Week 10

Question 1

What kind of genetic material was in most organisms for a long time?

Answer 1

RNA

Question 2

What different theories exist for how life came about?

Answer 2

hydrothermal vents, primordial soup (with amino acids), asteroids

Question 3

What does photosynthesis convert sunlight into? how?

Answer 3

biomass through autrophy

Question 4

How does photosynthesis work?

Answer 4

Sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water get turned into oxygen (byproduct) and glucose (carbohydrates)

Question 5

what two colors are used for photosynthesis?

Answer 5

red and blue

Question 6

What are C3 plants?

Answer 6

• have rubisco metabolism which requires lots of water because the leaf’s stomata co2 loss during respiration
• calvin-benson cycle
• they were the standard until 65 mya
• most trees and plants
• puts 3/4 carbons together for energy?
• positive feedback?

Question 7

what are C4 plants?

Answer 7

• have PEPC metabolism which requires lots of sun
• water efficient, doesn’t lose it during photorespiration
• came into being when things dried up 65 mya (cenozoic)
• insulates calvin-benson cycle with o2?
• most grasses, sugar, corn

Question 8

What is sex and why is it good?

Answer 8

• allows for the mixing of genes
• miosis instead of mitosis
• variable offspring
• adaptive evolution

Question 9

what are eukaryotes and when did they develop?

Answer 9

• complex organelles
• RNA/DNA in nucleus, membranes
• 1.8 bya

Question 10

Describe multicellular organisms that

Answer 10

• eukaryotic cells that specialized (into structural, metabolic, etc ones)
• made complex organisms possible

Question 11

skeleton facts

Answer 11

• developed during the cambrian explosion 550 mya
• increased biodiversity in the water (calcium carbonate, shells)
• first developed as collogen

Question 12

when did land plants develop? what kind were they?

Answer 12

• 500 mya late cambrian
• non-vascular plants like mosses and liverworts

Question 13

when did insects appear?

Answer 13

early ordovician

Question 14

wheb did land vertebrates appear? what kind?

Answer 14

• 425 mya silurian
• amphibians
• reproduced in bodies of water
• millipedes

Question 15

describe the amniotic egg

Answer 15

• eggs have fluid that allows fetus to survive out of water
• shells protect fetus from harsh environment
• eggs can exchange O2 and CO2 in and out

Question 16

what are the different kinds of potential energy?

Answer 16

• nuclear
• electrical
• gravitational

Question 17

what does energy mean?

Answer 17

ability to do work

Question 18

what are the laws of thermodynamics?

Answer 18

• energy moves between two bodies
• energy conserved
• moves from organized to chaos (energy lost)
• absolute zero cannot be reached

Question 19

what are the two kinds of energy? what do they mean?

Answer 19

kinetic: motion
potential: stored energy

Question 20

List the trophic levels. define them too.

Answer 20

1. auto/chemotrophs: make their own energy (primary producers)
2. herbivores: eat plants
3. carnivores: eat other animals
4. supercarnivores: exists in the ocean (mercury gets concentrated)
5. decomposers: eat dead things

Question 21

where can we see many trophic levels?

Answer 21

in the ocean- phyto and zoo are unique

Question 22

do trophic levels only move one way?

Answer 22

no, some species feed at many levels

Question 23

what is the community effect? give an example

Answer 23

• when feeding habits affect ecosystem function
• animals depend on each other
• otters, kelp, sea urchins, and reproductivity

Question 24

what does productivity mean?

Answer 24

the amount of biomass/energy/carbon that can be incorporated into other organisms

Question 25

how can we understand ecosystem function?

Answer 25

following the energy

Question 26

what does gross primary productivity mean?

Answer 26

the rate of photosynthetic carbon uptake AKA photosynthesis

Question 27

What is net primary productivity?

Answer 27

GPP- nighttime respiration

Question 28

where is npp highest? why?

Answer 28

at the equator because there is more water there

Question 29

what is net ecosystem productivity?

Answer 29

caron that plants do not respire AKA soil and litter activity

Question 30

what does net ecosystem exchange mean?

Answer 30

carbon transfer between land and atmosphere (perhaps water too?)

Question 31

what are the different levels of energy storage?

Answer 31

tissue -> leaves (we eat reproductive organs) -> fat

Question 32

what do chemoautotrophs use to make energy?

Answer 32

sulfur compounds

Question 33

what are heterotrophs? give examples

Answer 33

they make organic matter from other organics ex: animals, fungi, bacteria

Question 34

what do organisms use energy for?

Answer 34

work and growth

Question 35

list the trophic levels

Answer 35

primary producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, and tertiary consumers

Question 36

how much energy is available to each trophic level?

Answer 36

there 90% less energy at each trophic level (90% of energy is lost) ie. 1M -> 10k -> 1k -> 100 -> 10

Question 37

what is the limiting agent on land? in oceans?

Answer 37

land- water ocean- nutrients

Question 38

how do we calculate ecologic efficiency?

Answer 38

energy provided by a trophic level / energy used - comes out to be between 2-10%

Question 39

what does succession mean?

Answer 39

how an ecosystem matures through evolution from one stage to another

Question 40

what is primary succession?

Answer 40

- from scratch - where there was nothing before ie glaciation, pond filling

Question 41

what is secondary succession?

Answer 41

- a restart after a disaster ie fire, storm, saw

Question 42

what do colonizers do?

Answer 42

provide soil and nutrients but they are short-lived plants with low needs

Question 43

What is the order in which species move in for succession?

Answer 43

colonizers (herbaceous plants), early (pines), late (maples/oaks)

Question 44

describe the conversion of a lake via succession

Answer 44

- sedge lays down floating runners creating a floating mat strong enough to support other plant while sediment is deposited at the bottom of the lake until it is filled in

Question 45

how does community structure change through time during succession?

Answer 45

- biomass and diversity increase (peak) the go down and then squiggle from there - soil organic matter and total ecosystem storage of chemical elements increases than decreases slowly until stabilizing in the middle - a lot of nitrogen fixation before plummeting - plant and litter stable at a low point - small bump in soil phosphorus

Question 46

what does facilitation mean?

Answer 46

- set the stage for others to come - prepare the landscape - stabilize environment

Question 47

what does interference mean?

Answer 47

- when pioneer species prevent the growth of others

Question 48

what does chronic patchiness mean?

Answer 48

- when species don't mess with each other leaving gaps - when the physical environment is too harsh for succession to occur

Question 49

compare and contrast early vs late successional species

Answer 49

early: quick to germinate and grow late: slow growing but live longer