Bio 120 Exam 1

What is the Anthropocene Era?

Human impact on the planet

What is science?

Any system of objective knowledge

What is the general process of the scientific method?

Framework to consider ideas and evidence in a repeatable way

What is a hypothesis?

Tentative explanation based on previous knowledge

What are some limitations of science?

Super natural, religion, meaning of life

What are the levels of biological organization from organism to ecosystem?

Organism, population, community, ecosystem

Organism

An individual life form

Population

Group of individuals of the same species that live in the same area at the same time

Community

All populations that interact with one another within a particular area

Ecosystem

Community and physical environment

Biotic (living or biological)

Abiotic (nonliving or non biological)

What are some ways that humans are impacting each of those levels?

Organisms - pollution, hunting, deforestation

Population - extinction, overpopulation

Ecosystem - pollution, habitat change

What is taxonomy?

Classification of life's diversity in a hierarchical way

What is the difference between a scientific name, a common name, and a standardized name?

Scientific name - a unique name for a species of plant or animal that is used in biology to avoid confusion

Common name - name that is commonly used and easily recognized by most people

Standardized - name that has been formatted to be consistent and accurate

Why do we need scientific names instead of just using common names?

common names can vary greatly depending on location and language, leading to confusion when discussing organisms globally

What are the typical two components of a scientific name?

the genus (first part, capitalized) and the species (second part, not capitalized)

Know the taxonomic levels and their order in the hierarchy from Domain to Species.

Domain Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus

Dear King Philip Came Over For Grape Soda

What is the correct format for writing or typing a scientific name?

Genus first name, followed by the species name

What are the 3 domains?

• Bacteria

• Archaea

• Eukarya

What are the 4 kingdoms in Eukarya and their general characteristics?

- Fungi

– Animals

– Plants

– Protista

Fungi

consumers that use absorption

Animals

consumers that use ingestion

Plants

photosynthesizers

Protista “none of the above” category

mostly (but not all) microscopic

How can evolution be described in terms of alleles in a population?

Change in allele frequencies in a population over time

What are alleles?

Different forms of a gene

What is artificial selection?

Human choose desirable traits and breed only those best expressing those traits

How does heritability, variation in traits, ability to survive and reproduce come together to explain natural selection?

They are not random

What are adaptations?

Inherited characteristics or behavior that enables an organism to survive and reproduce successfully in a given environment

How is herbicide resistance an example of natural selection?

Over time the herbicides that survive and reproduce gradually grow resistant

Are adaptive phenotypes at one time necessarily going to be adaptive all of the time?

Adaptive phenotypes in one set of circumstances may be a liability in others

Does natural selection have a goal?

Enhanced reproductive success of a certain individuals from a population based on inherited characteristics

Are there perfect organisms? Why or why not?

No because

What does “survival of the fittest” mean in an evolutionary sense? What does it not mean?

Fitness refers to organism’s contribution to the next generations gene pool. Number of offspring produced that survive to reproduce

What are the 5 mechanisms of microevolution that we discussed in class?

Natural selection

Mutation

Nonrandom mating

Gene flow

Genetic flow

What are 3 types of natural selection?

Directional selection

Disruptive selection

Stabilizing selection

What is a mutation? Why is it important in evolution?

Random change in DNA, raw material for evolution

What is sexual selection?

Variation in ability to attract mates (may result in sexual dimorphism)

Sexual dimorphism?

When males and females look different each other

What is gene flow?

Movement of alleles between populations

What is genetic drift?

Change due to change

Founder effect?

Small group of individuals forms new populations

Bottleneck effect?

Many members of a population die leaving only a few survivors

Based on the Hardy-Weinberg Principle, is evolution inevitable?

YES

What is extinction?

Failure to adapt to environmental change

What are some reasons why extinctions happen?

Habitat loss, new predator's, new diseases, bad luck

What is a mass extinction?

Great number of Species disappear over relatively short time

What is ecology?

Scientific study of interactions

What is population ecology?

Scientific study of how environmental factors influence the features and size of a population over time

Why should you personally care about population ecology?

Affect on human health

You gotta eat

Human population growth

What are the 3 measures of populations we discussed in class?

Size

Density

Dispersion

How is density different from dispersion?

Density can be the same, but different dispersion patterns

What is population dynamics?

Study of the factors that influence changes in a populations size

What are the 4 factors that influence population size?

Birth rate

Death rate

Immigration

Emigration

What do the Type I, Type II, and Type III survivorship curves tell you about the characteristics of a species?

1. Much parental care, mortality highest in oldest individuals

2. Equal probability of dying at any age

3. Many offspring, little parental care, most die at any early age

What is life history?

All events that influence reproduction

What factors influence life history?

Sexual or asexual

Age at first reproduction

Number of reproductive events per lifetime

Number of offspring per reproductive event

Population age structure

What is a population pyramid?

Show age structure: proportions of populations in different age classes

What can you learn about a population from looking at a population pyramid?

% of population young

How do you know if a population is increasing in size, stable in size, or decreasing in size by looking at its population pyramid?

Increasing % of population = growing population

Stable % of population = stable population

Decreasing % of population = declining population

What is the birth rate?

Number of births per unit time

What is the death rate?

Number of deaths per unit time

What is the growth rate of a population?

Per capita rate increased or r

What is r?

Birthrate - death rate

What does a negative r tell you about a population? Positive r?

-r = population shrinks

r = population grows

What does a graph of exponential growth look like?

J shape curve that slows then starts up

Can you have exponential growth if r is constant?

YES

How can a population be increasing in size if r is decreasing (but above zero)?

while the rate of increase is slowing down, there are still more births than deaths within the population

What is doubling time of a population?

the amount of time it takes for a population to double in size

What are some examples of density-dependent factors and density-independent factors affect population size?

conditions whose effects increase as a population grows

What is logistic growth?

S - shape that starts off slowly then slowly get to maximum

How is it (logistic growth) different from exponential growth?

logistic growth takes into account a "carrying capacity" where the population stabilizes, unlike exponential growth which assumes unlimited growth potential

What is carrying capacity (K)?

Maximum number of individuals that habitat can support indefinitely

Is carrying capacity of a population always the same?

NO