BTU Cottbus

Allgemeine kologie

general-ecology-midterm-2011/12.doc

Assignment (Midterm take-home exam), Module M1 General and applied ecology, part General Ecology, Winter Semester 2013/14
Name: Matriculation no:

ATTENTION, read carefully: The assignment deals with concepts which are crucial to the understanding of ecological theories in the context of biodiversity research. Please write your name and matriculation no. in the prescribed place above. Anonymus assignments are invalid. Please use the complete question sheets as cover pages to your assignment. Assignments submitted without the question sheets are invalid. Write the answers on separate pages. Please stick to the sequence of questions. Repeat the question number to which your answer refers. Write your name on all separate sheets. Connect cover page and answer sheet with staples (no lose leaves, no paper clips, no complex folders, please). The answers are to be submitted as an assignment in hand written form by 20 January, 2014. Typed answers will be regarded as not submitted.

Hierarchy theory 1. What is the difference between the concept of (spatial and temporal) scales and the concept of observational levels? (4 points) 2. What is the difference between idiographic and nomothetic approaches in science? (4 points) 3. What is the difference between the analytical and the holistic approach in ecology? (4 points) Evolutionary biology 4. What is adaptation? (4 points) 5. What is natural selection? (3 points) How is it connected to other evolutionary driving forces such as allele drift, mutation and isolation? (36 points) 6. What is the importance of epigenetic selection compared to (external) Darwinian selection? (4 points) 7. What is relative fitness? (4 points)

BTU Cottbus

Allgemeine kologie

general-ecology-midterm-2011/12.doc

Abiotic conditions 8. What is the difference between resources and conditions (sensu Begon et al.)? (4 points) 9. What is the difference between stress and disturbance (sensu Grime)? (4 points) 10. Which environmental parameters can become limiting factors (sensu Liebig) in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems? (4 points) 11. Draw the exponential and logistic growth model of population growth and give an explanation of the parameters r and K! (6 points) Island biogeography 12. What are the main two historical roots for the elaboration of the equilibrium theory of island biogeography? (4 points) 13. What is the "Fourth Root Law"? (4 points) 14. What are the main ideas of the equilibrium theory of island biogeography, considering immigration and extinction rates? (4 points) Macro ecology 15. Which factors determine large-scale distribution of species richness, as shown in the biodiversity hotspots? (4 points) 16. Which factors determine the large-scale distribution of ecosystem types (zonobiomes)? (4 points) 17. Which factors determine the pattern of global productivity? (4 points)

Grading 72 points are possible. There is no exact pass level for this assignment. The result will be integrated with 25 percent into the final module grade.