Review Questions
Chapter 5
Instructions: You should be able to answer these questions once you have finished the chapter:
2. Describe the conditions that make life on the earth just right for life as we know it.
3. Distinguish between chemical evolution and biological evolution.
4. What are fossils, and how do they help us formulate ideas about how life developed on the earth?
5. Distinguish among biological evolution, the theory of evolution, microevolution, andmacroevolution.
6. Distinguish among genes, gene pool, alleles, mutations, natural selection, and differential reproduction,
and explain their roles in microevolution.
7. What is coevolution, and what is its importance?
8. What is the ecological niche of a species, and why is it important to understand the niches of species?
What is the difference between a species’ habitat and its niche? What is the difference between a
species’ fundamental niche and its realized niche?
9. Distinguish between the niches of specialist and generalist species. Explain why cockroaches have been
such a successful species.
10. List two factors that limit adaptation.
11. What are two common misconceptions about evolution?
12. What is speciation? Distinguish between geographic isolation and reproductive isolation, and explain how
they can lead to speciation through divergent evolution.
13. What is extinction? Distinguish among background extinction, mass extinction, and mass depletion.
14. What is an adaptive radiation? How can such a radiation lead to recovery after a mass extinction or
depletion?
15. Explain how speciation and extinction result in the planet’s biodiversity.
16. Describe how genetically improved crop strains are developed by (a) artificial selection
(crossbreeding) and (b) genetic engineering.
17. Explain how genetic engineering is an unpredictable process and describe some of the privacy, ethical,
legal, and environmental issues its use raises.
18. What two traits helped humans quickly became a powerful species.
Review Questions
Chapter 6
2. How does wind affect climate, global distribution of nutrients, and pollution?
3. What is climate? What two main factors determine a region’s climate?
4. What four factors that affect global air circulation? How does each factor affect global air circulation?
5. How do warm and cool ocean currents form? How do oceans affect regional climates? What is
anupwelling, and why are upwellings important to aquatic life?
6. What is the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO)? How does it affect ocean life and weather in various
parts of the world? What is La Niña, and how does it affect weather in various parts of the world?
7. What are greenhouse gases? List four greenhouse gases. What is the greenhouse effect, and how does it
affect the earth’s climate?
8. What is the rain shadow effect, and how can it affect the microclimate on each side of high mountains?
Why do urban areas have different microclimates than surrounding areas, and how do these microclimates
differ from those of surrounding areas?
9. What is a biome? What two factors determine whether an area of the earth’s surface is a tropical,
temperate, or polar desert, grassland, or forest? How do climate and vegetation vary with latitude and
altitude?
10. What is a desert? What are the three major types of desert, and how do they differ in climate and
biological makeup? How do desert plants and animals survive heat and a lack of water? Why are desert
ecosystems vulnerable to disruption? List seven types of human activities that have harmful impacts on
deserts.
11. What is grassland? What are the three major types of grassland, and how do they differ in climate and
biological makeup? Distinguish between arctic tundra and alpine tundra. Why are grasslands vulnerable to
disruption? List four types of human activities that have harmful impacts on grasslands. What is chaparral,
and what is the importance of fire in this biome?
12. What is a forest? What are the three major types of forest, and how do they differ in climate and
biological makeup? Distinguish among tropical rain forests and tropical deciduous forests. List five types of
human activities that have harmful impacts on forests.
13. Why are mountains ecologically important, and what factors make them vulnerable to ecological
disruption? List eight types of human activities that have harmful impacts on mountains.
Review Questions
Chapter 7
2. What are coral reefs and coral polyps? How are coral reefs formed? List seven ecological and economic
services that coral reefs provide. What is coral bleaching, and what are its main causes?
3. What are the two major types of aquatic life zones?
4. Distinguish among phytoplankton, zooplankton, ultraplankton, nekton, benthos, and decomposersfound in
saltwater and freshwater life zones.
5. Describe major advantages and disadvantages of living in an aquatic environment.
6. List four major factors determining the types and numbers of organisms found in the surface, middle, and
bottom layers of aquatic systems. How do the concentrations of carbon dioxide and dissolved oxygen vary in
these three layers??
7. What major ecological and economic services are provided by the world’s marine systems?
8. What is the coastal zone? Distinguish among estuaries, coastal wetlands, and mangroves. List three
reasons why temperature and salinity vary widely in estuaries and coastal wetlands, and explain why they
have such a high NPP.
9. What is the intertidal zone? Distinguish between rocky shores and sandy beaches, and describe the major
types of aquatic life found in each.
10. What are barrier islands? Why are they so attractive for human development, and why are human
structures built there so vulnerable to destruction? Why is it important to preserve the dunes on barrier
islands and beaches?
11. List three reasons why coral reefs are vulnerable to damage. List ten harmful impacts of human
activities on coral reefs.
12. What is the open sea, and what are its three major vertical zones? Why is the NPP per unit of area so
low in the open sea?
13. List five major harmful human impacts on coastal zones.
14. What is a freshwater life zone, and what are the two major types of such zones?
15. What major ecological and economic services are provided by freshwater systems?
16. What is a lake? Distinguish among the littoral, limnetic, profundal, and benthic zones of a lake.
17. What are the three types of lakes, based on their nutrient content and primary productivity?
18. Distinguish among surface water, runoff, and a watershed. Describe the properties and general forms of
life found in the three zones of a river as it flows from mountain highlands to the sea.
19. What are inland wetlands? List six examples of such wetlands. What are seasonal inland wetlands?
20. List four major harmful human impacts on freshwater systems.