Biology Survey II Study Guide
The second midterm in this course will cover chapters second half of 14 and 15-18 in your book.
9. Know how to define a population and population ecology.
A. Know the difference between a community and an ecosystem
B. Know the three population dispersion patterns and examples of each
C. Know the difference between exponential population growth and logistic population growth
D. What are some density dependent factors that limit population size and what is meant by
this term?
E. What are some density independent factors that limit population size and what is meant by
this term?
This was where we stopped for the first midterm.
F. What is meant by sustainable resource management? What is meant by an ecological
footprint?
G. What are some different life history patterns? How are life tables and survivorship
calculations useful in understanding these life history patterns? What trade-offs are there
for species that follow these different life history strategies?
H. Longevity and aging can influence a population’s age structure. How is studying the age
structure useful in predicting the future growth or decline in population size?
I. Why is the present rate of human population growth possible? Looking into the future, what
are likely to be some challenges that result from our exponential population growth?
Ecosystems and Communities
1. Abiotic and biotic aspects of the environment – know the difference
2. Know what a biome is and what some of the major aquatic and terrestrial biomes are and what the
major characteristics of these are.
3. What is the biosphere? What are some of the major factors that influence climate in the different
biomes of the biosphere? What influences air and water currents, rainfall patterns, desert versus
tropical rain forests?
4. Energy flow through an ecosystem can be viewed from the perspective of what eats what. What is a
food chain? Know that 10% of a lower trophic level is on average transferred to the higher trophic level.
5. What is a primary producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer,
decomposer?
6. How do nutrients typically cycle through an ecosystem?
7. How do organisms within an ecosystem interact? What is a species’ niche?
8. What will cause competition between two species? What happens if there is overlap between the
niches of two species in a given ecosystem?
9. How do some prey species avoid being eaten?
10. How do mutualism and commensalism fit into this topic? What do these terms mean?
11. What is meant by ecological succession?
12. What is a keystone species, a flagship species, an umbrella species, and an indicator species?
Conservation and Biodiversity
1. What is biodiversity and why is it important to humans?
2. Where are some of the hotspots for biodiversity on this planet?
3. What evidence is there for declining health of the earth’s ecosystems?
4. What can we do to reduce our negative impact on the earth’s ecosystems?
5. What is the theory of island biogeography? What influence does island size and distance from the
mainland have on the number of species one can expect to find on such islands. Why? What does this
tell us about how nature preserves should be set up?
6. What is biomagnification? Why is it an issue for us?
7. What are invasive species? Why can they sometimes increase in numbers more rapidly than native
species?
8. What is the greenhouse effect? What causes it?
9. What does it mean to say an area has high endemism? What is an endemic species?
Plant Structure and Function
1. What are the organs and organ systems of angiosperms and in what ways can they be modified for
special function?
2. What are the main functions of leaves, stems and roots?
3. What are the three tissue types that make up the leaves, stems and roots of a plant?
4. How are the tissues arranged and what are their functions in leaves, stems and roots?
5. How do monocot plants and eudicot plants differ?
6. How do roots absorb water and nutrients? What is the function of the Casparian strip?
7. What is the difference between xylem and phloem? Which one functions only after the cells have
died?
8. What are the guard cells and stomata? How do the guard cells work?
9. What is required for plant nutrition? How do the roots and symbiotic relationships with bacteria and
fungi support this? How does a healthy soil help sustain plants?
Plant Growth and Reproduction
1. What is the difference between asexual and sexual reproduction? Which is more energetically
costly? More time consuming? Which one results in genetic mixing and new genetic combinations that
help a species survive a changing environment?
2. Be able to go through the sporophyte and gametophyte stages of an angiosperm plant. What is a
pollen grain? What is the ovule?
3. What is double fertilization? What is fertilized by the 2 sperm?
4. What is pollination and how does this occur?
5. What are 3 methods used by different plants to avoid self-fertilization?
6. Know what plant germination is and different seed dispersal mechanisms.
7. What is indeterminate growth? What is meristem tissue and how is this involved in indeterminate
growth?
8. How do plants grow? What is the difference between primary and secondary growth?
9. Be able to explain the different layers of a tree trunk. What part of the tree trunk do we call wood
and make into furniture?
10. What is the role of vascular cambium and cork cambium?
Plants Respond to their Environment
1. What are the different ways that plants can and do respond to their environments?
2. What are the five major hormone groups found in plants and what are generally their different
functions?
>>We will probably not get to this part of chapter 19 – This will not be on the second midterm.
3. Know what a hormone is and how it functions in both plants and animals.
4. How does the biological clock control plants during a 24 hour period?
5. How does flowering in long-day and short-day flowering plants happen in response to day length? Be
able to explain the experiment that demonstrated this environmental regulation.