APES
UNIT 2: EVOLUTION AND ECOLOGY
OBJECTIVES
Chapters 5 and 6 in Withgott
 This bullet means chapter 5
Identify, define, or otherwise understand the following terms:
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adaptation
adaptive trait
adaptive radiation
natural selection
directional selection
stabilizing selection
artificial selection
Charles Darwin
speciation
allopatric speciation
sympatric
speciation
disruptive selection
species
population
community
ecosystem
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biome
climatogram
 extinction
 mass extinction
 generalist
 specialist
 habitat
 niche
fundamental vs. realized
 population density
 population
dispersion
predation
parasitism
competition
mutualism
symbiosis
food web
producers vs. consumers
trophic levels
primary, secondary
consumers
decomposers
invasive species
resource partitioning
keystone species
succession
primary vs secondary
 K-selected species
 r-selected species
 density dependence
 density independence
 sex ratio
 age structure
 growth rate
 Survivorship curve
 Exponential vs logistic
growth
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Describe how natural selection operates (see table 5.1)
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Distinguish the random part of evolution (mutation) from the nonrandom (natural
selection)
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Describe how biodiversity results from the interplay of evolution (speciation) and
extinction
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Distinguish between background extinction and mass extinction
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Discuss reasons for mass extinctions and recognize the differences between mass
extinctions of the distant past and the one scientists think we are in the midst of
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Describe some of the ways that scientists study and quantify biodiversity
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Distinguish between three kinds of biodiversity: species, genetic, and ecosystem
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Describe the different levels of ecological organization and give examples (fig.
5.10)
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Describe populations: sex ratio (5.13), age structure (5.14), growth rates,
dispersion (5.12)
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Calculate change in population size (see p. 135)
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Compare and contrast r-selected species and K-selected species
 Compare and contrast the major types of species interactions (predation, etc)
 Describe how interspecific competition influences a species’ niche (fig. 6.2) and
resource partitioning (fig 6.3)
 Describe the flow of energy among trophic levels in a food web
 Recognize the energetic relationships among trophic levels
o Describe and use the ``10 % rule’’
o Compare and contrast: producers, primary consumers, secondary
consumers
o Explain why there’ll always be a much bigger biomass of producers than
primary consumers, and more primary consumers than secondary
consumers
 Describe how a keystone predator can affect the ``structure’’ of an entire
community of organisms
o Give an example
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Explain what an invasive species is and why they are threats to biodiversity
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Recognize the major terrestrial biomes (see fig 6.16)
o How does climate influence the biome? (see fig 6.17)
o Interpret a climatograph