Category: Ecology

Chapter 22 AP Objectives

 

Chapter 22    Darwinian View of Life
Objectives
The Historical Context for Evolutionary Theory
1. Explain the mechanism for evolutionary change proposed by Charles Darwin in On the Origin of Species.
2. Define evolution and adaptation.
3. Compare and contrast Aristotle’s scala naturae to Carolus Linnaeus’ classification scheme.
4. Describe the theories of catastrophism, gradualism, and uniformitarianism.
5. Explain the mechanism for evolutionary change proposed by Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck. Explain why modern biology has rejected Lamarck’s theories.
The Darwinian Revolution
6. Describe how Darwin’s observations on the voyage of the HMS Beagle led him to formulate and support his theory of evolution.
7. Explain how the principle of gradualism and Charles Lyell’s theory of uniformitarianism influenced Darwin’s ideas about evolution.
8. Explain what Darwin meant by “descent with modification.”
9. Explain what evidence convinced Darwin that species change over time.
10. Explain how Linnaeus’ classification scheme fit Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.
11. Describe the three inferences Darwin made from his observations that led him to propose natural selection as a mechanism for evolutionary change.
12. Explain how an essay by the Rev. Thomas Malthus influenced Charles Darwin.
13. Distinguish between artificial selection and natural selection.
14. Explain why an individual organism cannot evolve.
15. Describe the experiments that supported Reznick and Endler’s hypothesis that differences in life-history traits between guppy populations are due to selective pressure based on predation.
16. Explain how the existence of homologous and vestigial structures can be explained by Darwin’s theory of natural selection.
17. Explain how evidence from biogeography supports the theory of evolution by natural selection.
18. Explain the problem with the statement that Darwinism is “just a theory.” Distinguish between the scientific and colloquial use of the word theory.

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Chapter 23 AP Objectives

 

Chapter 23    Evolution of Populations
Objectives
Population Genetics
1. Explain the statement “It is the population, not the individual, that evolves.”
2. Explain how Mendel’s particulate hypothesis of inheritance provided much-needed support for Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.
3. Distinguish between discrete and quantitative traits. Explain how Mendel’s laws of inheritance apply to quantitative traits.
4. Explain what is meant by “the modern synthesis.”
5. Define the terms population, species, and gene pool.
6. Explain why meiosis and random fertilization alone will not alter the frequency of alleles or genotypes in a population.
7. List the five conditions that must be met for a population to remain in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.
8. Write the Hardy-Weinberg equation. Use the equation to calculate allele frequencies when the frequency of homozygous recessive individuals in a population is 25%.
Mutation and Sexual Recombination
9. Explain why the majority of point mutations are harmless.
10. Explain why mutation has little quantitative effect on allele frequencies in a large population.
11. Describe the significance of transposons in the generation of genetic variability.
12. Explain how sexual recombination generates genetic variability.
Natural Selection, Genetic Drift, and Gene Flow
13. Explain the following statement: “Only natural selection leads to the adaptation of organisms to their environment.”
14. Explain the role of population size in genetic drift.
15. Distinguish between the bottleneck effect and the founder effect.
16. Describe how gene flow can act to reduce genetic differences between adjacent populations.
Genetic Variation, the Substrate for Natural Selection
17. Explain how quantitative and discrete characters contribute to variation within a population.
18. Distinguish between average heterozygosity and nucleotide variability. Explain why average heterozygosity tends to be greater than nucleotide variability.
19. Define a cline.
20. Define relative fitness.
a. Explain why relative fitness is zero for a healthy, long-lived, sterile organism.
b. Explain why relative fitness could be high for a short-lived organism.
21. Distinguish among directional, disruptive, and stabilizing selection. Give an example of each mode of selection.
22. Explain how diploidy can protect a rare recessive allele from elimination by natural selection.
23. Describe how heterozygote advantage and frequency-dependent selection promote balanced polymorphism.
24. Define neutral variations. Explain why natural selection does not act on these alleles.
25. Distinguish between intrasexual selection and intersexual selection.
26. Explain how female preferences for showy male traits may benefit the female.
27. Describe the disadvantages of sexual reproduction.
28. Explain how the genetic variation promoted by sex may be advantageous to individuals on a generational time scale.
29. List four reasons why natural selection cannot produce perfect organisms.

 
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Chapter 24 AP Objectives

 

Chapter 24    Origin of Species
Objectives
What Is a Species?
1. Distinguish between anagenesis and cladogenesis.
2. Define Ernst Mayr’s biological species concept.
3. Distinguish between prezygotic and postzygotic isolating mechanisms.
4. Describe five prezygotic isolating mechanisms and give an example of each.
5. Explain a possible cause for reduced hybrid viability.
6. Explain how hybrid breakdown maintains separate species even if fertilization occurs.
7. Describe some limitations of the biological species concept.
8. Define and distinguish among the following: ecological species concept, paleontological species concept, phylogenetic species concept, and morphological species concept.
Modes of Speciation
9. Distinguish between allopatric and sympatric speciation.
10. Explain the allopatric speciation model and describe the mechanisms that may lead to divergence of isolated gene pools.
11. Describe examples of adaptive radiation in the Galápagos and Hawaiian archipelagoes.
12. Explain how reproductive barriers evolve. Describe an example of the evolution of a prezygotic barrier and the evolution of a postzygotic barrier.
13. Define sympatric speciation and explain how polyploidy can cause reproductive isolation.
14. Distinguish between an autopolyploid and an allopolyploid species and describe examples of each.
15. Describe how cichlid fishes may have speciated in sympatry in Lake Victoria.
Adaptive Radiation
16. Define adaptive radiation and describe the circumstances under which adaptive radiation may occur.
17. Describe the two gene loci implicated in speciation in Mimulus.
From Speciation to Macroevolution
18. Explain in general terms how a complex structure can evolve by natural selection.
19. Define exaptation and illustrate this concept with an example.
20. Explain how slight genetic divergences may lead to major morphological differences between species.
21. Explain how the evolution of changes in temporal and spatial developmental dynamics can result in evolutionary novelties.
22. Define evo-devo, heterochrony, allometric growth, and paedomorphosis.
23. Explain why extracting a single evolutionary progression from a fossil record can be misleading.
24. Define and illustrate the concept of species selection.
25. Explain why evolutionary change is not goal-directed.
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Chapter 26 Early Earth & the Origin of Life

 

Chapter 26    Early Earth & the Origin of Life
Objectives
The Origin of Life
1. Describe the four stages of the hypothesis for the origin of life on Earth by chemical evolution.
2. Describe the contributions that A. I. Oparin, J.B.S. Haldane, and Stanley Miller made toward developing a model for the abiotic synthesis of organic molecules. Describe the conditions and locations where most of these chemical reactions probably occurred on Earth.
3. Describe the evidence that suggests that RNA was the first genetic material. Explain the significance of the discovery of ribozymes.
4. Describe how natural selection may have worked in an early RNA world.
5. Describe how natural selection may have favored the proliferation of stable protobionts with self-replicating, catalytic RNA.
Introduction to the History of Life
6. Explain how the histories of Earth and life are inseparable.
7. Explain how index fossils can be used to determine the relative age of fossil-bearing rock strata. Explain how radiometric dating can be used to determine the absolute age of rock strata. Explain how magnetism can be used to date rock strata.
8. Describe the major events in Earth’s history from its origin until 2 billion years ago. In particular, note when Earth first formed, when life first evolved, and what forms of life existed in each eon.
9. Describe the mass extinctions of the Permian and Cretaceous periods. Discuss a hypothesis that accounts for each of these mass extinctions.
The Major Lineages of Life
10. Describe how chemiosmotic ATP production may have arisen.
11. Describe the timing and significance of the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis.
12. Explain the endosymbiotic theory for the evolution of the eukaryotic cell. Describe the evidence that supports this theory.
13. Explain how genetic annealing may have led to modern eukaryotic genomes.
14. Describe the timing of key events in the evolution of the first eukaryotes and later multicellular eukaryotes.
15. Explain how the snowball-Earth hypothesis explains why multicellular eukaryotes were so limited in size, diversity, and distribution until the late Proterozoic.
16. Describe the key evolutionary adaptations that arose as life colonized land.
17. Explain how continental drift explains Australia’s unique flora and fauna.
18. Explain why R. H. Whittaker’s five-kingdom system has been replaced by a new system with three domains.
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Chapter 14 – Mendel Objectives

 

 

Chapter 14   Mendel & the Gene Idea
Objectives
Gregor Mendel’s Discoveries
1. Explain how Mendel’s particulate mechanism differed from the blending theory of inheritance.
2. Define the following terms: true-breeding, hybridization, monohybrid cross, P generation, F1 generation, and F2 generation.
3. List and explain the four components of Mendel’s hypothesis that led him to deduce the law of segregation.
4. Use a Punnett square to predict the results of a monohybrid cross, stating the phenotypic and genotypic ratios of the F2 generation.
5. Distinguish between the following pairs of terms: dominant and recessive; heterozygous and homozygous; genotype and phenotype.
6. Explain how a testcross can be used to determine if an individual with the dominant phenotype is homozygous or heterozygous.
7. Use a Punnett square to predict the results of a dihybrid cross and state the phenotypic and genotypic ratios of the F2 generation.
8. State Mendel’s law of independent assortment and describe how this law can be explained by the behavior of chromosomes during meiosis.
9. Use the rule of multiplication to calculate the probability that a particular F2 individual will be homozygous recessive or dominant.
10. Given a Mendelian cross, use the rule of addition to calculate the probability that a particular F2 individual will be heterozygous.
11. Use the laws of probability to predict, from a trihybrid cross between two individuals that are heterozygous for all three traits, what expected proportion of the offspring would be:
a. homozygous dominant for the three traits
b. heterozygous for all three traits
c. homozygous recessive for two specific traits and heterozygous for the third
12. Explain why it is important that Mendel used large sample sizes in his studies.
Extending Mendelian Genetics
13. Give an example of incomplete dominance and explain why it does not support the blending theory of inheritance.
14. Explain how phenotypic expression of the heterozygote differs with complete dominance, incomplete dominance, and codominance.
15. Explain why Tay-Sachs disease is considered recessive at the organismal level but codominant at the molecular level.
16. Explain why genetic dominance does not mean that a dominant allele subdues a recessive allele. Illustrate your explanation with the use of round versus wrinkled pea seed shape.
17. Explain why dominant alleles are not necessarily more common in a population. Illustrate your explanation with an example.
18. Describe the inheritance of the ABO blood system and explain why the IA and IB alleles are said to be codominant.
19. Define and give examples of pleiotropy and epistasis.
20. Describe a simple model for polygenic inheritance and explain why most polygenic characters are described in quantitative terms.
21. Describe how environmental conditions can influence the phenotypic expression of a character. Explain what is meant by “a norm of reaction.”
22. Distinguish between the specific and broad interpretations of the terms phenotype and genotype.
Mendelian Inheritance in Humans
23. Explain why studies of human inheritance are not as easily conducted as Mendel’s work with his peas.
24. Given a simple family pedigree, deduce the genotypes for some of the family members.
25. Explain how a lethal recessive allele can be maintained in a population.
26. Describe the inheritance and expression of cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs disease, and sickle-cell disease.
27. Explain why lethal dominant genes are much rarer than lethal recessive genes.
28. Give an example of a late-acting lethal dominant gene in humans and explain how it can escape elimination by natural selection.
29. Define and give examples of multifactorial disorders in humans.
30. Explain how carrier recognition, fetal testing, and newborn screening can be used in genetic screening and counseling.

 
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