1/6/15 Lecture One notes.

1. What do decomposers and detrivores do?

a. Decomposers secrete enzymes and take the nutrients.
b. They are doing the same thing, but in different ways. One is externally and the other is
internally.
2. What is the geographic range of the Pacific tree frog and how does it compare to other frogs?
a. Pseudacris is limited to the left of North America.
b. On the other hand, Rana sylvatica is all over North America. Instead of residing in the
equator, their physiology and anatomy allows for them to reside in the Northern
regions.
c. This is possibly due to adaptation to colder temperatures, but not warmer ones. Their
bodies cannot tolerate it.
d. Decisively, their abiotic factors must tolerate their condition.
3. What is the range of tolerance?
a. If the species is in an optimal range, the species abundance will grow.
b. If tolerance is too low, the organism will not survive. The same applies if it is too high.
Physiological stress applies.
c. The optimum tolerance is in the middle.

d.
4. What affects light intensity primarily?
a. The time of day.
5. What other factors aside from intensity varies?
a. Quality of light, wavelengths, etc.
6. How are substratum characteristics measured?
a. Particle size is quantified.
b. A ruler and microscope can be used.
c. Aside from size, colour is also a viable variable.
7. What happens to phosphorus concentrations in cut/uncut forests?
a. Uncut (unmanaged) forests have more trees and are thus more abundant in phosphorus
concentrations in the soil.
8. What are the effects of biotic interactions?
a. In biology 140, we are looking at the range of tolerance.
b. For instance, in predation, the effect of consuming a fox by the eagle leads to energy
gains by the eagle. The population will then grow because it can now reproduce and
feed its offspring.

c. Species are always competing for food and energy.

9. What are biology 140s experimental organisms?
a. The red worm is studied because they are easy to obtain and perform exercises on
them.
b. The sour back is a crustacean, not an insect.
c. The flower beetle is another organism that will be studied.
d. The house cricket has sexual identification based solely on morphology. (I.e.: the female
is larger than the male because they lay eggs and because wings are modified because
males must sing to woo their mates).
e. The bandit wood-snail.
f. The fruit fly, in this case, the fruit fly has a mutation that is unable to fly.
10.