Bio 104 Exam 1 Review

Which component of the global ecological footprint is the most responsible for its increase over the past 50 years?

Carbon footprint

Carbon footprint

the area of forest land needed to assimilate the CO2 people release into the atmosphere each year

Ecosystem services

when people benefit from resources from nature like food, water, cultural and recreational benefits, and natural process that benefit the environment

Supporting services

ecosystem process necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services and include primary production, nutrient cycling, and soil formation.

Provisioning services

ecosystem goods that are directly consumed by people including food, fresh water, timber, and fiber

regulating services

include benefits derived from the regulation of ecosystem process, including water purification, flood control, disease regulation, and crop pollination

cultural services

include nonmaterial, spiritual, aesthetic, cultural, and recreational benefits people gain from ecosystems

net primary production

indicates how quickly primary producers are adding biomass

Drama of the commons

when individuals try and manage shared resources

Ecology students often venture out into local ecosystems to conduct experiments and learn about the natural world. What class of ecosystem services does education fall under?

Cultural Services

Earth’s mean temperature is increasing largely because the concentration of CO2 is increasing. Growing forests can mitigate some of the effects of fossil fuel combustion by removing CO2 from and atmosphere and storing carbon as wood. What class of ecosystem services does carbon sequestration fall under

Regulating services

Which of the supporting services are most important for the production of a feedstock for biofuels, a provisioning ecosystem service?

Primary production, nutrient cycling

What does the fact that human consumption of a NPP is often greater than 100% in urban areas suggest?

Cities are heterotrophic ecosystems.

Forest ecosystems are an important source of new pharmaceuticals. In what class of ecosystem services are medicines harvested from forests?

Provisioning

A drama of the commons results when individuals choose to use more than their “fair” share of a common-pool resource. Under what circumstances are these dramas more likely to occur?

When the benefit to the individual for using a bit more of the resource is greater than their associated costs.

The growth in the global ecological footprint since 1961 is largely a result of an increase in the global carbon footprint. As fossil fuel combustion has increased, what subsequent change has resulted in the rise of our global carbon footprint?

The land required to assimilate CO2 emissions has increased

Biology

the study of life

hypothesis

a suggested explanation for an event, which one can test

theory

a tested and confirmed explanation for observations or phenomena

inductive reasoning

a form of logical thinking that used related observations to arrive at a general conclusion

deductive reasoning

a form a logical thinking that uses a general principle or law to predict specific results

variable

any part of the experiment that can vary or change during the experiment

control group

contains every feature of the experimental group except it is not given the manipulation that the researcher hypothesizes

the first forms of life on Earth were?

microorganisms

a suggested and testable explanation for an event is called?

hypothesis

a person notices her houseplants that are regularly exposed to music seem to grow more quickly than those in rooms with no music. As a result, she determines that plants grow better when exposed to music. This example most closely resembles which type of reasoning?

inductive reasoning

what are the properties of life?

order, sensitivity or response to the environment, reproduction, adaptation, growth, development, regulation/homeostasis, energy processing, and evolution

order

organisms that are well-structured and made up of one or more cells working together

reproduction

DNA containing genes are passed along to an organism offspring

adaptation

all living organisms are well-suited to their environment

How does genetic material help with growth and material?

their genes provide instructions that guide how their cells grow and change

homeostasis

refers to the relatively stable internal environment required to maintain life

energy processing

all organisms use a source of energy for their metabolic activities

evolution

the diversity of life on Earth is a result of mutations, or random changes in hereditary material over time

phylogenetic tree

a diagram showing the evolutionary relationships among biological species based on similarities and differences in genetic or physical traits or both

the smallest unit of biological structure that meets the functional requirements of “living” is the?

cell

viruses are considered living because they?are n

are not made of any cells

the presence of a membrane-enclosed nucleus is a characteristic of?

eukaryotic cell

a group of individuals of them same area is called a(n)?

community

Where in a phylogenetic tree would you expect to dine the organism that had evolved most recently?

at the branch tips

independent variables

one or more likely variables that you manipulate

experimental group

a group that has been subjected to a hypothesized causal factor

dependent

appropriate measures of the treatments effect

confounding variable

other variables that are held constant between groups

species richness

the number of species in a specified area

alpha diversity

describes local diversity, the number of species found in a specific, relatively homogeneous site (number of species in a designated area)

beta diversity

describes species turnover, the change in species composition over relatively short distances (unique species between areas)

gamma diversity

describes regional diversity, the number of species in a comparatively broad geographic region ranging from a group of local communities to biomes, continents, or even entire ocean basins (total biodiversity of an entire region)

sampling effort

a measure of the effort made when sampling a population or community

species-accumulation curve

a plot of cumulative number of species found, in a defined area

since more species are found in the tropics than near the poles, are measures of species richness higher or lower in the tropics?

higher

biogeography

the study of processes that drive how organisms are distributed

shannon-wiener index

an index of species diversity that considers both species richness ands and the relative abundance of species

does a high value of the shannon-wiener index mean the site is more or less diverse?

more diverse

how do you determine species richness?

count the number of different species in a particular location

how do you measure evenness?

asses the proportion of species in a location

transect sampling

a biologist identifies a straight line of a known distance through the habitat

quadrant sampling

the habitat is divided into rectangles of a known site. A certain number of these rectangles are randomly selected for sampling across the habitat that is being studied.

what is the purpose of rarefaction plots?

rarefaction plots help evaluate how well the sampling effort has captured species diversity

what is “ecology’s oldest pattern?”

the latitudinal gradient

Buffons law of diversity

even though regions may share similar climates, they often have different sets of species

what is an endemic species?

it is found exclusively within the limited geographic area where it is believed to have orginated

what do you notice about relationships between sampling effort and capacity to fully measure alpha diversity of a habitat?

more effort generally means better measurement of alpha diversity, but beyond a certain point, extra effort doesn’t add much new information what produces differences

what produces differences in species abundance curve shape?

how many species there are, how many individuals each species has, and the ways the environment and other species affect which ones are common or rare.

What are climate patterns shaped by?

The uneven input of engery from the sun

Even though July days are much longer in Anchorage, Alaska, than in Atlanta, Georgia, average daily temperatures are about 7 degrees Celsius higher in Atlanta. What is the best explanation for this pattern?

The summer sun shines more directly over Atlanta, so it receives more solar energy per square meter.

What causes seasonal changes?

The combination of Earth’s axial tilt and its orbit around the sun

solar radiation

the sun emits energy as electromagnetic radiation

During the spring and fall equinoxes each year, every location on Earth experiences 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness. On these days which location do you think receives more energy per unit area: Atlanta, Georgia, or Anchorage, Alaska?

On the equinoxes, sunlight stiles anchorage at a more oblique angle than it does Atlanta. As a reply Anchorage relieves less energy per unit area.

What is the primary circulation pattern?

Hadley Cell

Hadley Cell

A large convection cell that circulates air and determines large scale patterns of precipitation and moisture. It is the largest and steadiest of the atmospheric circulation system

What type of climate would you expect at the North & South poles?

A cold climate with little precipitation

inter-tropic convergence zone

The region in which warm and moist air masses from adjacent Hadley circulation cells converge near the equator

What factors contribute to air circulation patterns like Hadley cells?

Solar heating, convection, cooling and sinking, Earths rotation, pressure differences

Biomes

A large-scale continuous area that experiences similar climatic conditions throughout, and is characterized plants, animals, etc. that distinguish it from surrounding areas

Why do we see tundra to the north and rainforest at the equator?

The equator receives the most direct sunlight year-round, resulting in warm temperatures and high rainfall that supports rainforest. The tundra regions near the poles get much less solar energy, leading to cold temperatures and low precipation.

What would happen if Earth's axis of rotation were tilted at a lesser angle (e.g., 10° instead of 23.5°) toward/away from the Sun?

Seasons would be less pronounced.

Which biome has a plant community dominated by plants that resist drought and store water, and a climate characterized by very little precipitation?

Desert

Ecosystem ecology

How energy flows through ecological systems and how nutrients cycle within them.

Abiotic

“non-biological”

Abiotic factors that affect living organisms

physical factors such as weather, soil structure, water availability, light availability, and attitude, as well as chemical facts such as pH and available nutrients and minerals.

community

association of species within a defined area that actually or potentially interact with each other.

what are ecosystems?

A constantly changing and interconnected system of living and non-living elements within a specific area.

What is the best definition of Gross Primary Production (GPP)?

The rate at which solar energy is captured by photosynthesis

What is the best definition of net primary production (NPP)?

Difference between rate at which energy is captured during photosynthesis and lost via respiration.

Which of the following statements about ecosystems is true?

Ecosystems include both biotic and abiotic components.

Which of the following formulas provides the proper definition of gross primary production?

GPP = NPP + Ra

Which of the following formulas provides the proper definition of net primary production?

NPP = GPP - Ra

Which of the following statements about an Ecological Footprint for a population is true?

It includes the land required to assimilate the waste a population generates.

Diagrams of the flow of energy through a tree show that a lot of energy is lost as heat. Which of the following statements offers the best explanation for this loss?

The first law of thermodynamics, which states that inputs of energy must equal out

Biomass

measures the amount of organic tissue present in an individual organism or a group of organism

What are you measuring over time?

The change in the amount of organic material with an organism, population, or ecosystem

Suppose you measure the rate at which biomass of a corn field changes over time. What have you estimated?

Net Primary Production

endothermic reaction

one that requires energy (heat) to proceed

exothermic reaction

one that releases energy (heat)

net ecosystem production

describes all the biomass produced through photosynthesis that is not used for respiration by plants or heterotrophs

Equation for net ecosystem production (NEP)

GPP- Re

Ecosystem respiration

the sum of autotrophic respiration and heterotrophic respiration

Equation for ecosystem respiration (Re)

Ra + Rh

Respiration

a spontaneous exothermic process that releases energy which can then be used to perform work.