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Name ______________________________________ Date ___________Hour ___
AP Biology Ecology Study Guide 2016
Please read the following chapters in the ecology unit and answer the questions that
correspond to the sections. Please write your answers in a word/google doc and email them
or write them on a separate piece of paper.
Chapter 42 – Organisms in their Environment
Chapter 43 – Populations
Chapter 44 – Ecological and Evolutionary Consequences of Species Interactions
Chapter 45 – Ecological Communities
Chapter 46 – The Global Ecosystem
Chapter 42 – Organisms in their Environment
42.1
1. Identify three biotic components found in most forest ecosystems.
2. Identify three abiotic components found in most forest ecosystems.
3. Give one similarity and one difference between the bacterial community of the human
gut and the bacterial community of a forest community.
4. Explain three benefits that humans gain from “hosting” the microbial community of the
human gut.
42.2
Climate diagrams summarize the temperature and precipitation data for a localized area. Answer
questions 5-8 using the data in the following climate diagrams.
5. Select the diagram (A, B or C) that best represents climate near the equator and explain
your choice.
6. Select the diagram (A, B or C) that represents the latitude 30 degrees, where there is
typically a high rate of evaporation from the surface, and dry, warm air sinking to the
surface; and explain what type of biome would be found here.
7. Select the diagram (A, B or C) that best represents a location that would have the longest
growing season and explain your choice.
Radjewski 2016
Name ______________________________________ Date ___________Hour ___
8. Diagram C includes varying precipitation during the year. Select the month with the least
precipitation and discuss why this reduction occurs at that time. Also suggest a biome
type that might be found in a region with this pattern.
9. Organisms’ activities are affected by interactions with abiotic factors. Explain how each
of the factors below could affect the behavior and health of the following marine
organisms:
Coral Reef
Fish
Sea Otter
Nutrient availability
(less and more)
Temp. Change from
72 to 65 degrees
Salinity change from
32 ppt to 25 ppt
A significant pH
change from 8.18 to
8.07
42.3
10. Explain the term biome and discuss how biomes are defined. Describe the type of biome
you live in, linking your description to the definition of that biome.
11. Discuss whether or not the human gut can be considered a biome, and indicate your
perception or how small the smallest biome can be.
42.4
12. What is Wallace’s line?
13. What kinds of barriers might limit the dispersal of terrestrial species? Or aquatic species?
42.5
14. Identify two human activities that have altered ecosystems. For each, describe how
humans have altered the ecosystem and the effects of the alteration on biodiversity.
42.6 – no questions
Chapter 43 - Populations
43.1
15. Identify 3 populations (plants and/or animals) that are actively managed by humans. For
each, identify two factors in their environment that affect its abundance.
43.2
16. What factors other than birth and death rates affect the size of a population?
Below is a graph showing how densities of acorns, rodents (mice and chipmunks), and the
black legged tick population vary over time in an oak forest of the state of New York.
Radjewski 2016
Name ______________________________________ Date ___________Hour ___
a. Describe the possible relationship between acorn and rodent densities.
b. Describe the possible relationship between rodent and tick densities.
c. Ticks are a parasite relying on blood meals to reproduce. Explain how physical
features such as rainfall could influence their population.
d. For the year 2000, calculate the number of ticks in the forest if the forest is 50 square
kilometers in size.
e. Identify an abiotic and a biotic factor that also could influence the population
fluctuations seen in the figure.
The Life Table shows the survivorship and
fecundity for all (n=210 hatchlings) the
Cactus Ground Finches born in 1978 on Isla
Daphne in the Galapagos archipelago.
17. Identify the age range when the ground
finches in this study were reproducing at
their highest rate.
18. Survivorship at age X, is the proportion
of the original cohort that survived to
age X. Calculate how many birds did
not make it to one year of age.
19. Explain why increased rainfall in 1983
is associated with increased fecundity.
20. Fecundity is the average number of young per female. Assume that one-half of the
population is female. Calculate the number of young born in 1983.
Radjewski 2016
Name ______________________________________ Date ___________Hour ___
21. Assume that a population of 25 women and 25 men, all aged 21 years old, colonizes a
previously uninhabited island. Twenty babies are born the next year. In the space below,
write in possible life table values for these twenty babies.
Year
1
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
Age
0
Survivorship
1.00
Fecundity
0.00
22. Explain the survivorship and fecundity values you gave in the Life Table above.
43.4
23. Explain why populations cannot grow multiplicatively for extended periods of time.
24. Explain why human offspring continue to grow over a long period of time.
43.5
25. Sidewalks can easily divide an area into small meta-populations for small organisms such
as snails. For each of the barriers below, pick one organism that might be limited in its
distribution due to that indicated barrier, and explain why you choose it.
a. Parking lot
b. Small road
c. Interstate highway
d. Housing developments
43.6 – no questions
Chapter 44 – Ecological and Evolutionary Consequences of Species
Interactions
44.1
26. For each of the relationships shown below, mark in the appropriate column if the first
species mentioned is affected negatively (-), positively (+), or not at all (0). Do the same
for the second species, then write the type of interaction in the third column. The first
example is completed for you.
Radjewski 2016
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Example
Species 1
American bison
+
feeds on grasses
Wrasses (small fish)
clean the teeth of
larger fish
Mosquito feeds on
the blood of a deer
Bread mold secretes
penicillin that kills
bacteria in the local
area which generally
have little to no
effect on the mold
A cactus wren
builds a nest in a
cholla cactus
without affecting the
cactus
A hawk captures a
small squirrel for
food
A rabbit rests in the
shade of a small
bush
Deer create a trail
through a forest
where they routinely
travel
Plovers (a bird)
remove insects from
the backs of large
animals
Species 2
-
Type of Interaction
Consumer Resource
27. Explain how predation is different from parasitism.
44.2
28. In a forest ecosystem, foxes prey on small mammals including rabbits and mice. Explain
why foxes are unlikely to consume all of the rabbits, causing their extinctions.
29. Explain what happens when two different species compete for the same resource in the
same location at the same time.
44.3
Radjewski 2016
Name ______________________________________ Date ___________Hour ___
30. Fitness in the biological sense is not how fast you can run a mile or how many push-ups
an athlete can perform. Define the term fitness in the evolutionary sense and give an
example of fitness.
31. Identify three ways that introduced species are inadvertently introduced to new areas.
Chapter 45 – Ecological Communities
45.1
32. Define an ecotone and give an example.
45.2
33. Define succession
45.3
34.Frequently after disturbances, such as a tree falling down or a fire, an ecosystem will
go through a predictable succession of changes. But the original community is not
always restored. Explain why.
Below is a food web found in the grasslands of Yellowstone National Park. Use the food
web to answer the following questions.
35. Briefly describe what would happen if each of the following groups were removed
from the park. Limit your answers to two trophic levels.
a. coyotes
b. all primary producers
c. all consumers
d. discuss two possible consequences of adding a new primary consumer, one
that feeds only on grasses, to the park.
e. Explain why there are fewer high-level consumers (wolves and weasels) than
primary consumers in Yellowstone Park.
Radjewski 2016
Name ______________________________________ Date ___________Hour ___
45.4
36. Explain how each of the following abiotic factors can affect the stability of populations.
a. water
b. nutrient availability
c. availability of nesting materials and sites
37. Explain how each of the following biotic factors can affect the stability of populations.
a. food chains and food webs
b. species diversity
c. population density
d. algal blooms
38. Choose one human impact below and discuss how the impact accelerates change at local and
global levels.
 Logging
 Slash and burn agriculture
 Urbanization
 Monocropping
 Infrastructure development
39. Choose one item below and discuss how introduced species can exploit new niches free or
predators or competitors while devastating native species.
 Dulch elm disease
 Potato blight
 Small pox
45.6 – no questions
Chapter 46 – The Global Ecosystem
46.1
40. Identify one reason why NPP is higher in the equatorial regions.
46.2 – questions
46.3
41. Complete the table below for each of the three major biogeochemical cycles. Sinks are the
locations where the nutrient is inaccessible for long periods.
Cycle
Water
Carbon
Nitrogen
Fluxes
Pools
Sinks
42. Excess nutrients (nitrates) running into a body of water can create an algal bloom. Explain
how the overabundance of algae can lead to anoxic zone (no dissolves oxygen) in the body of
water.
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Name ______________________________________ Date ___________Hour ___
43. Although nitrogen gas (N2) is approximately 78% of the Earth’s atmosphere, it is very often
a limiting nutrient in many ecosystems. Explain why we need to constantly apply nitrogen as
fertilizer to agricultural fields, despite its abundance in air.
46.4
44.
Calculate the percent increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in 2010 compared to the
amount present in 1980.
45. Carbon dioxide is not the most potent greenhouse gas, yet it is the one most often discussed.
Explain why.
46.5 and 46.6 no questions
Radjewski 2016