ESA Community Ecology Flashcards
6 cards from real ESA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 6 ESA Community Ecology flashcards as text
Which term describes the sequential change in species composition of a community over time following a disturbance that leaves soil intact?
Answer: Secondary succession
Secondary succession occurs on sites where soil remains after a disturbance, allowing faster colonization than primary succession.
The intermediate disturbance hypothesis predicts that species diversity is highest at:
Answer: Intermediate disturbance frequencies
Intermediate disturbance prevents competitive exclusion by dominants while still allowing recolonization by early successional species, maximizing diversity.
A keystone species is best defined as a species that:
Answer: Exerts a disproportionately large effect on community structure relative to its abundance
A keystone species has an ecological impact far greater than would be predicted from its abundance or biomass alone.
Which index combines both species richness and evenness to quantify community diversity?
Answer: Shannon-Wiener index
The Shannon-Wiener index (H') accounts for both the number of species and the relative abundance of each species in a community.
Interspecific competition in which one species directly harms another through toxin release is called:
Answer: Allelopathy
Allelopathy refers specifically to chemical inhibition of one plant (or microbe) by another via release of secondary metabolites.
Beta diversity measures:
Answer: The change in species composition between different habitats or along environmental gradients
Beta diversity quantifies the turnover or differentiation in species composition between two or more communities.