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MIDTERM REVIEW: CHAPTERS 1,4,5,6, & 7
Question
1.
Define environmental science.
2.
What type of growth starts slowly but grows very rapidly?
3.
What term describes the amount of land needed to
support a person’s lifestyle?
4.
Why is pollution prevention more sustainable than
pollution clean-up?
5.
What does it mean to live sustainably?
6.
What are the 4 R’s?
7.
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.
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
ecosystems?
17. In an energy pyramid, where is most of the energy
found (top or bottom)? What is found at the bottom?
Answer
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.
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?
45. Define greenhouse effect and list the greenhouse gases
discussed in class.
46. What is a microclimate and what can cause it?
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?
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?
54. List the fresh and saltwater life zones.
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.
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?
69. What term describes the ability of an ecosystem to
“bounce back” after a disturbance?
70. Differentiate and give examples of primary and
secondary succession.
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?