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MIDTERM REVIEW: CHAPTERS 1,4,5,6, & 7
Question
1.
Answer
Define environmental science.
An interdisciplinary study of how the earth works, how
humans are affecting the earth’s life-support systems,
and how to deal with the environmental problems we
face
2.
What type of growth starts slowly but grows very rapidly?
Exponential (could you recognize this on a graph)
3.
What term describes the amount of land needed to
support a person’s lifestyle?
Ecological Footprint
4.
Why is pollution prevention more sustainable than
pollution clean-up?
5.
What does it mean to live sustainably?
6.
7.
What are the 4 R’s?
What 3 factors does life on Earth depend on?
8.
Define photosynthesis.
9.
List the levels of organization of life from most narrow to
most broad.
clean-up efforts often transfer pollutants from one part
of the environment to another, once pollutants are
dispersed, it costs too much to reduce them to
acceptable levels, it’s nearly impossible to clean-up all
of the pollution in an area
Protecting our resources/capital – living off our natural
interest
Reduce, reuse, recycle, refuse
gravity, one way flow of energy, and cycling of matter
10. What term describes a community of living organisms
interacting with one another and their nonliving
environment?
11. Define abiotic and biotic, and provide examples of
each.
12. Define producer, consumer, and decomposer.
13. Differentiate between a primary consumer and a
secondary consumer.
14. Why do most ecosystems have a maximum 4 or 5
trophic levels?
15. What are the reactants (ingredients) for aerobic
respirations?
16. What is the name for the diagram that demonstrates the
complex arrangements of feeding patterns in
conversion of solar energy into chemical energy
organisms - populations - communities - ecosystems –
biosphere
Ecosystem
Abiotic – non-living factors (temp, pH, sunlight, soil)
Biotic – living factors (bacteria, plants, animals)
Producer – autotrophs - make their own food (photo
or chemosynthesis
Consumer – heterotrophs – eat other organisms
Decomposers – recycle nutrients back into the
environment (breakdown bodies of dead plants and
animals)
Primary consumer is an herbivore, they feed on plants,
a secondary consumer feeds on primary consumers
Only a small fraction of energy is transferred between
each level (about 10%) most is degraded to low
quality heat
Oxygen and glucose
Food web
ecosystems?
17. In an energy pyramid, where is most of the energy
found (top or bottom)? What is found at the bottom?
18. What range in the range of tolerance would you find
organisms thriving and reproducing? (Look at graph)
19. What is the hydrologic cycle?
20. What are the two ways in which humans have most
interfered with the carbon cycle?
21. What organisms carry out nitrogen fixation?
22. Why is phosphorus a limiting factor on land?
23. Refining petroleum, smelting metallic minerals, and
burning fossil fuels are all ways that humans are adding
________ to the atmosphere?
24. How does sulfur damage plants and animals?
25. How does deforestation affect the carbon cycle?
26. What is transpiration?
27. What did Miller and Urey produce in their experiment?
28. Describe properties of the early atmosphere on Earth.
29. What protects the Earth from damaging UV rays?
30. How do fossils form and why are they important to
evolutionary biologists?
31. What term describes the process by which a population
becomes better suited to its environment?
32. What happens to two populations of the same species if
they are separated from each other for a long time?
33. What are homologous structures?
34. What are vestigial structures?
35. What term describes structures that have the same
function but different physical structure?
36. What is coevolution?
37. What did Charles Darwin mean when he used the term
“fitness”?
38. List and describe the 3 types of natural selection.
39. Differentiate between geographic and reproductive
isolation.
Bottom - producers
Optimum range
The water cycle, the repeated movement of water
from the earth to the atmosphere
burning fossil fuels and removal of forests and brush.
Nitrogen fixing bacteria
soils contain low levels or phosphorous limiting plant
growth
sulfur
When it falls to the earth as sulfuric acid in acid rain
CO2 levels will increase and less water will be
evaporated because transpiration will decrease
Evaporation of water from the leaves of plants,
important part of the water cycle
Amino acids
Anaerobic – lacked oxygen, had water vapor,
ammonia, hydrogen, methane
Ozone layer
Insects trapped in amber, impressions, shells, bones
etc. They provide scientists with evidence of Earth’s
evolutionary history
Adaptation
They become increasingly different as each adapts to
their own environment
Structures that have the same structure yet different
functions, show evidence of a common ancestor
(wing of a bird, arm of a human, flipper of a whale)
Structures that no longer have an important role but
may have played a role in the past (human tailbone,
appendix, Gallo’s pointy ears!)
Analogous structures
The process in which two or more species become
more adapted over time to each other’s presence
Ability of an organism to survive and reproduce
Stabilizing- the average of a trait remains the same
directional- one extreme of a trait becomes the norm
disruptive/diversifying- both extremes of a trait
become the norm
Geographic – physically separated (mountain, river)
Reproductive – members of isolated populations
become so different in genetic makeup that they
cannot produce live, fertile offspring if they are
40. What term describes a single species that has evolved
into several different forms that live in different ways?
41. List the characteristics that make life possible on Earth.
42. Differentiate between a niche and a habitat.
43. Differentiate between generalist and specialist species.
44. What term describes average weather conditions over
long periods of time?
rejoined
Adaptative radiation
Temperature, presence of water, distance from the
sun, size of the planet
Niche is like an occupation – it includes, its way of life,
what it does, what it eats
Habitat is an address – where an organism lives
Generalist – have broad niches, can live in many
places, and use a variety of resource (dandelions,
cockroaches, humans)
Specialists – have narrow niches, live in only specific
places (spotted owls, giant pandas)
Climate
45. Define greenhouse effect and list the greenhouse gases
discussed in class.
the trapping of heat energy in the troposphere by
certain gaseous molecules (carbon dioxide, nitrous
oxide, methane, water vapor)
46. What is a microclimate and what can cause it?
Local climatic conditions that differ from the general
climate of a region, can be caused by cities,
mountains,
Low prec on the leeward side of a mountain which
causes dry (arid) conditions on this side
Grassland, desert, forest
Temp and precipitation
47. Describe what is meant by the term rain shadow effect.
48. What are the three main types of biomes?
49. What two factors determine the distribution of biomes
across the world?
50. What are some characteristics of desert plants and
animals?
Plants - becoming dormant during dry periods, deep
root systems, widespread, shallow root systems, spines
to prevent being eaten by animals
Animals - living underground during the heat of the
day, becoming dormant during periods of extreme
heat or drought, having thick outer coverings to
minimize water loss
51. What are some additional names of a cold forest?
52. List plant and animal species for each biome, and
describe how they are adapted to living in their
particular biome.
53. Which aquatic life zone is referred to as the “rainforest of
the ocean” and how much of the ocean floor do they
occupy?
Boreal, coniferous, evergreen, taiga
Example: oak, hickory, maple = deciduous forest….
54. List the fresh and saltwater life zones.
Fresh: river, steam, lake, pond
Salt: ocean, estuary, coral reef
Coastal zone
55. What zone of the ocean extends from the high tide
mark to the edge of the continental shelf?
56. What zone is found in the deepest part of the ocean?
57. Where does most photosynthesis occur on Earth?
58. Describe the various zones found in a lake.
Coral reefs, 0.2% important because: support a large
variety of marine species, provide food, jobs, and
building materials, protect coastlines from erosion
Abyssal zone
Euphotic or photic zone
Littoral - nutrient-rich water near the shore
Limnetic – open, sunlit water surface layer away from
the shore, produces food and oxygen
59. Describe the nutrient contents of oligotrophic, eutropic,
and mesotrophic lakes.
60. Differentiate between species richness and species
abundance.
61. Define the term keystone species.
62. What is the most common form of interspecific species
interactions?
63. Define indicator species and describe an example of
one.
64. What is resource partitioning?
65. List and describe the 5 kinds of species interactions.
66. Explain why predator/prey relationships are often
described as an “arms race”.
67. What are some methods predators use to capture prey?
68. What are some methods prey use to avoid being
captured?
Profundal zone- deep, open water with no
photosynthesis, fish adapted to cooler, darker water
are found here
Benthic zone – bottom of a lake
Oligo – poorly nourished, Low NPP (clear, blue)
Eu – well nourished, High NPP (murky)
Meso – middle(greenish in summer)
Richness/diversity – is the number of different species
Abundance – number of individuals of each species
Species that play a critical role in an ecosystem
Competition
species that serve as early warnings that a community
or ecosystem is being damaged. Ex: birds, trout
Species with similar resource requirements can coexist
because they use limited resources at different times,
in different ways, in different places
Interspecific competition (-/-)
Predation (+/-)
Parasitism (+/-)
Mutualism (+/+)
Commensalism (+/0)
Predators get better at catching prey, prey get better
at avoiding capture
Pursuit and ambush
Camouflage, warning colors, chemical warfare,
mimicry, behavior
69. What term describes the ability of an ecosystem to
“bounce back” after a disturbance?
Resilience
70. Differentiate and give examples of primary and
secondary succession.
Primary – starts on bare rock (volcanic eruption,
glacier retreating) may take several centuries to
several thousands of years start with lichen and
mosses
Secondary – begins on soil (forest fire)
Species that normally do not live in an area
(accidentally or purposefully introduced), may thrive
and outcompete native species due to lack of natural
predators in that area (cane toads, killer bees,
Burmese pythons)
Intraspecific is between members of the same species
71. What is a nonnative (or an alien or exotic) species?
72. How is intraspecific competition different from
interspecific competition?
73. Describe the edge effect?
74. What is a climatogram and what data is found on one?
Differences in physical appearance at boundaries
between ecosystems (example between forest and
open field)
Graph with a double Y axis that shows average temp
and precipitation (temp = line graph, precipitation =
bar)