Nature Unbound
Lessons 1 & 2 Exam Study Guide: What is Ecology & Reproduction & Adaptation
- What is ecology AND why is it important?
- Be able to list AND describe the five (5) different levels in ecology.
- Be able to give at least two examples of a TESTABLE question that an ecologist might ask AND state
where does each question fit in the appropriate level of ecological study.
- Name two tools AND the abiotic factors they measure in an ecosystem.
- What types of qualitative or quantitative data would support the conclusion that timber harvest
impacts forest nesting birds?
- To begin research, ecologists will first develop a question they want to investigate. How do they
continue their research after they have developed their question? (Utilize the steps in scientific method
to answer this question AND state why it is important to share the data at the conclusion)
- Be able to describe the relationship between organisms, populations, communities, ecosystems and
the biosphere.
- Be able to state resource management’s relationship to ecology.
- Be able to recognize a statement which properly describes conservation’s role in society.
- Be able to compare (similar) and contrast (difference) Leopold’s and Pinchot’s idea of conservation in
the U.S..
- State three ways people in Missouri benefit from conservation efforts.
- Why is reproduction important to the survival of a species?
- Be able to recognize differences between asexual and sexual reproduction.
- Be able to identify the type of reproduction (sexual, asexual, or both) utilized for a list of common
Missouri organisms (organisms stated in Nature Unbound in chapters 1 & 2).
- Compare (similar) and contrast (difference) asexual and sexual reproduction in regard to how traits are
passed from parents to offspring.
- Bobwhite quail are efficient at reproduction, and females have the ability to lay many eggs in a
breeding season. Despite this, they are not always successful as a species. State two other
considerations (factors) that have to be made when resource managers decide how to set the quail
hunting season.
- What factors make Mead’s milkweed particularly rare in Missouri?
- Genetic homogeneity is the situation that occurs when members of a population have very similar
genetic information. How could this lead to extinction of a species? Be specific in you answer.
- Identify and describe two causes of genetic variation (there are 3) in organisms of a population.
- How is variation in a population important for survival of the population?
- Natural selection can be described by using the following equation: Variation + Differential
Reproduction + Heredity = Natural Selection What does each part mean, and how do the parts of the
equation go together to explain natural selection?
- Be able to recognize adaptations of common Missouri organisms and how their adaptations benefits
the organism.
- How is the method of translocation helping Missouri’s prairie-chicken population?
- Be able to interpret a topographic map: elevation; degree / direction of slope; and contour interval.
- Be able to create a profile map given a transit across a topographic map.
Lesson 1 & 2 questions compose 73% of total points.
Topographic map interpretation & reading compose 27% of total points.
There will be no curve in calculating test grade.