Finals Practice Flashcards
Difficult questions from practice exams
As a plant grows, where does most of the matter in the plant come from?
carbon in the air
Respiration releases energy in both plants and animals [True/False]
True
Animals use food for matter in addition to energy [True/False]
True
N2O has been increasing in the atmopshere since the 1700s and the increase is attributed to human activities [True/False]
True
Microbes in soils and oceans make N2O as part of the nitrogen cycle [True/False]
True
The use of fertilizers has increases the production of N2O in soils [True/False]
True
The burning of coal is the most important source of increased N2O in the atmosphere [True/False]
False
Nutrients and minerals in the soil are a significant source of energy for plants [True/False]
False
Why is the use of agricultural fertilizer often associated with the overgrowth of algae in nearby bodies of water?
because nitrogen in the fertilizer increases algae growth rates
What causes eutrophication?
exessive richness of nutrients in a lake or other body of water frequently due to runoff from the land
Eutrophication involves a dense growth of __________
photosynthetic organisms
Eutrophication frequently causes lack of ________ in bodies of water
dissolved oxygen
Conversion of nitrate to N2 requires [high/low] concentrations of oxygen
low
On a per-molecule scale, nitrous oxide is a [more/less] potent greenhouse gas than CO2
more
In mosses and ferns, gametes are produced through
mitosis
In mosses and ferns, spores are produced through
meiosis
Living on land was facilitated by what phenotypic characteristics
cuticle
stoma
loss of swimming sperm
The chloroplasts of land plants are derived from
an endosymbiotic event in which a photosynthetic eukaryote invaded the cell of a non-photosynthetic eukaryote
Photoautotrophs get their energy from ___ and matter from ___
the sun; inorganic molecules
Digesting organic molecules outside of the body and absorbing the product is a synapomorphy of fungi [True/False]
True
Reproduction using spores is a synapomorphy of fungi [True/False]
False
Which type of organism is mainly responsible for moving carbon atoms from wood to the atmosphere?
fungi
Are gene regulatory switches the same between different types of cells?
Yes
Do gene regulatory switches encode for proteins?
No
If two alleles of a gene are different, then…
they have different DNA sequences
Transcriptional regulatory proteins determine the amount of transcription in each cell type [True/False]
True
How many molecules of DNA are in an unreplicated chromosome?
One
The coding region of an allele undergoes ___ resulting in the production of mRNA
transcription
Similarities between scientific theories and scientific explanations
they are both designed to explain phenomena
both tentative and subject to revision
Differences between scientific theories and scientific explanations
Scientific theories are larger in scale and incorporate many observations, inferences, tested hypotheses, etc.
Scientific explanations are smaller in scale and usually invoke one or more scientific theory
The only way variation occurs is through random mutations that are passed down to offspring [True/False]
True
Differences between natural selection and genetic drift
natural selection is non-random / drift is random
natural selection sorts based on alleles that increase fitness / drift is by chance
natural selection increases average fitness / drift does not
What is absolutely necessary for a population to evolve?
heritable variation
What part of natural selection is random?
the mutations that generate a population’s standing genetic variation
Biological fitness refers to healthy, strong, large, and/or sexy individuals [True/False]
false
Not using traits for many generations will cause them to be lost [True/False]
False
More evolution will occur when populations are in need of new traits to survive [True/False]
False
Populations showing no change over time in average phenotype can be experiencing natural selection [True/False]
True
Natural selection does not require environmental change [True/False]
True (it does not)
Selection and drift decrease genetic variation in populations [True/False]
True
Populations can adapt genetically to environmental change [True/False]
True (note: environment does not cause the change but it may determine if the change is beneficial to success)
