Name__________________________________
Short answer – 3 pts each
1. Describe fitness in a Darwinian sense.
Bio 102 Final Exam
2. Explain by which generation, structure, and process gametes are produced.
3. Name the nine macronutrients required by plants, and describe how two of these
nutrients are used by plants.
4. List 3 classes of plant hormones and describe their major functions.
5. Explain how habitat selection may limit distribution of a species within its range of
suitable habitats.
6. Define what a species is using 2 different definitions.
7. Define fixed action patterns and give an example.
8. After thinking in depth about the article we read on urbanization and its impacts on
biodiversity in the Tahoe Basin, suggest one area about which you need more information
in order to fully understand the project.
9. Explain how interspecific competition may lead to resource partitioning.
10. Name the main processes driving the water cycle.
11. Explain specifically why worldwide agriculture could feed more people if all humans
consumed only plant material.
12. Describe both general and specific reasons that explain why the Lake Tahoe Golf
Course is considering changing its structure.
13. Draw a phylogenetic tree that will “tell an “evolutionary story” about the origins of all 4
groups.
14. Describe the disadvantages of sexual reproduction.
Essays
1. (10 pts) a. Describe fully the 2 main factors as well as 4 secondary factors that cause
the plants to be distributed in the way they are in the landscape.
b. Why are biologists so interested in plant communities, in particular, when trying to
understand ecosystem structure?
2. (9 pts) Explain how, at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels, your body (or
any organism’s body, for that matter) operates the way it does.
3. (10 pts) Draw Alternation of Generations showing the basic structures and processes
involved for any plant, and then writing in parentheses next to the generic term a drawing
and definition of what that structure looks like in a gymnosperm.
Name ________________________________________
Bio 102 Final Exam
1) In mountainous areas of western North America, north-facing slopes (compared with south-facing slopes)
would be expected to
A) receive more sunlight.
B) be warmer and drier.
C) support biological communities similar to those found at lower elevations and higher latitudes.
D) support biological communities similar to those found at higher elevations and higher latitudes.
E) B and C only
2) During drought years on the Galapagos, small, easily eaten seeds become rare leaving only large, hardcased seeds that only birds with large beaks can eat. If a drought persists for several years, then what should
one expect to result from natural selection?
A) Small birds gaining larger beaks by exercising their mouth parts.
B) Small birds mutating their beak genes with the result that later-generation offspring have larger beaks.
C) Small birds anticipating the long drought and eating more to gain weight and, consequently, growing
larger beaks.
D) More small-beaked birds dying than the larger-beaked birds. The offspring produced in subsequent
generations have a higher percentage of birds with large beaks.
E) Larger birds eating less so smaller birds can survive.
3) When a female cat comes into heat, she urinates more frequently and in a large number of places. Male
cats from the neighborhood congregate near urine deposits and fight with each other.
Which of the following is a proximate cause of this behavior of increased urination?
A) It announces to the males that she is in heat.
B) Female cats that did this in the past attracted more males.
C) It is a result of hormonal changes associated with her reproductive cycle.
D) The female cat learned the behavior from observing other cats.
E) All of the above are ultimate causes of behavior.
4) To measure the population density of monarch butterflies occupying a particular park, 100 butterflies are
captured, marked with a small dot on a wing, and then released. The next day, another 100 butterflies are
captured, including the recapture of 20 marked butterflies. One would estimate the population to be
A) 200.
B) 500.
C) 1,000.
D) 10,000.
E) 900,000.
5) Which of the following statements is consistent with the competitive exclusion principle?
A) Bird species generally do not compete for nesting sites.
B) The density of one competing species will have a positive impact on the population growth of the other
competing species.
C) Two species with the same fundamental niche will exclude other competing species.
D) Even a slight reproductive advantage will eventually lead to the elimination of inferior species.
E) Evolution tends to increase competition between related species.
6) To measure species diversity in a community, you need to know
A) the number of species.
B) the relative abundance of each species.
C) the physical size of each species.
D) both A and B
E) A, B, and C
7) In general, the total biomass in a terrestrial ecosystem will be greatest for which trophic level?
A) producers
B) herbivores
C) primary consumers
D) tertiary consumers
E) secondary consumers
8) Upon their discovery by Europeans, koalas were classified as bears (Ursidae). Later, it became apparent
that koalas are not bears, but marsupial mammals of the family Phascolarctidae. For as long as the koalas
were classified as bears, what was true of the family Ursidae?
A) It was polyphyletic.
B) Its classification had a better basis in fact than the current one.
C) Its classification was more in line with molecular evidence than the current one.
D) A and B only
E) A, B, and C
9) The following important concepts of population genetics are due to random events or chance except
A) mutation.
B) the bottleneck effect.
C) the founder effect.
D) natural selection.
E) sexual recombination.
10) Beetle pollinators of a particular plant are attracted to its flowers by their bright orange color. The
beetles not only pollinate the flowers, but they mate while inside of the flowers. A mutant version of the
plant with red flowers becomes more common with the passage of time. A particular variant of the beetle
prefers the red flowers to the orange flowers. Over time, these two beetle variants diverge from each other to
such an extent that interbreeding is no longer possible. What kind of speciation has occurred in this example,
and what has driven it?
A) allopatric speciation, ecological isolation
B) sympatric speciation, habitat differentiation
C) allopatric speciation, behavioral isolation
D) sympatric speciation, sexual selection
E) sympatric speciation, allopolyploidy
11) ) The photosynthetic cells in the interior of a leaf are what kind of cells?
A) parenchyma
B) collenchyma
C) sclerenchyma
D) phloem
E) endodermis