Biology EOC Review: Days 60 to 1

Comprehensive review flashcards covering essential Biology End-of-Course (EOC) benchmarks, including negative feedback, cellular transport, cell biology, biochemistry, population dynamics, and ecosystem interactions.

EOC Focus

The standard focus requiring students to explain the evidence and predict the effect.

Homeostasis

Keeping internal conditions within a stable range.

Negative Feedback

A regulatory mechanism in which a response counteracts the original change.

Sensor (Homeostasis)

A homeostatic loop component that detects a change.

Control Center (Homeostasis)

A homeostatic loop component that processes information and coordinates a response.

Effector (Homeostasis)

A homeostatic loop component that carries out the response.

Hypothalamus (Thermoregulation)

The control center that coordinates cooling when temperature receptors detect an increase in body temperature during exercise.

Antidiuretic Hormone (ADH)

A signal released when blood becomes more concentrated after sweating, causing the kidneys to reabsorb more water and produce less urine.

Insulin

A hormone released by pancreatic beta cells when glucose rises after a meal, prompting cells to take up glucose and the liver to store glycogen.

Glucagon

A hormone released by pancreatic alpha cells when glucose falls between meals, stimulating the liver to release glucose.

Hypotonic Solution (Animal Cell)

An outside solution that causes net water movement into an animal cell, leading it to swell and potentially burst.

Isotonic Solution (Animal Cell)

An outside solution where there is no net water movement, allowing the animal cell volume to stay about the same.

Hypertonic Solution (Animal Cell)

An outside solution that causes net water movement out of an animal cell, causing the cell to shrink.

Turgor Pressure

Pressure created when water enters a plant cell in a hypotonic solution, which supports the plant while the cell wall resists excessive expansion.

Hypertonic Solution (Plant Cell)

An outside solution where water leaves the plant cell, which may cause the cell membrane to pull away from the cell wall.

Membrane Pump

A transport protein that moves a substance against its concentration gradient, requiring cellular energy, often in the form of ATP.

Endocytosis

An energy-dependent bulk transport process where the plasma membrane forms a vesicle to bring material into the cell.

Exocytosis

An energy-dependent bulk transport process where a vesicle fuses with the plasma membrane and releases material outside the cell.

Simple Diffusion

The passive movement of a substance down its concentration gradient directly across the lipid bilayer with no direct ATP input (e.g., oxygen crossing directly through the membrane).

Facilitated Diffusion

The passive movement of a substance down its concentration gradient through a membrane protein without direct ATP input (e.g., ions moving through an open channel).

Osmosis

The net movement of water across a selectively permeable membrane.

Phospholipid Bilayer

A double layer forming a flexible barrier in the cell membrane, consisting of hydrophilic heads facing water and hydrophobic tails facing inward.

Selective Permeability

The property of the cell membrane that allows some substances to cross more easily than others.

Aquaporins

Membrane channel proteins that facilitate the passage of polar water molecules across the hydrophobic cell membrane interior.

Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum (Rough ER)

An organelle studded with ribosomes that processes and transports many secreted or membrane proteins.

Golgi Apparatus

An organelle that modifies, sorts, and packages proteins for delivery within or outside the cell.

Lysosome

An organelle that digests and recycles materials in many animal cells.

Central Vacuole (Plant Cells)

A large organelle in plant cells that stores materials and supports internal turgor pressure.

Cytoplasm

The fluid-filled cellular region that contains cell components and supports many metabolic reactions.

Nucleus

The organelle that stores most of a eukaryotic cell's DNA.

Ribosome

A cellular structure that assembles proteins.

Mitochondrion

An organelle that produces much of the ATP in many eukaryotic cells.

Chloroplast

An organelle that uses light energy to build sugars in photosynthetic cells.

Smooth Endoplasmic Reticulum (Smooth ER)

An organelle that synthesizes lipids and participates in detoxification.

Secretory Pathway

The sequence of organelles involved in protein export: ribosomes on the rough ER build the protein, the ER and Golgi modify and sort it, and vesicles release it via exocytosis.

Cell Wall

A rigid layer present in plant cells that supports and protects the cell, which is absent in animal cells.

Prokaryotic Cell

A cell that lacks a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles, has ribosomes, and stores its DNA in a nucleoid region (e.g., bacteria and archaea).

Eukaryotic Cell

A cell that encloses its DNA within a membrane-bound nucleus and possesses membrane-bound organelles and ribosomes (e.g., plants, animals, fungi, and protists).

Cell Theory

The unifying theory stating that living things contain cells, cells are the basic unit of life, and cells come from existing cells.

Shared Cell Structures

The four fundamental cellular components found in all cells: DNA, ribosomes, cytoplasm, and a cell membrane.

Catalyst

A chemical agent that lowers activation energy and speeds up the rate of a chemical reaction.

Active Site

The specific region of an enzyme where substrate binding occurs based on matching shape and chemistry.

Denaturation (Enzyme)

The loss of an enzyme's functional structure and activity caused by extreme temperature or pH conditions.

Carbohydrates

Biological macromolecules composed of sugar units that provide energy supply and perform structural roles.

Lipids

Biological macromolecules consisting of fats, oils, and phospholipids that function in energy storage and membrane formation.

Proteins

Macromolecules composed of amino acids that serve as enzymes, transport structures, and cellular building blocks.

Nucleic Acids

Macromolecules composed of nucleotides (such as DNA and RNA) that store or transmit genetic information.

Cohesion and Adhesion

Properties of water where water molecules attract each other (cohesion) and attract other surfaces (adhesion), supporting water movement in plants.

High Heat Capacity (Water)

The property of water that enables it to absorb large amounts of heat with minimal temperature variation, thereby moderating temperature changes.

Expansion on Freezing

The property of water whereby ice becomes less dense than liquid water and floats, providing an insulating layer for the water below.

Greenhouse Gases

Atmospheric gases that absorb outgoing infrared radiation; an increase in these gases can increase warming.

Renewable Resources

Resources that replenish on useful time scales, though they still carry environmental costs.

Nonrenewable Resources

Finite energy or mineral supplies that do not naturally replenish on a human time scale, such as fossil fuels.

Sustainability

The practice of comparing benefits, costs, and long-term environmental effects when making ecological and resource decisions.

Invasive Species

Non-native species introduced to an ecosystem that can compete with or prey on native organisms.

Biodiversity Loss

A reduction in the variety of species within an ecosystem, which can reduce ecosystem resilience and alter food webs.

Fertilizer Runoff

The introduction of excess agricultural nutrients into aquatic systems, stimulating excessive algal growth.

Dissolved Oxygen Depletion (Eutrophication)

The decrease in aquatic oxygen levels that occurs when decomposers consume oxygen while breaking down dead algal material, causing declines in fish and other aquatic organisms.

Primary Succession

Ecological succession that begins in an area where developed soil is completely absent.

Secondary Succession

Ecological succession that occurs after an environmental disturbance in an area where soil remains.

Exponential Growth

A pattern of population growth displaying a J-shaped curve under favorable conditions with abundant resources.

Logistic Growth

A pattern of population growth displaying an S-shaped curve that levels off as the population approaches carrying capacity.

Carrying Capacity

The maximum population size that an environment can support, which can change as resources and conditions vary.

Density-Dependent Factor

An environmental factor whose limiting effects on a population strengthen as population density rises, such as competition and disease.

Density-Independent Factor

An environmental factor that impacts a population regardless of its density, such as storms and other disturbances.

Carbon Cycle

The biogeochemical cycle where photosynthesis removes $CO_2$ and respiration, decomposition, and combustion release it.

Nitrogen Cycle

The biogeochemical cycle in which fixation makes nitrogen available, and decomposition and microbes move it through ecosystems.

Matter Cycles vs. Energy Flow

The fundamental ecological principle that matter cycles continuously through ecosystems, whereas energy flows in one direction and dissipates as heat.

Trophic Energy Transfer

The model of energy decrease across trophic levels (e.g., $10{,}000\,\text{kJ}$ in grass producers to $1{,}000\,\text{kJ}$ in grasshopper primary consumers to $100\,\text{kJ}$ in frog secondary consumers) because metabolism uses energy, heat dissipates, and not all biomass transfers.

Producer

An organism that builds organic food using an energy source.

Decomposer

An organism that breaks down dead material and recycles nutrients back into the ecosystem.

Food Web Arrow

A directional indicator in a food web that points from the food or energy source to the organism receiving the energy.

Mutualism

A symbiotic relationship in which both organisms benefit.

Commensalism

An ecological relationship in which one organism benefits and the other experiences no measurable effect.

Parasitism

A symbiotic relationship in which the parasite benefits and the host organism is harmed.

Predation

An ecological interaction where a predator organism hunts, kills, and consumes prey.

Competition (Ecology)

An ecological interaction where organisms share limited resources, resulting in a cost to both individuals.