Biology 122 Final Exam Review - topics from previous exams (Worth 10 points on the final)

1. Biological level of organization from subatomic particle to the biosphere (Chapter 1)

Atom
Molecule
Cell
Tissue
Organ
Organ system
Organism
Population
Community
Ecosystem
Biosphere
2. The 4 types of macromolecules (not the details, just what they are) (Chapter 2)
Carbohydrates- simple sugars
Nucleic acids – build dna, store info as nucleotides
Lipids – fats that store high amounts of energy, more bonds
Protein – building blocks,

3. Major differences between: prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells (Chapter 3)

Prokaryotic, no nucleus, dna in cytoplasm, simple, plasma membrane, ribosome, invisible
Eukaryotic: nucleus contains dna, have organelles, function with a group, larger,
4. Equations for photosynthesis and cellular respiration (which organelles and organisms undergo
each) (Chapter 4)
6Carbon Dioxide + 6Water= Glucose(C6,H12,O6) +6Oxygen gas
5. The differences between mitosis and meiosis. Not all the steps, just the outcome and the cells
that use them. i.e how many are produced and are they diploid or haploid. (Chapter 6)
Meiosis creates two daughter cells that split again into 4 haploids
Mitosis creates two daughter cells
6. Genetics, the following terms:
gene,
allele, each of the two copies of a gene
homozygous, contains two of the same gene
heterozygous, contains one of each different gene
dominant, gene that will dominate the recessive
recessive, gene that is only present without dominant
genotype, what genes one contains
phenotype what physical traits show

7. Base pairing rules for DNA synthesis, transcription and translation (not the details): what is
made in each processes (aka the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology (Chapter 5)
A-T, G-C, In rna, t is replaced with u
8. What is natural selection, how is it involved in evolution. (Chapter 8)
Those with genes that are fit best for survival are passed on
9. Fitness - what it is the biological definition?
The measure of producing the most offspring
10. Classification of organisms from Kingdom to species (Chapter 10)
Domain
 Kingdom
Phlyum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
11. Convergent evolution (Chapter 8 and 10)
Interacting species evolve together
12. homologous vs. analogous characteristics vs. vestigial traits
Homologous: Similar traits from common ancestor
Analogous: Similar traits from convergent evolution, not common ancestors
Vestigial: Born with it but then disappears, ex gill tail in fetus

Chapter 14: Population Ecology

What is ecology?
 The study of interactions between organisms and their environments.
Why is ecology important to your everyday life?
 It helps regulate major industries.
 How many of the specific species can be taken per day.
 Size limits
 How big the population needs to be to sustain the industry.
What can happen when industries are poorly regulated?
 Example: northeast Atlantic cod was overfished in 1960s and the population crashed
 No recover/ they went extinct
What are the levels of ecological study and what is included in each level?
 INDIVIDUALS: individual organisms
 POPULATIONS: group of individual organisms that interbreed together.
o Study of populations and how they interact with the environment
o Usually in one specific location
o Population growth patterns
 Influenced by other species and by environmental factors.
o Genetic changes don’t occur in individuals, occurs in populations
o Dispersion pattern: the way individuals are spaced in a population.
 CLUMPED:
 Due to unequal distribution of resources.
 Mating or social behavior
 Or predator avoidance
 Example: a school of fish
 UNIFORM:
 Due to a competition for limiting resources
 Examples: penguins and creosote bush
 Creosote bush:
 o Forms a grid like pattern in the desert
o Due to root system
o Each plant reduces competition with neighbor
 RANDOM:
 Due to absence of strong attractions or repulsions (rare)
 COMMUNITIES: populations of different species that interact with each other within a locale.
 ECOSYSTEMS: all living organisms, as well as non living elements, that interact in a particular
area.
What is included in population ecology?
Can ecology be studied at the individual level?
Describe the patterns of distribution of a population: clumped, uniform, random. Give an example of
each.
 above
Describe methods used for estimating the size of a population.
 Market recapture sampling method
o Animals tagged with collars, bands, or dye
o Released and recaptured later with unmarked individuals
o Method assumes the probability of recapture is the same as unmarked individuals
 Indirect evidence:
o Look for signs of the organism
o Rodent burrows or bird nests
Define stable population. How many offspring need to survive to keep a population stable?
 Population is not changing
 Equal amount of births and deaths per year
 2 offsprings-1 male and 1 female
Write the equation for exponential growth rate and the logistic growth rate. What are the differences
between the exponential and logistic models? Which is more realistic and why?
 EXPONENTIAL: r X N
o N is the number of individuals in the population
o R is growth rate
o R=birth rate-death rate
o Only can occur if resources are UNLIMTED
o Not realistic
 LOGISTIC: rN [(K-N)/K]
o Original growth rate population multiply by (K-N)/K
o DESNITY DEPENDANT FORCES:
 Caused by population density
 More individuals=more competition for resources
 Carrying capacity is represented by K
 More realistic, but now all population follow this method
o DENSITY INDERPENDENT FORCES:
  Floods, fire, earthquakes
 Habitat destruction by humans
What is the difference between density dependent and density independent factors?
What is carrying capacity?
 Limit to population growth.
Why do populations never reach carrying capacity?
 Some populations cycle between periods of rapid growth and rapid shrinkage
 Density independent factors limit population size
Explain how humans have increased carrying capacity.
Discus population oscillations using the hare and lynx example.
 Growing hare population provides more food for lynx, which increased their reproduction rate.
 After lynx eat too much hare , they crash the population and reduces their food source, which
enables the hare population to grow.
What is maximum sustainable yield? Why do we try to use it?
 Minimal effect on population growth.
 The point where maximum number of individuals are being added to the population
 To know how much you can use
Why is the job of natural resource managers so difficult?
 We often do know the population carrying capacity
 Number of individuals alive
 Stability of carrying capacity from year to year
 Which individuals to harvest
What are the 3 types of life histories? What type of animals are found in each? What does a life
history include?
 The viral statistics of the species
 Includes:
o Age at first reproduction
o Chance of survival and reproduction at each age
o Litter size and frequency
o Life expectancy
 Reproductive Investments:
o The material and energetic contribution that an individual will make to its offspring
o Single episode: example is Salmon
o Repeated episodes: example is Human
 BIG BANG REPRODCUTION:
 Reaches sexual maturity at 1
 Mates intensely over a 3 week period
 Males die shortly after mating period
 Example: labord’s chameleon/found on Madagascar/shortest lifespan (4-5)
months of any tetrapod/matures in 3 months
o FAST, INTENSIVE REPRODUCTIVE INVESTMENT
  Reaches sexual maturity at 1 month
 Produces litters of six to ten offspring per month
 Example: house mouse
o SLOW, GRADUAL REPRODUCTIVE INVESTMENT
 Reaches sexual maturity at 1 year
 Produces about 1 offspring per year
 Example: greater bulldog bat
Explain the 2 types of reproductive investment.
Why is it better to have smaller litters than larger litters?
 Natural selection usually favors smaller litters
o Maximize lifetime reproductive success
What is a life table and what does it tell us?
 Predicts an individual’s probability of dying or surviving within a particular age interval
What are the 3 types of survivorship curves and what organisms are in each type?
 TYPE 1: high survivorship until old age, due to few predators, have few offspring, includes
large animals, ex. Human tortoise whales etc
 Type 2 Population of species dies as age grows higher, likelihood of dying is same at any age,
ex birds, small mammals, squirrels,
 Type 3: Most of the deaths occur in young age, common in most plants and insect species, fish
& marine species, produce large offspring, do not provide much parental care if any
All organisms invest resources in what 3 areas?
 Growth -
 Reproduction
 Longevity
Explain the different types of evolutionary tradeoffs.
 Reproduction and survival: single high investment in reproduction, then die shortly after. Ex
salmon
 Reproduction and growth:
Why are early life genetic diseases weeded out of the population?
The young will die before being able to reproduce
Why will late life sickness never be weeded out of the population?
They would have already reproduced before getting sick, already have spread the gene
If we found a cure for cancer, why is it not a cure for aging?
We have so many late age diseases accumulated
What is the difference between organisms that live in high risk worlds vs. low risk worlds?
High Risk Organism: Produce children early, age early, shorter lifespan
Low Risk: Reproduce later, longer lifespan
How does age at time of reproduction determine the longevity of an organism.
If some organism reproduces early it probably dies early
How can longevity be increased in the lab? Explain the fruit fly experiment.
Only breed those who live longer
What is a cohort?

Compare the differences in age groups found between industrialized countries and developing
countries.
How has the human population changed in the United States since the time of the baby boomers?
When countries industrialize, explain the demographic transition. What happens to the growth rate,
birth rate, and death rates during each stage?
Is human population growth logistic or exponential? How many people are on the planet today?
Why did population growth increase so fast? Was there ever a period of human population decline?
What are the 3 ways humans have increased carrying capacity?
What is an ecological footprint? How are they different in various countries?
What is our estimated carrying capacity?

Chapter 15
What are the next 2 levels of ecological study that follow population ecology?
What is the difference between them?
What is species diversity in a community? Species richness and relative abundance?
When there are 2 interacting species, do traits evolve separately or together? Why?
Define coevolution.
Define and give examples of abiotic and biotic forces.
What is a niche? What are its features?
What is the difference between a fundamental nice and a realized nice?
What happens when 2 similar species fills the same niche? Define the competitive exclusion principle,
resource partitioning, and character displacement.
Why is competition hard to see? What is the "ghost of competition past?
What is predation? Are parasites considered predators?
Why do exotic species flourish in new habitats even though they were not adapted to their new
environment?
What defenses do plants have against predation? What are the 3 types of behavioral and 5 types
physical defenses animals have against predators?
What is the purpose of mimicry? Describe the difference between Batesian and Mulerian mimicry.
How are some ways predators are adapted for predation?
What is a keystone species and why is it important for a community? Give examples.
What is the "life-dinner hypothesis"?
Will a predator ever cause the extinction of a prey species? why or why not?
What is the difference between ectoparasites and endoparasites?
What are the unique challenges faced by parasites and how do they overcome them?
There were 3 situations that were presented in class that showed the effect of parasites on their hosts.
Explain each one.
What is mutualism? Commensalism? Give examples of each.
When does ecological succession occur? Be sure to know all 5 steps of succession in detail.
Define the biotic and abiotic environments.
What are the 2 major cycles in an ecosystem?
What is a tropic level? What tropic level would you find at the base of all ecosystems? What eats
them? Why are food webs more realistic that food chains?
What is a detritivore?
What doe energy pyramids show?
What is the 10% rule? If we eat 10 pounds of food, how much goes towards our biomass? Where
does the rest go? Why is it more energetically efficient to be a vegetarian?
Why are there so few top carnivores in the world? What is typically the maximum number of trophic
levels you can have based on the 10 percent rule?
Explain the 3 variations in primary productivity: large-based, small-based, inverted pyramid
What are the 3 most important chemical cycles in an ecosystem?
Why they are important:
 Carbon: found in carboydrates, plants need it to photosynthesize
 Nitrogen: major component of proteins and nucleic acids
 Phosphorus: Major component of the phospholipid bilayer and ATP
Make sure you know the cycles associated with these elements.
Why and when does carbon dioxide rise and fall each year?
How are we contributing to the rise in carbon dioxide in the world?
Why do we add fertilizers to plants?
What is eutrophication and why is it bad for the environment?
What are biomes? What are they characterized by?
Be able to recognize the terrestrial and aquatic biomes.
Why is the area around the equator warmer than the rest of the Earth in terms of the distribution of
solar energy?
How is rain formed?
How are deserts formed?
What is a rain shadow and how does it form?
Are urban areas warmer than rural areas? Why or why not?
Is the water on the coast of California warmer or colder than the east coast of the US? Why?
Why are is the weather milder at beach communities?
Explain how el nino conditions differ from normal conditions. What does it cause on both sides of the
Pacific Ocean?

Chapter 16 Review
What are the different ways biodiversity is beneficial to humans? What are the four different values of
biodiversity?
How can biodiversity be defined? What is it most defined as?
What is conservation biology?
Explain how the latitudinal biodiversity gradient works.
In general which biomes (aquatic and terrestrial) have the highest biodiversity?
What are the factors that influence biodiversity? Name a few biodiversity hotspots. Why are they
considered hotspots?
What is the theory of island biogeography? Describe the 2 effects. Who came up with this theory?
What is dynamic equilibrium in terms of the number of species on an island. What 2 factors effect
this? How is island size important?
Explain Wilson and Simberloff's experiment on island recolonization and the results.
Explain how we can apply the theory of island biogeography to non-islands.
Explain the difference between mass extinction and background extinction. What are some causes of
mass extinction?
What are factors that influence the risk of background extinction?
Are all ecological disturbances reversible? Why or why not?
There are 5 types of disruptions of ecosystems that can be disastrous. What are they?
When exotic (invasive) species are introduced, what problems can they cause? How can we prevent
and/or fix the problem? Give examples of accidental introductions and the problems they have
caused.
How does normal rain become acid rain? What is a possible solution for this problem?
Where is rain most acidic in the United States?
What are the effects of acid rain?
What is the greenhouse effect and how does it contribute to global warming?
What is the cause of global warming?
How does the melting of the ice cap change the climate of the Earth?
How are biological systems changing due to climate change?
How is the ozone being depleted and what problems does this cause for us?
Where is the hole in the ozone layer and how large is it now?
Why is the deforestation of the rainforest a problem for us? Why do people clear forests in the first
place?
In the past 200 years, how much rainforest have we lost?
What are some strategies in returning the rainforest to its previous state?
What is the endangered species act?
What is the World Wildlife Fund's "Global 200"
What is Landscape conservation?
When designing a preserve, what are the 4 characteristics that should be included and why should we
include them?
When focusing on species conservation, what are the types we can choose and why would we choose to
protect them?
How do zoos help with the conservation of a species?