, what its effects are and be able to give an
example.