AP Biology Summer Homework
Using the Biology In Focus Study Guide, read chapters 40-43 and answer the Focus questions in each
chapter. In addition, using the Study Guide and the Internet, answer the following:
Chapter 40 –
1. List factors that limit geographic distribution.
2. Define the following terms:
a. Biosphere
b. Ecosystem
c. Community
d. Population
3. What are the important factors influencing terrestrial distribution?
4. Define biome
5. What is the largest biome on Earth?
6. What factors are significant to organism distribution and abundance in a lake?
7. What is the difference between a lake that is oligotrophic and one that is eutrophic?
8. Fill in the following chart.
Biome
Tropical Rain Forest
Savanna
Desert
Temperate
Grassland
Temperate
Deciduous Forest
Coniferous Forest
(Taiga)
Arctic Tundra
Abiotic Characteristics
Biotic Characteristics
9. Define carrying capacity
10. What happens to a population when the number of individuals approaches carrying capacity?
11. Compare K-selected to r-selected species. Give an example of each.
12. Go to the Internet and find and print out a human population growth curve. Have humans
reached K? What factors are significant when explaining our growth curve?
Chapter 41 –
1. What is the competitive exclusion principle?
2.
Look up G.F. Gause’s experiment and describe it.
3. Define ecological niche
4. Define and give an example of resource partitioning.
5. Fill in the chart of interspecific interactions.
Interaction
Effects on Population Density
Example
Competition
Predation (including
parasitism)
Mutualism
Commensalism
6. Define and give an example of the following animal defenses:
a. Cryptic coloration
b. Aposematic coloration
Chapter 42 –
1. How does the definition of ecosystems expand on the concept of the community?
2. What is needed to maintain a self-sustaining ecosystem?
3. Define the following energy budget terms:
a. Primary productivity
b. Gross primary productivity
c. Net primary productivity
4. Look at an energy pyramid. What happens to the size of each level in the idealized pyramid as
energy is transferred through the tropic levels?
5. Explain what happens to the energy and biomass as it is passed through the trophic levels.
6. Why is it essential that elements move through biogeochemical cycles in the ecosystem?
7. What are the major processes that move carbon through the ecosystem?
8.
Identify the role of each of the following in the nitrogen cycle.
a. Nitrogen fixation
b. Ammonification
c. Nitrification
d. Denitrification
e. Assimilation
Chapter 43 –
1. Why is human population growth at the root of environmental issues?
2. Define cultural eutrophication. Why is it a problem?
3. What is the source of acid rain? Why is it a problem?
4. What happens in biological magnification?
5.
What would be some of the properties of chemical that could be candidates for biological
magnification?
6. What are possible reasons for global warming called the greenhouse effect?
7. Is depletion of the ozone layer a possible reason for global warming? Why or why not?
8. What is the cause of the depletion of the ozone layer? Why is it a problem?
9.
List several other disruptive impacts humans have had on the environment.