AP Biology Exam Review

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from the AP Biology Exam Review notes, focusing on Evolution and Ecology.

Natural Selection

Major mechanism of change over time, driven by variation, competition for resources, and differential survival.

Adaptation

A genetic variation favored by selection, providing an advantage in a particular environment.

Fitness

The ability to survive and reproduce.

Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium

A mathematical model used to calculate changes in allele frequency, providing evidence for evolution in a population assuming specific conditions are met.

Speciation

An evolutionary process by which two or more species arise from one species, where the new species can no longer interbreed successfully.

Geographic Isolation

Speciation mechanism where species are separated by a physical barrier.

Reproductive Isolation

Speciation mechanism where different behaviors, habitats, mating seasons, or anatomical structures limit mating.

Fossils

Provide evidence for evolution and can be dated by various methods including the age of rocks, isotope decay, and phylogenetic relationships.

Morphological Homologies

Features shared by common ancestry, providing evidence for evolution.

Vestigial Structures

Remnants of functional structures in organisms, providing evidence for evolution.

Biochemical Similarities

Similarities in DNA nucleotide and protein sequences, providing evidence for evolution and ancestry.

RNA World Hypothesis

Proposes that RNA could have been the earliest genetic material.

Phylogenetic Trees

Diagrams that represent evolutionary relationships and can illustrate traits either derived or lost due to evolution.

Carrying Capacity

The maximum number of individuals of a species that an ecosystem can sustain over time.

Density-dependent factors

Factors that limit population growth based on the size of the population (e.g., disease).

Density-independent factors

Factors that limit population growth regardless of the population size (e.g., a fire).

Biomagnification

The increasing concentration of toxins in organisms at each successive trophic level in a food web.

Invasive Species

Species introduced to a new environment that can exploit new niches, reproduce quickly, and outcompete native species.

Keystone Species

Species that have a disproportionately large effect on their environment relative to their abundance.

Apex predator

The top predator in a food chain or web, not preyed upon by other organisms.

Biomass

The total mass of organisms in a given area or volume.

Commensalism

A symbiotic relationship where one organism benefits and the other is neither harmed nor helped.

Mutualism

A symbiotic relationship where both organisms benefit.

Parasitism

A symbiotic relationship where one organism benefits and the other is harmed.

Trophic level

Each step in a food chain or food web, representing the organisms that share the same function in the food chain and the same nutritional relationship to the primary sources of energy.

Primary productivity

The rate at which energy is converted by producers into organic substances.