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APES Study Guide - Unit 2: THE LIVING WORLD
The second unit of APES is an introduction to ecology - the study of how living organisms interact with one another and
with their surroundings.
Textbook Reference:
Chapter 3 – Ecosystem Ecology, Chapter 4 – Global Climates and Biomes, Chapter 5 – Evolution of Biodiversity
Vocabulary:
Directions: Review vocabulary, words will appear in quizzes and/or tests. You are not required to write the definitions.
Study Guide Questions (SGQ):
Directions: Answer the question on a separate piece of paper to be turned in the day of the unit test.
Chapter 3 Vocabulary
• autotrophs
• biomass
• biosphere
• cellular respiration
• consumers
• consumers
• decomposers
• detritivores
• disturbance
• ecological efficiency
• ecosystem
• evapotranspiration
• food chain
• food web
• gross primary
productivity(GPP)
• biogeochemical cycles
• heterotrophs
• hydrologic cycle
• instrumental value
• intermediate disturbance
hypothesis
• intrinsic value
• leaching
• limiting nutrient
• macronutrients
• net primary productivity (NPP)
• nitrogen fixation
• photosynthesis
• primary consumers
• producers
• provisions
• biomagnification
• resilience
• resistance
• restoration ecology
• runoff
• scavengers
• secondary consumers
• standing crop
• tertiary consumers
• transpiration
• trophic levels
• trophic pyramid
• watershed
• open system
• closed system
Chapter 3 Study Guide Questions
1. List the basic components of an ecosystem.
2. Describe how energy flows through an ecosystem (2 processes).
3. Describe the flow of energy to and from the earth.
4. Distinguish among producers (autotrophs), consumers (heterotrophs), decomposers, and detritivores and give
an example of each in an ecosystem.
5. Distinguish among primary consumers (herbivores), secondary consumers (carnivores), tertiary (third-level)
consumers, and omnivores, and give an example of each.
6. Describe the role of decomposers in the cycling of nutrients through the ecosystem. Speculate on the
consequences, to life, of the extinction of every species of decomposer on Earth.
7. Distinguish between a food chain and a food web.
8. Explain what happens to energy as it flows through the food chains and food webs.
9. Explain what happens to matter in an ecosystem?
10. Distinguish between terrestrial biomes and aquatic life zones and give an example of each. What three
interconnected factors sustain life on earth?
11. Distinguish between abiotic and biotic components in ecosystems and give two examples of each.
12. Define and give an example of a limiting factor.
13. What two processes sustain ecosystems and the biosphere? How are they linked? Explain the importance of
microbes.
14. Discuss the difference between gross primary productivity (GPP) and net primary productivity (NPP) and explain
their importance.
15. What is a biogeochemical cycle (nutrient cycle)? Describe the unique properties of the hydrologic cycle.
16. Describe the (a) carbon (b) nitrogen (c) phosphorous and (d) sulfur cycles and describe how human activities
are affecting each cycle.
17. Identify and describe one distinguishing characteristic and the primary reservoir of the following cycles: carbon,
nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur and water.
Chapter 4 Vocabulary
• adiabatic cooling
• adiabatic heating
• albedo
• aphotic zone
• benthic zone
• biomes
• boreal forests
• chemosynthesis
• coral bleaching
• coral reefs
• Coriolis effect
• El Nino-Southern Oscillation
(ENSO)
• gyres
• Hadley cells
• intertidal zone
• intertropical convergence zone
• latent heat release
• limnetic zone
• littoral zone
• mangrove swamps
• permafrost
• photic zone
• phytoplankton
• polar cells
• profundal zone
• rain shadow
• salt marshes
• saturation point
• savannas
• stratosphere
• subtropical deserts
• temperate grassland/cold
desert
• temperate rainforests
• temperate seasonal forests
• thermohaline circulation
• tropical rainforests
• tropical seasonal forests
• troposphere
• tundra
• upwelling
• woodland/shrubland
climate
Chapter 4 Study Guide Questions
1. Describe the forces that drive global circulation patterns and how those patterns determine weather and
climate.
2. What effect does Earth’s rotation have on atmospheric circulation and ocean currents?
3. In what ways are atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns similar? How are they different?
4. Describe how differences in climate lead to formation of tropical, temperate, and polar deserts,
grasslands, and forests.
5. Distinguish between weather and climate.
6. Define ocean currents and explain how they, along with global air circulation, support the formation of
forests, grasslands, and deserts.
7. What is the rain shadow effect and how can it lead to the formation of deserts?
8. Why do cities tend to have more haze and smog, higher temperatures, and lower wind speeds than the
surrounding countryside?
9. Describe how climate and vegetation vary with latitude and elevation.
10. Describe how the three major types of deserts differ in their climate and vegetation.
11. How do desert plants and animals survive?
12. Why have many of the world’s temperate grasslands disappeared?
13. What is permafrost?
14. Why is biodiversity so high in tropical rain forests?
15. Why do most soils in tropical rain forests hold few plant nutrients?
16. What important ecological roles do mountains play?
17. Describe how human activities have affected the world’s deserts, grasslands, forests, and mountains.
Chapter 5 Vocabulary
• adaptations
• allopatric speciation
• bottleneck effect
• distribution
• ecosystem diversity
• evolution
• evolution by artificial
selection
• evolution by natural
selection
• fitness
• fossils
• founder effect
• fundamental niche
• genes
• genetic diversity
• genetic drift
• genetically modified
organisms
• genotype
• geographic isolation
• macroevolution
• mass extinction
• microevolution
• mutation
• niche generalists
• niche specialists
• phenotype
• phylogenies
• range of tolerance
• realized niche
• recombination
• reproductive isolation
• species diversity
• species evenness
• species richness
• sympatric speciation
Chapter 5 Study Guide Questions
1.
What are the three major components of biodiversity (biological diversity)?
2.
What is the importance of biodiversity?
3.
Summarize the theory of evolution.
4.
Explain how mutations, natural selection, geographic isolation, genetic drift, and migration contribute to
biological evolution.
5.
Distinguish between geographic isolation and reproductive isolation and explain how they can lead to the
formation of a new species.
6.
Distinguish between artificial selection and genetic engineering and give an example of each.
7.
What is species diversity? Distinguish between species richness and species evenness and give an
example of each.
8.
Summarize and explain the theory of island biogeography.
9.
What is an ecological niche? Distinguish between specialist species and generalist species and give an
example of each.
10.
Biological diversity is one of the most important indicators of the health of an ecosystem. List and
describe several environmental factors that affect diversity, and state whether each factor tends to
increase or decrease biological diversity.
11.
Distinguish among native, nonnative and indicator species and give an example of each type.
12.
Distinguish between keystone and foundation species. Describe the role of some sharks as keystone
species.
Case Studies:
Directions: For each of the following reading answer the following:
a) What is the author's main idea? Support with two specific examples.
b) Summarize the case study in three sentences.
c) What ecological lesson can we learn from the case study?
d) What is your opinion? Do you agree or disagree?
Chapter 3
1. Deforestation in Haiti – page 57
2. Golf Courses – page 80
Chapter 4
1. Kenya Floods, Droughts, and Famines – page 87
2. Working Toward Sustainability: Coffee – page 113
Chapter 5
1. The Dung of the Devil – p. 119
2. Working Toward Sustainability: Buying the Ocean – p. 139