Unit 2

Question 1

What is the general definition of a species?

Question 2

How do species relate to populations?

Question 3

Explain and differentiate between the biological species concept, morphological species concept, and the phylogenetic species concept.

Question 4

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each species concept?

Question 5

Define speciation

Question 6

Describe the overall process of speciation.

Question 7

Explain how each mechanism of evolution affects the process of speciation differently.

Question 8

Why does gene flow inhibit speciation?

Question 9

Distinguish between allopatric and sympatric speciation.

Question 10

Distinguish between allopatric speciation by dispersal and vicariance.

Question 11

Explain how sympatric speciation can occur through extrinsic factors like disruptive selection

Question 12

Explain how sympatric speciation can occur through chromosomal mutations, such as autopolyploidy and allopolyploidy. In which group of organisms is this type of speciation most common?

Question 13

What processes can lead to genetic isolation after divergence of populations?

Question 14

What is prezygotic reproductive isolation?

Question 15

What is postzygotic reproductive isolation?

Question 16

Explain the process of fusion.

Question 17

Under what circumstances will fusion occur?

Question 18

What is the outcome of fusion?

Question 19

Explain the process of reinforcement.

Question 20

Under what circumstances will reinforcement occur?

Question 21

What is the outcome of reinforcement?

Question 22

Explain the process of hybrid zone formation.

Question 23

Under what circumstances will a hybrid zone occur?

Question 24

How and why do hybrid zones change over time?

Question 25

Explain the process of hybrid speciation.

Question 26

Under what circumstances will hybrid speciation occur?

Question 27

What is the outcome of hybrid speciation?

Question 28

Predict what can happen when two partially divergent populations come into contact again under various circumstances.

Question 29

Define macroevolution.

Question 30

What is systematics?

Question 31

What are monophyletic groups?

Question 32

What are polyphyletic groups?

Question 33

What are paraphyletic groups?

Question 34

Generally, how are phylogenetic trees estimated?

Question 35

How does convergent evolution produce homoplasy?

Question 36

Describe anagenesis and cladogenesis? How can we visualize these processes on a phylogenetic tree.

Question 37

What do the branch lengths on a phylogenetic tree mean?

Question 38

Distinguish between ancestral traits, derived traits, and synapomorphies

Question 39

What is parsimony and how does it influence phylogenetic tree construction?

Question 40

Explain why a phylogenetic tree is a hypothesis of inferred relationships subject to further refinement.

Question 41

What is the fossil record? How the depth of a fossil in the rock strata allow us to make inferences about the species evolutionary history.

Question 42

What is the geologic time scale? How old is the Earth? When did life first appear on Earth? Why does the Earth’s age matter when considering macroevolution.

Question 43

Explain the five pieces of evidence that show that species change over time.

Question 44

Explain the three pieces of evidence that show that species are related.

Question 45

Define ecology and distinguish between levels of ecological study.

Question 46

How does ecology link to evolutionary processes?

Question 47

List the major abiotic drivers of climate.

Question 48

Define climate and explain how climate is different than weather.

Question 49

Explain how solar radiation flows through the global cycle.

Question 50

Explain how greenhouse gasses mediate Earth’s temperature.

Question 51

Explain why the tropics are warmer than temperate regions

Question 52

Explain how cycles in global air circulation impacts global patterns of precipitation

Question 53

Explain how cold and hot air vary in density, water retention, and pressure

Question 54

Describe how the Hadley cell works to impact precipitation patterns and produce deserts at 30°N and S.

Question 55

Explain how Earth’s orbit and tilt influence seasons

Question 56

Predict what would happen if the Earth’s tilt changes. In what regions, would such a change have the greatest effect.

Question 57

Explain how mountains and oceans influence climate.

Question 58

How does a rain shadow form?

Question 59

Explain how gyres impact currents and land temperatures

Question 60

Explain why coastal areas have milder climates than inland areas of the same latitude.

Question 61

Explain the primary abiotic conditions that determine terrestrial and aquatic biomes.

Question 62

Explain why biomes vary predictably across latitude.

Question 63

Explain how ocean upwelling and lake turnover occur.

Question 64

Why is nutrient cycling important in aquatic biomes?

Question 65

Describe distribution. How does a species range relate to distribution of populations?

Question 66

Explain the role of fitness trade-offs in determining organismal distribution.

Question 67

What is a performance curve? How might performance curves vary among organisms living in different environments?

Question 68

How does dispersal ability influence distribution?

Question 69

How do species interactions influence distribution?

Question 70

How does Earth history (movement of the continents) influence distribution?

Question 71

How do performance curves relate to the niche concept?

Question 72

Explain Hutchinson’s n-dimensional hypervolume.

Question 73

Distinguish between fundamental and realized niche. How are they determined?

Question 74

Within a population, explain how organisms show random, clumped, or uniform distributions.

Question 75

Identify some biological scenarios that can lead to different distributions of organisms within a population.

Question 76

Describe the different ways populations can be spatially distributed.

Question 77

Explain how populations change over time. Describe how these changes are related to survivorship curves and life history strategies.

Question 78

What information does a life table provide?

Question 79

Explain the role of births, deaths, immigration, and emigration in determining population changes.

Question 80

What is a survivorship curve? Be able to draw and explain Type I, Type II, and Type III

Question 81

What are traits of organisms that generally follow a Type I, II, or III curve?

Question 82

Explain different reproductive strategies.

Question 83

How does fecundity relate to net reproductive rate

Question 84

What is life history? What are some life history traits? Explain how an organism’s life history is the result of trade-offs. Explain how an organism’s life history is dependent on its environment.

Question 85

Why do populations overshoot carrying capacity?

Question 86

Explain dN/dt. What is this term measuring?

Question 87

Explain how scientists classify species interactions. What is meant by a + interaction? A – interaction? A 0 interaction?

Question 88

Define the five types of species interactions and identify an example of each species interaction

Question 89

What is a symbiosis? Which species interactions could be symbiotic?

Question 90

Differentiate between interference and exploitative competition.

Question 91

What is competitive exclusion? When will competitive exclusion occur?

Question 92

Explain the process of niche partitioning and character displacement. How are these processes different? How are they similar? How do they interact to minimize competition between organisms?

Question 93

Explain how environmental conditions impact species interactions.

Question 94

Explain the process of coevolution

Question 95

What species interactions are most likely to cause coevolution?

Question 96

Describe an evolutionary arms race. What species interactions are likely to cause an evolutionary arms race?

Question 97

Define succession

Question 98

Describe the types of life history traits that will be prevalent at the different stages of succession

Question 99

Describe different types of disturbance and recognize whether a disturbance will result in primary or secondary succession.

Question 100

Differentiate between dominant and keystone species and explain their importance to community structure.

Question 101

Explain how species richness and species evenness contribute to community diversity and characterize the structure of a community.

Question 102

Explain the purpose of a diversity index. How do researchers choose which index to use?

Question 103

Explain how traits of organisms, like size and mobility, may introduce bias into estimates of richness and evenness

Question 104

Define biodiversity

Question 105

Where does energy in an ecosystem come from originally?

Question 106

Explain GPP

Question 107

Explain NPP

Question 108

Contrast autotrophs and heterotrophs. How do autotrophs gain energy? How do heterotrophs gain energy?

Question 109

Why is energy lost between each trophic level? How does that impact the biomass of each trophic level?

Question 110

Differentiate between bottom up and top-down influences on community structure. Using an interactions network, make predictions on how community structure will change after a disturbance.

Question 111

Define trophic cascade

Question 112

Explain why decomposers are very important to ecosystem functioning.

Question 113

Explain nutrient cycling and the factors that control the rate of cycling.

Question 114

Describe how water flows through the global water cycle.

Question 115

Describe how nitrogen flows through the global nitrogen cycle.

Question 116

Describe how carbon flows through the global carbon cycle.

Question 117

Define endemic species and their role in biodiversity.

Question 118

Explain the link between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.

Question 119

What are the three main categories of ecosystems services? Provide an example of each

Question 120

Define endangered species.

Question 121

What species traits are linked with extinction risk?

Question 122

Explain the causes of the five mass extinction events in Earth history.

Question 123

When did these mass extinction events occur?

Question 124

What is the definition of a mass extinction event?

Question 125

What factors led to past mass extinctions?

Question 126

Discuss the evidence in favor of a current mass extinction (6th mass extinction)

Question 127

Define endemic species and their role in biodiversity