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Theoretical ecology is the scientific discipline devoted to the study of ecological systems using theoretical methods such as simple conceptual models, mathematical models, computational simulations, and advanced data analysis. Effective models improve understanding of the natural world by revealing how the dynamics of species populations are often based on fundamental biological conditions and processes. Further, the field aims to unify a diverse range of empirical observations by assuming that common, mechanistic processes generate observable phenomena across species and ecological environments. Based on biologically realistic assumptions, theoretical ecologists are able to uncover novel, non-intuitive insights about natural processes. Theoretical results are often verified by empirical and observational studies, revealing the power of theoretical methods in both predicting and understanding the noisy, diverse biological world.
A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthparts adapted to rasping or grinding. Horses and other herbivores have wide flat teeth that are adapted to grinding grass, tree bark, and other tough plant material.
Energy flow is the flow of energy through living things within an ecosystem. All living organisms can be organized into producers and consumers, and those producers and consumers can further be organized into a food chain. Each of the levels within the food chain is a trophic level. In order to more efficiently show the quantity of organisms at each trophic level, these food chains are then organized into trophic pyramids. The arrows in the food chain show that the energy flow is unidirectional, with the head of an arrow indicating the direction of energy flow; energy is lost as heat at each step along the way.
In ecology, an ecosystem is said to possess ecological stability if it is capable of returning to its equilibrium state after a perturbation or does not experience unexpected large changes in its characteristics across time. Although the terms community stability and ecological stability are sometimes used interchangeably, community stability refers only to the characteristics of communities. It is possible for an ecosystem or a community to be stable in some of their properties and unstable in others. For example, a vegetation community in response to a drought might conserve biomass but lose biodiversity.
An apex predator, also known as a top predator, is a predator at the top of a food chain, without natural predators of its own.
Joan Roughgarden is an American ecologist and evolutionary biologist. She has engaged in theory and observation of coevolution and competition in Anolis lizards of the Caribbean, and recruitment limitation in the rocky intertidal zones of California and Oregon. She has more recently become known for her rejection of sexual selection, her theistic evolutionism, and her work on holobiont evolution.
Trophic cascades are powerful indirect interactions that can control entire ecosystems, occurring when a trophic level in a food web is suppressed. For example, a top-down cascade will occur if predators are effective enough in predation to reduce the abundance, or alter the behavior of their prey, thereby releasing the next lower trophic level from predation.
Old field is a term used in ecology to describe lands formerly cultivated or grazed but later abandoned. The dominant flora include perennial grasses, heaths and herbaceous plants. Old fields are canonically defined as an intermediate stage found in ecological succession in an ecosystem advancing towards its climax community, a concept which has been debated by contemporary ecologists for some time.
Browsing is a type of herbivory in which a herbivore feeds on leaves, soft shoots, or fruits of high-growing, generally woody plants such as shrubs. This is contrasted with grazing, usually associated with animals feeding on grass or other lower vegetations. Alternatively, grazers are animals eating mainly grass, and browsers are animals eating mainly non-grasses, which include both woody and herbaceous dicots. In either case, an example of this dichotomy are goats and sheep.
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Anna Amelia Sher is an American plant ecologist who is a professor at the University of Denver. She works on conservation and the restoration of areas invaded by Tamarix. She is the author of two textbooks, Ecology:Concepts and Applications and Introduction to conservation biology.
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Karin M. Kettenring is an American plant ecologist based in Logan, Utah. Her research focuses primarily on aspects of wetland plant ecology, including invasive plant ecology and management, native wetland seeds and seedlings, and wetland restoration. Kettenring worked in several labs and research stations across the United States before obtaining a faculty position at Utah State University as a professor of wetland ecology. Her most cited publication, “Lessons learned from invasive plant control experiments: a systematic review and meta-analysis,” looks at the literature discussing invasives species control experiments and how to ensure that research practices are most effective.
References
- ↑ writer, Kevin Opsahl staff. "'Interesting creatures': USU professor discusses world of ecology". The Herald Journal. Retrieved 2018-11-06.
- 1 2 3 University, Utah State. "Nancy Huntly | Biology". biology.usu.edu. Retrieved 2018-11-06.
- ↑ Huntly, N. J.; Smith, A. T.; Ivins, B. L. (1986-02-25). "Foraging Behavior of the Pika (Ochotona princeps), with Comparisons of Grazing versus Haying". Journal of Mammalogy. 67 (1): 139–148. doi:10.2307/1381010. ISSN 1545-1542. JSTOR 1381010.
- 1 2 3 4 5 University, Utah State (2018-02-28). "USU's Nancy Huntly Named Ecological Society of America Fellow". USU Today. Retrieved 2018-11-06.
- 1 2 University, Utah State (2012-11-29). "USU Ecologist Says It's Time to get to the Bottom of the Food Web". USU Today. Retrieved 2018-11-06.
- ↑ Huntly, N (1991-01-01). "Herbivores And The Dynamics Of Communities And Ecosystems". Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. 22 (1): 477–503. doi:10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.22.1.477. ISSN 0066-4162.
- ↑ Chesson, Peter; Huntly, Nancy (November 1997). "The Roles of Harsh and Fluctuating Conditions in the Dynamics of Ecological Communities". The American Naturalist. 150 (5): 519–553. doi:10.1086/286080. ISSN 0003-0147. PMID 18811299. S2CID 4806950.
- ↑ Dale, V. H.; Brown, S.; Haeuber, R. A.; Hobbs, N. T.; Huntly, N.; Naiman, R. J.; Riebsame, W. E.; Turner, M. G.; Valone, T. J. (June 2000). "Ecological Principles and Guidelines for Managing the Use of Land1". Ecological Applications. 10 (3): 639–670. doi:10.1890/1051-0761(2000)010[0639:epagfm]2.0.co;2. hdl: 10211.3/171052 . ISSN 1051-0761.
- ↑ Chesson, Peter; Gebauer, Renate L. E.; Schwinning, Susan; Huntly, Nancy; Wiegand, Kerstin; Ernest, Morgan S. K.; Sher, Anna; Novoplansky, Ariel; Weltzin, Jake F. (2004-04-07). "Resource pulses, species interactions, and diversity maintenance in arid and semi-arid environments". Oecologia. 141 (2): 236–253. Bibcode:2004Oecol.141..236C. doi:10.1007/s00442-004-1551-1. ISSN 0029-8549. PMID 15069635. S2CID 6137067.
- ↑ Inouye, Richard S.; Huntly, Nancy J.; Tilman, David; Tester, John R.; Stillwell, Mark; Zinnel, Kathlean C. (February 1987). "Old-Field Succession on a Minnesota Sand Plain". Ecology. 68 (1): 12–26. doi:10.2307/1938801. ISSN 0012-9658. JSTOR 1938801.
- ↑ University, Utah State. "When, and Where is Science Unwrapped? | Science Unwrapped". www.usu.edu. Retrieved 2018-11-06.
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