BSC 108 Final Exam Review: Key Concepts in Microevolution and Natural Selection

What did naturalist George Buffon suggest?

The Earth might be older than 6,000 years

What did naturalist George Buffon observe?

Similarities between fossils and living species

What did Jean Baptiste Lamarck suggest?

Organisms evolved by the process of adaption; The inheritance of acquired materials

What was Charles Darwin strongly influenced with?

The writings of Charles Lyell

Darwin applied Lyell's _________ to __________

Principle of gradualism; The evolution of life

What did Charles Darwin argue?

Contemporary species arose from ancestors through a process of descent with modification

What is the basic idea of natural selection?

Organisms can change over time; Individuals with certain heritable traits leave more offspring than others

What is the result of natural selection?

Evolutionary adaption

What are Darwin's finches an excellent example of?

Natural selection and adaptive evolution

What were the two main points Darwin made in The Origin of Species?

Organisms inhabiting Earth today descended from ancestral species. Natural selection was the mechanism for descent with modification

What was the first observation Darwin based his theory of natural selection on?

Overproduction

What is the overproduction observation?

All species tend to produce excessive numbers which leads to a struggle for existence

What was the second observation Darwin based his theory of natural selection on?

Individual variation

What is the individual variation observation?

Variations exists among individuals in a population and much of this variation is heritable

What is the conclusion of natural selection?

Unequal reproductive success

What does unequal reproductive success mean?

Those individuals with traits best suited for the local environment leave more fertile offspring

What is natural selection?

Mechanism for the change

What is one example of evidence of evolution?

Fossils

What do fossils reveal?

The appearance of organisms in a historical sequence

What is biogeography?

The study of the geographic distribution of species

What does comparative anatomy confirm?

That evolution is a remodeling process

What are homologous structures?

The similarity in structures due to common ancestry

What is comparative embryology?

The comparison of structures that appear during the development of different organisms

Which of the following are examples of natural selection: Pesticide resistance in insects; The development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria; Drug-resistant strains of HIV

All of the above

What is the modern synthesis?

The fusion of genetics with evolutionary biology

What are the sources of genetic variation?

Mutations and sexual recombination; Mutations; Sexual recombination

What do mutations and sexual recombination produce?

Genetic variation

What does sexual recombination do?

Shuffles alleles during meiosis

Of all causes of microevolution, only _______________ promotes adaption?

Natural selection

What can disruptive selection lead to?

A balance between two or more contrasting in a population

What does stabilizing selection maintain?

Variation for a particular trait within a narrow range

What is evolution?

How organisms change over time

What is microevolution?

Changes in allele frequencies within populations

What are microevolution often associated with?

Adaption

How can microevolution be measured?

From one generation to the next

What is macroevolution?

Major changes in the history of life

What causes the origin of new species?

Macroevolution

What does macroevolution generate?

Biological diversity

What is the biological species concept?

A population or group of populations whose members have the potential to interbreed with one another in nature to produce fertile offspring, reproductively isolated from other such groups

How do new species form?

The gene pools of two or more populations must be separated from each other

How do species evolve in allopatric speciation?

Geographic isolation

What is allopatric speciation associated with?

Geographic barrier

How do species evolve in sympatric speciation?

Without geographic isolation-species remain together with potential to interbreed

True or False: Chances for allopatric speciation increase if the population is small

True

Small populations can change more rapidly by _____________ and ________________

Genetic drift and natural selection

Why is sympatric speciation more difficult than allopatric speciation?

It requires a subdivision of the gene pool of a single population

What circumstances are required to keep subdivisions isolated?

Segregation of habitat; Major alterations in mate recognition or behavior; Genetic incompatibility

What is polyploidy?

The condition of having extra sets of chromosomes

Some polyploid plants have ____________________

More than one parent species

What did Darwin propose about gradualism?

The slow and steady accumulation of small changes lead to production of species over vast stretches of time

Who proposed punctuated equilibrium?

Eldredge and Gould

What did punctuated equilibrium propose?

Species diverge in spurts of rapid change, followed by long periods of stasis

What does punctuated equilibrium lead to?

The prediction that the fossil record should show the most drastic changes in appearance at the time that new species branch from parent species

What does evolution incorporate?

Gradual and punctuated episodes

Gradual changes include ________________

Microevolution

Rapid changes include ____________________

Macroevolution

What do prezygotic barriers prevent?

Mating or fertilization between species

What can reproductive barriers result in?

Temporal isolation, Habitat isolation, Behavioral isolation, Mechanical isolation, Gametic isolation

What do post zygotic barriers prevent?

Survival or reproduction of hybrid offspring

What can post zygotic barriers result in?

Hybrid inviability, Hybrid sterility, Hybrid breakdown

What is evo-devo?

The scientific interface between evolutionary biology and the study of embryonic development

New species arise in __________ and ___________

Sympatry and allopatry

Binomials consist of a __________ name and a ________ name

Genus and species

Some ecological communities depend on _____________

Periodic fires

The biosphere is currently undergoing a _________________

Mass extinction

After several days at high altitude, your body will begin to produce _________________

More red blood cells

What is ecology?

The scientific study of the interactions between organisms and their environments

What are the two main components of the environment?

Abiotic and biotic components

What remains fundamental to ecology?

Natural history

What is the hierarchy of interactions?

Organismal ecology, Population ecology, Community ecology, Ecosystem ecology

What is organismal ecology concerned with?

Evolutionary adaptions that enable individual organisms to meet the challenges posed by their abiotic environments

What is population ecology concerned with?

Populations, groups of individuals of the same species living in the same area

What is community ecology concerned with?

Communities, assemblages of populations of different species

What is ecosystem ecology concerned with?

Ecosystems, which include all the abiotic factors in addition to the community of species in a certain area

What do global distribution patterns reflect?

Regional differences in climate and other abiotic factors

What does patchiness of the environment on a local scale reveal?

A mixture of characteristics

What are habitats?

Specific environments in which organisms live

What do habitats reveal?

Patchiness on an even smaller scale

_______________ is an important abiotic factor because of its effect on metabolism

Environmental temperature

What do some extraordinary adaptions enable?

Some species to live in extreme temperatures

Aquatic organisms may face problems with ____________

Water balance

What is the main water problem for terrestrial organisms?

Water drying out

Some organisms depend on ___________ blown to them by the wind

Nutrients

What does soil variation contribute to?

The patchiness we see in terrestrial landscapes

In ___________ and ____________ the composition of the soil can affect water chemistry

Streams and rivers

What are the three types of adaptions that enable organisms to adjust to changes in their environments?

Physiological, Anatomical, Behavioral

What is acclimation?

A physiological response that is longer term

What is the ability to acclimate related to?

The range of environmental conditions a species naturally experiences

How do many organisms respond to environmental challenge?

With some type of change in body shape or anatomy

What are terrestrial biomes characterized by?

Vegetation type

What are aquatic biomes characterized by?

Physical environment

How much of Earth's surface do aquatic biomes occupy?

75%

What are freshwater biomes?

Lakes, streams, rivers, wetlands

What are marine biomes?

Oceans, intertidal zones, coral reefs, and estuaries

What is usually the salt concentration of freshwater biomes?

Less than 1%

What is usually the salt concentration of marine biomes?

3%

What are freshwater biomes used for?

Drinking water, crop irrigation, sanitation, and industry

What are the two categories of freshwater biomes?

Standing water and Flowing water

True or False: The communities of plants, algae, and animals are distributed to the depth of water and its distance from shore

True

Rivers and streams are bodies of water flowing in ____________

One direction