Final Exam Review Questions

1. What are emergent properties? Why are they important to organismal biology?

2. What is reductionism? Why is it important to organismal biology?

3. What are the three domains and six kingdoms of life?

4. What is the "tree of life" What is 'found' at its base?

5. Define evolution. What is the difference between microevolution and macroevolution?

6. Who was Charles Darwin?

7.  What happened on the voyage of the HMS Beagle?

8. What were the ideas and observations used by Charles Darwin to formulate his theory of evolution by natural selection?

9. Who was Thomas Malthus?

10. What are the four lines of evidence that support evolution?

11. What is the "gene pool"?

12. Explain in conceptual terms the Hardy-Weinberg Principle?

13. What are mutations? What causes them? Why are they important to an understanding of evolution?

14. Explain how genetic drift can cause evolution.

15. Explain how natural selection acts on a population to cause evolution.

16. What is directional selection?

17. What is the 'biological species concept'?

18. What is allopatric speciation? Sympatric speciation?

19. Define cladistics.

20. Who were Oparin and Haldane?  Who was Stanley Miller? What did they contribute to our understanding of the origin of life?

21. What is a ribozyme? Explain how it is important in understanding the origin of life.

22. What is the "Theory of Serial Endosymbiosis"? Explain why this is important to an understanding of the origins of eukaryotic diversity

23. Compare and contrast amphibians, birds and mammals with regards to their adaptations for life on land.

24. Compare and contrast bioenergetic relationships in endotherms and ectotherms.

25. What are open circulatory systems? Closed?

26. What features do every closed circulatory system share?

27. What is the advantage of double circulation?

28. Compare and contrast the efficiency of gills and lungs as organs of gas exchange.

29. Explain how an apical meristem in a plant is an adaptation for terrestrial life.

30. What features are found in plants as adaptations for life on land?

31. How do plants and animals vary with respect to their responses to environmental stimuli?

32. How do plants measure time? Explain why this is important to their survival.

33. What is the carrying capacity of an environment? Explain how it can change population growth rate.

34. What is demography? Explain how it is useful in population ecology.

35. Explain energy conversions as they occur between the trophic levels of an ecosystem. How does the efficiency of these conversions impact biomass and species numbers in each trophic level?

36. Explain how energy and nutrients travel through ecosystems.

37. What is primary production? Explain its important to the health of an ecosystem.