AP BIOLOGY
Name ______________________________________
AP Biology Summer Assignment Guided Reading
It is necessary to have you do these chapters in advance of the school year in order to completely cover the
required material (as dictated by The College Board) prior to the AP Biology test in May. Typically, the AP
Biology test is the second Monday of AP testing. Your test will be on Monday, May 9, 2016. We will need
every day possible to thoroughly complete all the material.
While going through these chapters, you will need to keep these 4 Big Ideas in mind:
1. The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life
2. Biological systems utilize free energy and molecular building blocks, to
reproduce and to maintain homeostasis
3. Living systems store, retrieve, transmit and respond to information essential
to life processes
4. Biological systems interact, and these systems and their interactions possess
complex properties
These pages will be your notes for these chapters. They will not be gone over in class. Read through the
chapters, keeping the Big Ideas in mind and then answer the questions. To breeze over them to get the work
done will not be in your best interest in the long run. We will also be conducting a few labs relating to the
material and concepts in these chapters.
Following the conduction of the labs, you will be given a test on all of these chapters within the first few weeks
of school. Use your notes, the test review book and your textbook summaries and chapter reviews to prepare for
this test.
This work must be completed and turned in on the first day of class .
No late work will be accepted.
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Name __________________________________________________
Chapter 1:Exploring Life (Campbell)
Chapter 1: Introduction (Urry)
1. List the 7 life processes and briefly explain each.
2. List the 10 levels of biological organization and define each.
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3. List and give an example of the 3 domains
4. Discuss how evolution accounts for the unity and diversity of life
5. Discuss how science is a process.
6. List and discuss the steps in hypothesis-based inquiry (aka: the Scientific Method)
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Chapter 50 (52 in some versions): Introduction to Ecology and the Biosphere (Campbell)
Chapter 40:Population Ecology (Urry)
1. Discuss the field of ecology and what it studies.
2. Explain how Darwin’s evolutionary theory and ecology are related sciences.
3. Differentiate between biotic and abiotic factors and give examples of each.
4. Give an example how the one influences the other regarding biotic and abiotic factors.
5. Define the following terms and give an example of each:
a. Biosphere
b. Ecosystem
c. Community
d. Population
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6. How does dispersal influence the distribution of individuals within a population?
7. List the factors that influence or limit the geographic distribution of a population (look at figure 50.6)
8. Give examples of 4 abiotic factors and how they influence the distribution of a population.
9. Define the following terms:
a. Biome
b. Photic zone
c. Benthic zone
10. Identify the factors that are significant to population distribution and abundance in a lake.
11. Differentiate between a lake that is oligotrophic and one that is eutrophic.
12. What are the two main abiotic factors that determine that define a land biome?
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13. Fill in the following chart of the Terrestrial Biomes
Land Biome
Trophic (Rain)
Forest
Desert
Savanna
Temperate
Grassland
Coniferous Forest
Tundra
Temperate
Broadleaf Forest
Abiotic Characteristics
Biotic Characteristics
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Chapter 51: Behavioral Biology(Campbell)
Chapter 39.3-39.6 (Urry)
Timing and coordination of behaviors are regulated by various mechanisms and are important in natural
selection. Individuals can act on information and communicate to others
1. What is behavior
2. Differentiate between innate and learned behavior.
3. What is a fixed action pattern and how is it triggered?
4. Discuss the proximal and ultimate cause linked to the imprinting of young geese to their mother.
5. Differentiate between taxis and kinesis and give an example of each. Explain how they increase a
species success.
6. What is migration and how does this add to the species success?
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7. What are pheromones, auditory signals and courtship dances and explain how they increase the fitness
(reproductive success) of a species.
8. Define what learning is.
9. Discuss the following types of learned behaviors & show how they increase fitness:
a. Habituation-
b. Spatial-
c. Cognitive map-
d. Associative learningi. Classical
ii. Operant
e. Cognition (Cognitive)
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10. Discuss the following interspecies behaviors:
a. Prey selection-
b. Aggressive
c. Foraging (and its risks)
d. Migration patterns
11. Discuss the advantages to a polygamous and monogamous mating system to enhance their productivity
(and therefore fitness).
12. Discuss how sexual selection affects the evolution of a species
13. Define, give an example and explain how altruism adds to the success of a species
14. While instinct plays a role in an organism’s alarm calls, discuss how learning “fine tunes” these calls
and their purpose to the community
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Chapter 52: Population Ecology(Campbell)
Chapter 40:Population Ecology (Urry)
1. Differentiate between density and dispersal.
2. How can an ecologist estimate the numbers of individuals in a population?
3. Discuss how immigration and emigration create difficulties in counting populations.
4. Describe three patterns of dispersal.
5. Define each of the following:
a. Life table
b. Cohort
c. Survivorship curve
6. Discuss the three patterns of survivorship and give an example of each.
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7. Write out the formula for a population’s growth under an idealized environment. Define the terms.
8. Define carrying capacity (K) and discuss the resources that may limit it.
9. How does a population growth curve differ under real conditions from ideal conditions?
10. What happens to a population when the number of individuals approaches carrying capacity (K)?
11. Differentiate between density independent and density dependent factors. Give examples of each
12. Identify the factors that regulate population size and give an example of each.
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13. Look at the three age structure diagrams shown above of different countries. How might the age structure
influence social conditions?
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Chapter 53: Community Ecology (Campbell)
Chapter 41: Species Interactions (Urry)
1. Define community and give an example of one.
2. Fill in the chart of interspecific interactions
Interaction
Benefits to each other
(+/+, +/-, +/0, -/- )
Effects on Population Density
Example
Competition
Predation
(including
parasitism)
Mutualism
Commensalism
3. Discuss the competitive exclusion principle using Gausse’s paramecium experiment.
4. Define ecological niche.
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5. Discuss how species occupying identical niches solve the problem of competition and possible
extinction.
6. Discuss the various adaptations which have enable predators to be successful in securing their prey.
7. Now discuss prey adaptations to avoid capture.
8. Define and give van example of the following animal defenses:
a. Cryptic coloration
b. Aposematic coloration
c. Batesian mimicry
d. Mullerian mimicry
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9. Differentiate between species diversity, species richness and species abundance.
10. Define each of the following terms:
a. Trophic structure
b. Food chain
c. Food web
11. What limits the length of a food chain? Give specifics on energy storage capability.
12. Define what a keystone species is, give an example and discuss why they are so important to a
community.
13. Disturbances of a community occurs by either man made or nature factors. Discuss ecological
successions
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Chapter 54: Ecosystems (Campbell)
Chapter 42: Ecosystems and Energy (Urry)
1. How does the definition of ecosystems expand on the concept of the community?
2. How does the principle of conservation of energy apply to an ecosystem?
3. Discuss the energy flow through an ecosystem versus the flow of chemical nutrients through an
ecosystem.
4. Identify and discuss the trophic levels within an ecosystem.
5. Define the following energy budget terms:
a. Primary productivity
b. Gross primary productivity
c. Net primary productivity
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6. Write out the formula for net primary productivity & identify each part of it (with units)
7. Which ecosystems have the highest net primary productivity per unit area? Explain why.
8. Identify and explain the limiting factors in an aquatic ecosystem.
9. Define eutrophication and identify it impact on lake communities.
10. Why is the open ocean so low in productivity?
11. What is secondary productivity?
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12. Indicate how the amount of energy changes from one trophic level to the next.
2,000,000 J of sun light
13. Identify the essential elements which move through the biogeochemical cycles in an ecosystem.
14. What are the major processes that move carbon through the ecosystem?
15. Identify the role of each of the following in the nitrogen cycle:
a. Nitrogen fixation
b. Ammonification
c. Nitrification
d. Denitrification
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e. Assimilation
16. Fill in the diagram of the nitrogen cycle below
17. Why is human population growth at the root of most environmental issues?
18. Identify the causes and discuss the effects of acid precipitation (acid rain) both on terrestrial and
freshwater ecosystems.
19. What is biological magnification and give a specific example of it.
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20. There are multiple contributors to global warming. Discuss these factors.
a. Rise in Atmospheric pressure
b. The Greenhouse effect
c. Ozone Depletion
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Chapter 55: Conservation Biology and Restorative Ecology (Campbell)
Chapter 43:Global Ecology and Conservation Biology (Urry)
1. Discuss and differentiate what occurs in Conservation and Restoration ecology.
2. Explain why biodiversity is vital to human welfare.
3. List and give examples of the four major threats to biodiversity.
4. Discuss the small population approach and the extinction vortex.
5. Describe the basic steps that are common in the declining-population approach.
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6. Define biodiversity hot spots and explain why they are important.
7. Discuss bioremediation and give an example of its use.
8. Describe the concept of sustainable development.