Category: Ecology

Chapter 50 AP Obj – Intro to Ecology

 

 

Chapter 50    Introduction to Ecology & the Biosphere
Objectives
The Scope of Ecology
1. Define ecology. Identify the two features of organisms studied by ecologists.
2. Describe the relationship between ecology and evolutionary biology.
3. Distinguish between abiotic and biotic components of the environment.
4. Distinguish among organismal ecology, population ecology, community ecology, ecosystem ecology, and landscape ecology.
5. Clarify the difference between ecology and environmentalism.
Interactions Between Organisms and the Environment Affect the Distribution of Species
6. Define biogeography.
7. Describe the questions that might be asked in a study addressing the limits of the geographic distribution of a particular species.
8. Describe the problems caused by introduced species and illustrate with a specific example.
9. Explain how habitat selection may limit distribution of a species within its range of suitable habitats.
10. Describe, with examples, how biotic and abiotic factors may affect the distribution of organisms.
11. List the four abiotic factors that are the most important components of climate.
12. Distinguish between macroclimate and microclimate patterns.
13. Provide an example of a microclimate.
14. Explain, with examples, how a body of water and a mountain range might affect regional climatic conditions.
15. Describe how an ecologist might predict the effect of global warming on distribution of a tree species.
16. Name three ways in which marine biomes affect the biosphere.
Aquatic and Terrestrial Biomes
17. Describe the characteristics of the major aquatic biomes: lakes, wetlands, streams, rivers, estuaries, intertidal biomes, oceanic pelagic biomes, coral reefs, and marine benthic biomes.
18. Define the following characteristics of lakes: seasonal turnover, thermal stratification, thermocline, photic zone.
19. Explain why the following statement is false: “All communities on Earth are based on primary producers that capture light energy by photosynthesis.”
20. Describe the characteristics of the major terrestrial biomes: tropical forest, desert, savanna, chaparral, temperate grassland, coniferous forest, temperate broadleaf forest, and tundra.
21. Give an example of a biome characterized by periodic disturbance.
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Chapter 51 AP Obj Behavior

 

 

Chapter 51    Behavioral Biology
Objectives
Introduction to Behavior and Behavioral Ecology
1. Define behavior.
2. Distinguish between proximate and ultimate questions about behavior. Ask a proximate question and an ultimate question about bird song.
3. Explain how the classical discipline of ethology led to the modern study of behavioral ecology.
4. Define fixed action patterns and give an example.
5. Define imprinting. Suggest a proximate cause and an ultimate cause for imprinting in young geese.
Many Behaviors Have a Genetic Component
6. Explain how genes and environment contribute to behavior. Explain what is unique about innate behavior.
7. Distinguish between kinesis and taxis.
8. Distinguish between signal and pheromone.
9. Explain how Berthold’s research demonstrated a genetic basis for blackcap migration.
10. Describe Insel’s research on the genetic and physiological controls on parental behavior of prairie voles. Describe Bester-Meredith and Marler’s research on the influence of social behavior on parental behavior of California mice.
Learning
11. Explain how habituation may influence behavior.
12. Describe Tinbergen’s classic experiment on spatial learning in digger wasps.
13. Distinguish between landmarks and cognitive maps.
14. Describe how associative learning might help a predator to avoid toxic prey.
15. Distinguish between classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
16. Describe an experiment that demonstrates problem solving in nonhuman animals.
Behavioral Traits Can Evolve by Natural Selection
17. Explain how Hedrick and Riechert’s experiments demonstrated that behavioral differences between populations might be the product of natural selection.
18. Use an example to show how researchers can demonstrate the evolution of behavior in laboratory experiments.
19. Explain optimal foraging theory.
20. Explain how behavioral ecologists carry out cost-benefit analyses to determine how an animal should forage optimally. Explain how Zach demonstrated that crows feed optimally on whelks.
21. Explain how predation risk may affect the foraging behavior of a prey species.
22. Define and distinguish among promiscuous, monogamous, and polygamous mating relationships. Define and distinguish between polygyny and polyandry.
23. Describe how the certainty of paternity influences the development of mating systems.
24. Explain why males are more likely than females to provide parental care in fishes.
25. Suggest an ultimate explanation for a female stalk-eyed fly’s preference for mates with relatively long eyestalks.
26. Agonistic behavior in males is often a ritualized contest rather than combat. Suggest an ultimate explanation for this.
27. Explain how game theory may be used to evaluate alternative behavioral strategies.
28. Define inclusive fitness and reciprocal altruism. Discuss conditions that would favor the evolution of altruistic behavior.
29. Relate the coefficient of relatedness to the concept of altruism.
30. Define Hamilton’s rule and the concept of kin selection.
Social Learning and Sociobiology
31. Define social learning and culture.
32. Explain why mate choice copying by a female may increase her fitness.
33. State the main premise of sociology.
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Chapter 52 AP Obj Pop Ecol

 

 

Chapter 52    Population Ecology
Objectives
Characteristics of Populations
1. Distinguish between density and dispersion of a population.
2. Explain how ecologists may estimate the density of a species.
3. Describe conditions that may result in clumped dispersion, uniform dispersion, and random dispersion of individuals in a population.
4. Explain how a life table is constructed.
5. Distinguish between a life table and a reproductive table.
6. Describe the characteristics of populations that exhibit Type I, Type II, and Type III survivorship curves.
Life Histories
7. Define and distinguish between semelparity and iteroparity. Explain what factors may favor the evolution of each life history strategy.
8. Explain, with examples, how limited resources and trade-offs may affect life histories.
Population Growth
9. Compare the exponential model of population growth with the logistic model.
10. Explain how an environment’s carrying capacity affects the per capita rate of increase of a population.
11. Explain the meaning of each of the following terms in the logistic model of population growth:
a. rmax
b. K 2 N
c. (K 2 N)/K
12. Distinguish between r-selected populations and K-selected populations.
Population-Limiting Factors
13. Explain how density-dependent factors affect population growth.
14. Explain, with examples, how biotic and abiotic factors may work together to control a population’s growth.
15. Describe boom-and-bust population cycles, explaining possible causes of lynx/hare fluctuations.
Human Population Growth
16. Describe the history of human population growth.
17. Define the demographic transition.
18. Compare the age structures of Italy, Afghanistan, and the United States. Describe the possible consequences for each country.
19. Describe the problems associated with estimating Earth’s carrying capacity for the human species.
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Chapter 53 AP Obj Community

 

 

Chapter 53     Community Ecology
Objectives
Interspecific Interactions and Community Structure
1. List the categories of interspecific interactions and explain how each interaction may affect the population densities of the two species involved.
2. State the competitive exclusion principle.
3. Define an ecological niche and restate the competitive exclusion principle using the niche concept.
4. Distinguish between fundamental and realized niche.
5. Explain how interspecific competition may lead to resource partitioning.
6. Define and compare predation, herbivory, and parasitism.
7. Give specific examples of adaptations of predators and prey.
8. Explain how cryptic coloration and warning coloration may aid an animal in avoiding predators.
9. Distinguish between Batesian mimicry and MŸllerian mimicry.
10. Describe how predators may use mimicry to obtain prey.
11. Distinguish among endoparasites, ectoparasites, and parisitoids.
12. Distinguish among parasitism, mutualism, and commensalism.
13. Explain the relationship between species richness and relative abundance and explain how both contribute to species diversity.
14. Distinguish between a food chain and a food web.
15. Describe two ways to simplify food webs.
16. Summarize two hypotheses that explain why food chains are relatively short.
17. Explain how dominant and keystone species exert strong control on community structure. Describe an example of each.
18. Describe and distinguish between the bottom-up and top-down models of community organization. Describe possible features of a model that is intermediate between these two extremes.
Disturbance and Community Structure
19. Define stability and disturbance.
20. Provide examples of how disturbance may increase or decrease species diversity.
21. Give examples of humans as widespread agents of disturbance.
22. Distinguish between primary and secondary succession.
23. Describe how species that arrive early in succession may facilitate, inhibit, or tolerate later arrivals.
24. Explain why species richness declines along an equatorial-polar gradient.
25. Explain the significance of measures of evapotranspiration to species richness.
Biogeographic Factors Affect Community Biodiversity
26. Define the species-area curve.
27. Explain how species richness on islands varies according to island size and distance from the mainland.
28. Define and contrast the following pairs of hypotheses:
a. interactive hypothesis versus individualistic hypothesis
b. rivet model versus redundancy model
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Chapter 25 AP Objectives

 

Chapter 25    Tracing Phylogeny
Objectives
Phylogenies are Based on Common Ancestries
1. Distinguish between phylogeny and systematics.
2. Describe the process of sedimentation and the formation of fossils. Explain which portions of organisms are most likely to fossilize.
3. Explain why it is crucial to distinguish between homology and analogy before selecting characters to use in the reconstruction of phylogeny.
4. Explain why bird and bat wings are homologous as vertebrate forelimbs but analogous as wings.
5. Define molecular systematics. Explain some of the problems that systematists may face in carrying out molecular comparisons of nucleic acids.
Phylogenetic Systematics: Connecting Classification
with Evolutionary History
6. Explain the following characteristics of the Linnaean system of classification:
a. binomial nomenclature
b. hierarchical classification
7. List the major taxonomic categories from most to least inclusive.
8. Define a clade. Distinguish between a monophyletic clade and paraphyletic and polyphyletic groupings of species.
9. Distinguish between shared primitive characters and shared derived characters.
10. Explain how shared derived characters can be used to construct a phylogenetic diagram.
11. Explain how outgroup comparison can be used to distinguish between shared primitive characters and shared derived characters.
12. Define an ingroup.
13. Distinguish between a phylogram and an ultrameric tree.
14. Discuss how systematists use the principles of maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood in reconstructing phylogenies.
15. Explain why any phylogenetic diagram represents a hypothesis about evolutionary relationships among organisms.
16. Distinguish between orthologous and paralogous genes. Explain how gene duplication has led to families of paralogous genes.
17. Explain how molecular clocks are used to determine the approximate time of key evolutionary events. Explain how molecular clocks are calibrated in actual time.
18. Describe some of the limitations of molecular clocks.
19. Explain the neutral theory of evolutionary change.
20. Explain how scientists determined the approximate time when HIV-1 M first infected humans.
21. Describe the evidence that suggests there is a universal tree of life.
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