BIO: Unit 1 Study Guide

Ecological Relationships

  • Predator/Prey
  • Symbiotic Relationships
    • Mutualism: Both species benefit from the relationship
    • Example of Mutualism: Flowers and Bees- Bees pollinate the flowers (helps the flowers) and the pollen is vital to bees.
    • Commensalism: One individual benefits and the other is neither harmed nor helped
    • Example of Commensalism: Frogs use plants as protection and the plants are not helped or harmed.
    • Parasitism: One individual lives on/in another individual and causes harm.
    • Example of Parasitism: Mosquitoes take blood from humans and humans get itchy and can catch disease.
  • Competition
    • Can occur between members of the same species or members of different species.
    • Competitive Exclusion Principle: Two species with identical niches cannot coexist for prolonged periods of time.
  • Generalist: Organisms that feed on a wide variety of food and have a wider niche
  • Specialist: Organisms that feed on specific things and have a narrower niche
  • Niche: A role an organism plays in a community

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Population Growth

  • Logistics
    • Limiting Factors: Factors that cause population growth to decrease.
    • Density-dependent: Limiting factors that depend on population size.
      • Example: Overcrowding, disease, etc.
    • Density Independent: Limiting factors that have nothing to do with population size
      • Example: Unusual weather, natural disasters, seasonal cycles, human impacts, etc.
    • Carrying capacity: The max number of individuals an environment can support
  • Exponential population growth: The trend that occurs when population growth increases with population size.
  • Immigration: The movement of individuals into an area.
  • Emigration: The movement of individuals out of an area

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Succession

  • Primary Succession: no soil, bare rock
  • Secondary Succession: Soil is present
  • Climax community: The state where populations of plants or animals remain stable and exist in balance with each other and their environment
  • Pioneer Organisms: An organism that populates a region after a natural disaster, mass extinction, or any other event that kills off most life in the area.
  • Producers: Organisms that capture energy from sunlight through photosynthesis and provide food from inorganic compounds
  • Consumers
    • Primary Consumers: Organisms that feed on producers
    • Secondary: Organisms that feed on primary consumers.
    • Tertiary: Organisms that obtain energy by feeding on both primary and secondary consumers

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Graphing

NEED:

  • X and Y axis labeled
  • Title
  • Even scale on the axes
  • Points plotted correctly

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Scientific Method

  • What is Scientific Method: An observation/Inference
  • Steps: Observation, Ask a Question, Research or use prior knowledge, hypothesis, experiment, analyze data, conclusion, report
  • Controlled Experiment: an experiment where all variables in an experimental group and a comparison control group are kept the same except for one variable that is changed.
  • Dependent Variables: Measured during the investigation; represented on the y-axis
  • Independent Variables: Set by the investigator; represented on the x-axis
  • PURPOSE: To collect Data
    • Qualitative Data: Data collected that is NOT numbers (color/shape patterns, words, etc.)
    • Quantitative Data: Data represented by numbers and statistics

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Levels of Organization

  • Individual, population, community, and ecosystem
    • Biotic Factors: Living factors in an environment
    • Abiotic Factors: Non-living factors in an environment

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Characteristics of Living Things

  • Reproduce

    • Asexual: One organism makes an exact genetic copy of itself
    • Sexual: Two organisms merge genetics for a genetically mixed product
  • Grow and develop

  • Made of cells

  • Responds to environment

  • Obtains and uses materials and energy

  • As a group, they evolve over time

  • Universal genetic code (DNA/RNA)

  • Maintain Homeostasis

    • Homeostasis: The state of steady internal, physical, and chemical conditions- Equilibrium

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