Midterm study guide

Question 1

What is biology?

Answer 1

The study of life

Question 2

What is the importance of theories like evolutionary theory?

Answer 2

Allow us to make predictions like how bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics

Question 3

What are the taxonomic levels of organization? List from highest to lowest.

Answer 3

Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species

Question 4

What is a theory?

Answer 4

A prediction supported by lots of data than can be changed or modified but cannot be proven/ they provide broad explanations and is very well tested

Question 5

What is the difference between a theory and hypothesis? How are they similar?

Answer 5

A theory and a hypothesis are supported by lots of data. A hypothesis is out in a testable and falsifiable format. A hypothesis is based on observation but a theory is supported by lots of data.

Question 6

Can a theory be proved? Explain.

Answer 6

No a theory must never be shown to be wrong; if it is, the theory is disproven. Theories can also be changed

Question 7

What is the basic unit of life?

Answer 7

Cells

Question 8

Describe the growth curve of unlimited binary fission?

Answer 8

Its exponential growth represented by a j-curve in only bacterial reproduction method, unlimited, hasn’t hit carrying capacity

Question 9

What is a virus? Is it living? Explain.

Answer 9

A microscopic organism that lives inside of cells that are hosts for them. Viruses kill cells and are not considered living 

Question 10

Explain the different types of viral bacteriophage reproduction.

Answer 10

Viruses inject their DNA into a cell and the cell splices in their DNA and it reproduces itself, and the cell then explodes and the viruses are released. Cells also reproduce into many cells and then explode, increasing the number of viruses. /Lytic-cell dies, lysogenic cell survives

Question 11

What are pathogens?

Answer 11

A virus or bacteria that cause disease

Question 12

Describe roles of bacteria in nature.

Answer 12

They decompose dead animals, cycle the gases in the atmosphere, and purify water

Question 13

Would an antibiotic be effective against a virus? Explain.

Answer 13

Vaccines are made from weakened versions of the virus and make the immune system produce the antibodies to attack the real virus, when introduced. There are only a few viruses that vaccines work against after they are in the body, such as rabies.

Question 14

How does one break the chain of disease transmission?

Answer 14

To break the chain, one must break any one of the links in the chain, portal of entry, portal of exit, resorvoir, susceptible host, infectious host, or mode of transmission.

Question 15

Describe the following biomes (tundra, tropical rain forest, desert).

Answer 15

The tundra has low rainfall, very low temperatures, and is located in high latitudes. A tropical rain forest has very high amounts of rain and temperatures that stay high throughout the year since it’s in mid latitude. A desert has very low amounts of rain and very high temperatures, can be both latitudes

Question 16

Be able to determine the type of biome based on climatographs of the above-mentioned biomes.

Answer 16

The tundra has low rainfall, very low temperatures, and is located in high latitudes. A tropical rain forest has very high amounts of rain and temperatures that stay high throughout the year since it’s in mid latitude. A desert has very low amounts of rain and very high temperatures, can be both latitudes

Question 17

What are the different zones in the Marine System?

Answer 17

Continental shelf, neritic zone, oceanic zone, photic zone, aphotic zone, benthic zone, abyssal zone, pelagic zone.

Question 18

What are the conditions of an estuary?

Answer 18

Where the river meets the sea, less salty than ocean but more salty than rivers, very productive with lots of food, but is a very tough to live. Extremely productive

Question 19

What is plankton? What is the difference between zooplankton and phytoplankton?

Answer 19

Zooplankton are animals and phytoplankton are plants. That means zoo- eat to get their energy but phyto- use photosynthesis

Question 20

What is ecological succession? Give an example.

Answer 20

When a community evolves over time. There are two types, primary and secondary . Primary is where succession starts on a lifeless area such as newly formed rock or lava flow. Secondary succession occurs where a community was removed, such as a forest being destroyed by a fire

Question 21

Describe human population growth. Draw a graph, include axes labels and carrying capacity.

Answer 21

The human growth curve is an s-curve, and has not reached any carrying capacity. The small dip before the large rise in population was the black death. The very large rise, from 500,000 mil to 8 billion was because of the industrial revolution

Question 22

Define a niche and describe it using spotted seatrout and sand seatrout

Answer 22

An ecological niche is the role and position a species has in its environment; how it meets its needs for food and shelter, how it survives, and how it reproduces. A spotted seatrout would keep to its niche, the seaweed patches, while the sand trout would stay to its niche, the sand.

Question 23

How does the mark recapture population estimate change when variables in the equation change?

Answer 23

When the number of returned tags is less, the population estimate is greater. Assumptions include that the population is closed and the tagged and untagged organisms behave the same and that the tagged and untagged mix well

Question 24

Be able to recognize S and J curves and all their parts

Answer 24

S-curves are exponential growth, j-curves have carrying capacity and have a cap to it

Question 25

What is competitive exclusion?

Answer 25

Competitive exclusion is the inevitable elimination from a habitat of one of two different species with identical needs for resources. This is caused by competition between resources such as food or habitat

Question 26

Describe and give examples of limiting factors, including density dependent and density independent factors.

Answer 26

Limiting factors include food, habitat, water, shelter. Density independent factors include things that affect the community, no matter the numbers, such as a wildfire. Density independent factors depend on the amount of organisms, such as food.

Question 27

What is carrying capacity? Does it change? Explain

Answer 27

the number of people, other living organisms, or crops that a region can support without environmental degradation. An example is a population stopping at a certain point because they ran out of space

Question 28

What is the difference between primary productivity and biomass?

Answer 28

Biomass is the “snapshot”, the mass of living things at a given point in time while primary productivity is the ratee at which mass is produced

Question 29

Describe the carbon cycle in general terms? Is it chemical or energy recycling?

Answer 29

Plants absorb co2 in the atmosphere and either put it back through cellular respiration or animals eat it, then die and put it back into atmosphere or it turns into oil and coal which is burned, putting it back into the atmosphere

Question 30

Explain how carbon dioxide influences global temperature.

Answer 30

Co2 is a greenhouse gas so the more greenhouse, the less heat escapes the atmosphere which means higher temperatures

Question 31

Why are mushrooms important to plants?

Answer 31

Mushrooms break down dead organic matter which plants can then use and are very important to the nitrogen cycle in which they fix nitrogen

Question 32

How much energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next?

Answer 32

10%

Question 33

How could deforestation relate to global warming?

Answer 33

Plants take co2 out of the atmosphere, a greenhouse gas, which means more greenhouse gases and more heat trapped in the atmosphere

Question 34

What are buffer preserves?

Answer 34

Buffer preserves are located on the coastline and act as a filter to filter put harmful chemicals made by humans before they affect the ocean. Transition zones allow a transition between developed areas and very nature filled areas Buffer preserves filter nutrients from runoff before reaching water and causing eutrophication

Question 35

What species tend to have the most mercury due to biomagnification?

Answer 35

The apex predators, biomagnification, such as orcas or kingfish

Question 36

How do introduced species affect biodiversity?

Answer 36

Biodiversity is the number of interconnected species in an ecosystem so the introduction of a species would increase biodiversity.

Question 37

Where does the carbon in biomass of a plant come from?

Answer 37

Plants use co2 to make their biomass

Question 38

Is CO2 in the atmosphere necessary? Explain.

Answer 38

Yes because plants use co2 to make biomass and produce oxygen which we need to survive. Also co2 keeps heat in and without it we would be frozen

Question 39

What is nitrogen fixation?

Answer 39

Bacteria convert free nitrogen, n2, to ammonia, nh3, which we and plants can use-nitrogen fixation

Question 40

What are the different types of pollution?

Answer 40

Solids, e.g., plastics in the landfills and in the ocean/ Noise, e.g., dolphins are going deaf/ Thermo, water gets heated so less oxygen can be dissolved, sometimes good for manatees/ Water pollution, e.g., too many nutrients creating eutrophication

Question 41

What is the anatomy of an atom? Include what the charges of each particle are.

Answer 41

Protons, neutrons and electrons. Protons and neutrons are in the nucleus and the proton is positive while the neutron has no charge. The electron circles around and is negative

Question 42

What is an ion?

Answer 42

An ion is an imbalance in the number of protons and electrons. One with equal amounts is neutrally charged but if electrons outnumber protons it is negative- an anion, but if protons outnumber electrons it is positive- a cation

Question 43

What is an acid? Give an example.

Answer 43

An acid is anything below 7 on the pH scale, such as lemon juice

Question 44

What is a buffer?

Answer 44

A buffer restricts the pH change in a chemical by neutralizing both acids and bases

Question 45

Describe the process of blood pH when a sprinter sprints.

Answer 45

When he is sprinting he releases lactic acid which lowers the pH of the blood but after the blood has built in buffers to neutralize the acids in order to reduce harm to the muscle tissue

Question 46

What are radioactive isotopes? Explain the following: Are they dangerous? Are they helpful?

Answer 46

Radioactive isotopes are isotopes- different forms of the same element with different number of protons to neutrons- that release radiation. They can be dangerous in high doses. They can be helpful to monitor the inside of people’s bodies, but in regulated uses

Question 47

Describe a water molecule including its polarity.

Answer 47

A water molecule consists of two hydrogen and one oxygen and it is polar. This means there is an unequal sharing of electrons resulting in the oxygen side having a slightly negative charge and the hydrogen a slightly positive

Question 48

What are reactants and products?

Answer 48

products are on the right side of the chemical equation and reactants are what is doing the reacting, on the left side of the equation