A.P. Environmental Science
January 2016
Guiding Notes for Chapter 5
◘
You should already be familiar with the following vocabulary and concepts.
Abiotic
Biotic
Habitat
Community
Ecosystem
Biome
Species
Mutation
Artificial Selection
Natural Selection
Evolution
Genotype
Phenotype
Adaptation
Fitness
Variation
1. How do abiotic factors and biotic factors come together to define an ecosystem?
2. What are the four basic principles of natural selection and what is the ultimate result?
3. Can an individual organism evolve? Explain.
4. How does a derived character apply to the creation of a Phylogenetic tree?
5. Are mutations generally good or bad for an organism? A population? Explain.
6. What is the role of mutations in evolution?
7. Does natural selection act upon the phenotype or genotype of an organism? Why is
this important?
8. Is evolution generally a slow or rapid process? Is this absolute?
◘
You may or may not already be familiar with the following concepts and vocabulary,
so please pay attention to make sure that you understand them and are able to apply
them to our discussion of evolution and extinction.
Hardy Weinberg Equation
Bottleneck Effect
Founder Effect
Genetic Drift
Phylogenetic Tree
Derived character
Shannon’s Index
Diversity:
ecosystem
species
genetic
Speciation:
allopatric
sympatric
polyploidy
reproductive isolation
niche:
fundamental
realized
species migration
extinction
1. How do biologists measure/calculate/estimate the number of different species on Earth?
2. What is the difference between species richness and species evenness? Why might
each be each important? Is one a more valuable indicator of an ecosystem’s overall
diversity and health?
3. Why does the Hardy-Weinberg equation never exist in nature? Be able to explain all
five reasons and the ways they function as forces of evolution.
4. What is the reason of having a mathematical model to describe something that doesn’t
exist?
5. Be able to describe allopatric speciation with an example.
6. Be able to describe sympatric speciation with an example.
7. When does environmental change move from influencing species distribution to causing
extinction?
A.P. Environmental Science
January 2016
8. Be able to discuss the effects of the following factors on a species’ ability to adapt to
change:
a. Rate of environmental change
b. Genetic variation within the population
c. Population size
d. Generation time (sequoia or mosquito)
9. Be able to calculate the biodiversity of an ecosystem with the Shannon’s Index.
10. Compare a species’ fundamental niche with its realized niche. What are the factors that
influence the difference(s) between the two?
11. What is a mass extinction? How many have there been in the history of life on this
planet? What are some of the causes of mass extinction? How is this current mass
extinction different or the same?
◘
The following concepts are necessary for you to understand in order to be able to
connect this discussion of evolution and extinction to last chapter’s discussion of biomes
and our coming units on communities and population biology.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
What is meant by biodiversity?
How is biodiversity measured?
What is meant by evolution at the molecular level?
How do various environmental changes affect both the formation of new species and the
extinction of others?
What are the relative advantages for an organism to be either a specialist or generalist?
What is a biodiversity hotspot? What are the biotic and abiotic factors that influence the
creation of these hotspots?
What is a biodiversity coldspot? Why might these regions of low biodiversity be worth
saving?
Which is more important to focus our attention on, hotspots or coldspots? Defend your
answer with examples.