Chapter 52:

1) Define Ecology.

Ecology is the study organisms and the interactions between them and it’s environment.

2) Distinguish between macro and microclimates.

Macroclimate patterns work at global, regional or local levels

Microclimate is fine scale variations.

3) Explain how the sun’s unequal heating of Earth’s surface leads to the development of deserts around 30 degrees north and south of the equator.

4) What are some of the differences in microclimates between an unplanted agriculture field and a nearby stream with trees?

5) Be able to read and interpret a climatograph: based on the climatograph on pg.1152, what differentiates temperate grasslands from temperate broadleaf forest?

6) Create a foldable to distinguish between the different terrestrial biomes in terms of distribution, climate, types of plants and animals, and human impact (p.1153 -1156)

7) Explain why some arctic tundra ecosystems that receive as little rainfall as deserts can have much more dense vegetation?

8) Draw a diagram and label the different Zones in an Aquatic Biome.

9) Create a foldable to distinguish between the different aquatic biomes in terms of physical and chemical environments, types of organisms, and human impact (p.1159-1162)

10) Why are phytoplankton, and not benthic algae or rooted aquatic plants, the dominant photosynthetic organisms of the oceanic pelagic zone?

11) Give some examples of abiotic factors which limit the distribution of species.

12) Provide examples of human actions that could expand a species’ distribution by changing its 

a) dispersal   b) biotic interactions

Chapter 53:

1) Define population and distinguish between population density and dispersion.

2) Draw a picture and explain the three patterns of dispersion: clumped, uniform, and random.

3) What does a survivorship curve represent? Differentiate between the three types of curves and provide an example of an organism which would represent each type.

4) Explain why a constant rate of increase (r_max) for a population produces a growth graph that is J-curved?

5) Where is exponential growth by a plant population more likely – in an area where a forest was destroyed by a fire or in a mature, undisturbed forest? Explain your reasoning.

6) Explain why a population that fits the logistic growth increases more rapidly at intermediate size than at relatively small and large sizes.

7) Distinguish between and provide examples of K-selection and r-selection.

8) Provide examples of factors which are density independent and density dependent that regulate population growth.

9) Describe three attributes of habitat patches that could affect population density and rates of immigration and emigration.

10) How does a human population’s age structure affect its growth rate?

11) How has the growth of Earth’s human population changed in recent decades in terms of growth rate and the number of people added each year?

Chapter 54:

1) Define community.

2) Provide examples of different types of interspecific interactions.

3) What is character displacement?

4) Distinguish between cryptic and aposematic coloration. 

5) Provide an example of Batesian and Mullerian mimicry.

6) Explain how interspecific competition, predation, and mutualism differ in their efforts on the interacting populations of two species.

7) According to the principle of competitive exclusion, what outcome is expected when two species with identical niches compete for a resource? Why?

8) What two components contribute to species diversity? Explain how two communities that contain the same number of species differ in species diversity.

9) Describe two hypotheses that explain why food chains are usually short, and state a key prediction of each hypothesis.

10) Why do high and low levels of disturbance usually reduce species diversity? Why does the intermediate level of disturbance promote species diversity?

11) Summarize the overall process of ecological succession. Be sure to also distinguish between primary and secondary succession.

12) Describe two hypotheses that explain why species diversity is greater in tropical regions than in temperate and Polar Regions.

13) Describe how an island’s size and distance from the mainland affect the island’s species richness.

14) In what way can a vector of a zoonotic pathogen differ from a host of the pathogen?

Chapter 55:

1) Why is the transfer of energy in an ecosystem referred to as energy flow, not energy cycling?

2) Distinguish between and provide examples of: primary consumers, secondary, and tertiary consumers.

3) Summarize and provide the formula to calculate Net Primary Productivity and the Net Ecological production.

4) Why is only a small portion of the solar energy that strikes the earth’s atmosphere stored by primary producers?

5) How can ecologists experimentally determine the factor that limits primary production in an ecosystem?

6) How is Production efficiency calculated?

7) Create a foldable to draw/label and summarize the following biogeochemical cycles. Be sure to include their biological importance: water, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous

8) What is bioremediation? How is it different from biological augmentation?

9) Identify the main goal of restoration ecology.

Chapter 56:

1) Explain why it is too narrow to define the biodiversity crisis as simply a loss of species.

2) Identify the four main threats to biodiversity and explain how each damages diversity.

3) What are the steps involved in analyzing a declining population?

4) How does the reduced genetic diversity of small populations make them more vulnerable to extinction?

5) What is a biodiversity hotspot?

6) How do zoned reserves provide economic incentives for long-term conservation of protected areas?

7) In the face of biological magnification of toxins, is it healthier to feed at a lower or higher trophic level? Explain.

8) What is meant by the term sustainable development?

9) How might biophilia influence us to conserve species and restore ecosystems?

10) Why is sustainability such an important goal for conservation biologists?