11/21: Hot Spot Activity

Western Ghats and Sri Lanka (#21)

1. Location of the hotspot and type of ecosystems found there.
1. Location: Western Ghats (Southwestern India), Sri Lanka
2. Type of ecosystems: Lowland rainforest, montane rainforest, monsoon rainforest

2. Describe at least one endemic plant species and one animal species found there.
1. Plant species: Dipterocarpus zeylanicus (tree)
2. Animal species: Latidens salimalii (bat)

3. Describe the socio-economic conditions  (pre-industrial, transitional, industrial, post-industrial).
1. There are many socioeconomic constraints protecting forest reserves in Sri Lanka, such as the Sinharaja, one of which is encroaching cultivation. (Specific information regarding pre-industrial, transitional, industrial, post-industrial conditions could not be found.)

4. Human induced and/or natural reasons why species biodiversity is decreasing in that region.
1. Planters and farmers increasingly use protected forests to cultivate, with agrochemicals.
2. Forest products, such as timber and medicinal plants are being extracted.
3. Animals are poached.
4. Invasive species pose threats to aquatic species.

5. What is being done to protect this hotspot?
1. Approximately 13.8% of the area is under official protection.
2. Western Ghats is protected in 20 national parks and 68 sanctuaries.
3. Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are being identified; the identification in the Western Ghats started in 2003.
4. Sri Lanka is officially protected by the Forest Department and the Department of Wildlife Conservation.

6. Any interesting information you found about the area.
1. The island of Sri Lanka has been repeatedly connected with India between successive interglacials by a 140 km-wide land bridge until about 7000 years go.

11/16: Unit 4 Blog

1. Explain in your own words the difference between species evenness and species richness.

Species evenness is the closeness of the number of each species in an area, whereas species richness is the number of species in the area.

2. List and describe four random processes that can cause evolution.

Random mating is breeding in which the choice of partner is not influenced by the genotype.

Genetic variation provides the basis of natural selection.

Genetic recombination produces a new combination of alleles.

Genetic mutation is a permanent change in the DNA sequence.

3. Summarize in your own words allopatric speciation.  Give an example.

Allopatric speciation is the formation of a new species, caused by geographic isolation. An example is the Galapagos finches.

4. What factors determine the rate of evolution?

A factor that may determine the rate of evolution is the kind of species: r and K selection. R species would allow for slightly higher rate of evolution, since offspring are produced more in quantity and higher in frequency, and K species would allow for a lower rate, since offspring are produced less.

5. Do you agree with the statement below?  Why or why not?

“We are currently experiencing a sixth global extinction.”

Yes, I agree with the statement, because so many species today are endangered, close to extinction.

6. Give an example of each of symbiotic relationships/terms below.

Predator/prey: Lion eats zebra.

Competition: Sea anemones compete for territory.

Mutualism: Plover bird cleans crocodile's teeth and obtains nutrition.

Commensalism: Cattle egrets eat insects that are found in the land the cattle disturb as they move in herds.

Parasitism: Mosquito feeds on blood from human.

Keystone species: The sea otter feeds on sea urchins, controlling their population. The urchins would otherwise eat up the entire kelp population.

K-selected species: Humans.

R-selected species: Rodents.

7. In your own words explain the difference between primary and secondary succession in terms of cause and the types of plant species that begin to grow in each.  Give an example of each.

Primary succession occurs in areas that lacked vegetation prior to the disturbance, whereas secondary succession occurs in areas previously supported with vegetation. Primary succession also involves a greater disturbance such as a volcano eruption and pioneer species such as hardwood trees, while secondary succession involves comparatively smaller disturbances such as forest fire and non-pioneer species such as grass.

11/5: Bean Lab

1. The average value is about 16% lower than the value of 50, which is the population size. The value is not very close.

2. Random sampling can only be so accurate. Although 10 trials were conducted, this method is not the most reliable regarding an exact value.

3. There may be trouble marking the animals and even catching them to count or make marks. This simulation obviously does not account for these kinds of troubles. 

11/3: Community Ecology Interview

1. The three different types of ecological diversity are ecosystem, species, and genetic diversities.
a. Genes are the blueprint of an organism's traits because the they are the fundamental structure of an organism. The diversity derived from these traits helps determines the species diversity as well as the ecosystem diversity.

2. We as humans benefit from diversity, through the various agricultural crops and even simply, the aesthetic beauty.

3. Species is defined as the largest group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. It is estimated that approximately 8.7 million species (plus/minus 1.3 million) are present on the Earth today.

4. There is such a broad range in the number of species that exist on Earth because new species are constantly discovered, and many become extinct.

5. The significance of a phylogenetic tree is that the diagram organizes species into categories that indicate how related they are to one another.

6. The difference in a gene and a genotype is that while a gene is a physical location on the chromosomes, genotype is the complete set of genes in an individual.

7. Mutation can be caused by UV exposure or nuclear exposure.

8. Recombination can lead to a mutation by bringing together new combinations of genes on a chromosome that can sometimes produce new traits. One chromosome breaks off and attaches to another chromosome during reproductive cell division.

9. The difference between an organisms's genotype and phenotype is that genotype is the set of genes, while phenotype is the physical appearance as a result of the individual's genes.

10. Artificial selection is breeding in which professionals try to produce offspring that possess many of the desirable characteristics found in their parents. Examples are purebred dog breeding and crop breeding.

11. My order of Darwin's Key Ideas:
     1. Individuals differ in their traits.
     2. Differences in traits are associated with differences in the ability to survive and
         reproduce.
     3.Differences in traits can be passed on from parents to offspring.
     4. Not all offspring can survive.
     5. Individuals produce an excess of offspring.

12. a. Mutation can increase in frequency in a population over time.
      b. Genetic drift can cause some genotypes to be lost by chance.
      c. Bottleneck effect occurs after a population experiences a drastic decrease in size.
      d. Founder effect occurs when a few individuals colonize an island, and the genotypes
          on the island represent only part of the genotypes present in the whole population.

13. An example of allopatric speciation is the Asian elephant.

14. A species can successfully undergo adaptation if the rate of environmental change is not
too fast or too slow and the genetic variation within the species allows for a wide variety of phenotypes. Also, population size matters, as smaller ones evolve more quickly, and generation time tends to be shorter for species that are more reproductively mature.

15. A niche generalist is more equipped to produce a chronic lineage than a niche specialist because generalist is able to survive in a variety of environmental conditions, while specialist is only able to depend on a narrow range of conditions.
a. This could play out in nature in terms of what an organisms consumes. For example, a heterotroph would be a niche generalist since it consumes both animals and plants, while a koala would be a niche specialist since it only consumes one plant species.

There are so many different kinds of plants and animals because the Earth is different everywhere. The same plant wouldn't be able to live in both the desert and the rainforest.

Evolution is the idea that ancestors of animals today were different from animals today. 

You know if something is evolving or has evolved by looking at a tree-like diagram to see how the species connect.

A single animal cannot evolve. Instead, a group of animals, or population, evolves over millions of years.