APES Final Trimester 1
Sulfuric Acid
(H2SO4) Formed in the atmosphere from sulfur dioxide. As microscopic suspended droplets, it is a component of acid deposition.
Sulfur Dioxide
(SO2) Colorless gas with an irritating odor. About 2/3 (and as high as 90% in urban areas) comes from human sources, mostly combustion of sulfur-containing coal in electric power and industrial plants and from oil refining and smelting of sulfide ores.
Step 1: nitrogen fixation
-nitrogen must be present in ammoina (NH3) or (NO3-)-atmospheric nitrogen can be converted, mostly done by soil bacteria (rhizobium)-nitrogen fixing bacteria associated with legumes
Step 5: denitrification
-specialized bacteria (anaerobic) convert ammonia back into nitrites and nitrates and then into nitrogen gas (N2) and nitrous oxide gas (N2O)
If a city of population 10,000 experiences 100 births, 40 deaths, 10 immigrants, and 30 emigrants in the course of a year, what is its net annual percentage growth rate?
0.4%
Living organisms must acquire energy from their environment. Examples of adaptations that help organisms acquire this energy include which of the following? 1.The dark, heat-absorbing coloration of a reptile. 2.The fangs and claws of a lion 3.The light coloration of a peppered moth
1 and 2
Elements that cycle in the environment and that also have a gaseous phase at some point in their cycle include which of the following? 1. Carbon 2. Phosphorus 3. Sulfur
1 and 3
Factors that affect the total fertility rate of a human population include which of the following? 1. Cultural traditions 2. Government policies and economic incentives 3. Education level and economic opportunities for females
1, 2, and 3
If a country has a crude birth rate of 24 per 1,000 and a crude death rate of 8 per 1,000, the natural annual percent increase of its population is
1.6%
A temperate grassland biome has a gross primary productivity of 3,480kilocalories/meter2/year and a net primary productivity of 2,000kilocalories/meter2/year. What is the approximate number of kilocalories/meter2/year available to herbivores in that biome?
10% of the kilocalories from net primary productivity would be available (2,000kilocalories/meter2/year×0.10=200kilocalories/meter2/year).
Which of the following annual population growth rates is paired with the correct doubling time?
2% . . 35 years
The net annual primary productivity of a particular wetland ecosystem is found to be 8,000 kcal/m2 per year. If respiration by the aquatic producers is 12,000 kcal/m2 per year, what is the gross annual primary productivity for this ecosystem, in kcal/m2 per year?
20,000
If the population of a country is growing at a rate of 1.75 percent per year, the population will double in approximately how many years?
40 years
Doubling Time:
70/ % Growth rate = years to double
The current global human population is about 6.1 billion and is growing at an annual rate of 1.35 percent. If world population were to grow at this rate for the next year, approximately how many people would be added?
8 × 10^7
Algae in an aquatic food chain convert solar energy into 88,000 kilocalories of plant tissue. What best represents the amount of energy available in kilocalories for secondary consumer level in the food chain?
880
What best describes an example of resource partitioning in an ecosystem?
A Two different bird species feed from the same oak tree; one eats acorns, and the other eats insects in the bark. The two bird species are using the same resource in slightly different ways to reduce the negative impact of competition on the two species.
What best explains why terrestrial trophic pyramids usually do not have levels higher than tertiary consumers?
A large proportion of energy is lost as heat as it is transferred up the pyramid, so there is not enough energy available to support another level. As energy is transferred through trophic levels about 90% of the energy is lost to the environment as heat and thus there is not enough energy to support consumers past a third level, especially in terrestrial ecosystems.
How can you identify that a population bottleneck has occurred?
A population bottleneck occurs when a significant decrease in the population size reduces genetic variation within a population.
What type of biodiversity will allow a population to better respond to environmental stressors?
A population with high genetic biodiversity is better able to respond to environmental stressors. Genetic diversity is an important part of natural selection, as genetic variation is more likely to allow some individuals in a population to survive in a changing environment.
Based on the theory of island biogeography, what would most likely experience the greatest decline of specialist species if an invasive species emigrated from the mainland?
A small island in close proximity to the mainland. Being close to the mainland increases immigration of species. A small island has fewer niches available and specialized food webs, which is most likely to cause substantial declines in specialist species.
Summarize the theory of island biogeography
According to the theory of island biogeography, as the size of an island increases, the number of species living on it should increase. Also, as an island's distance from the mainland increases, the number of species living on it should decrease.
The demographic transition model describes population change over time as a country becomes more developed. Age-structure diagrams describe how populations are distributed across age ranges. What age-structure diagrams best displays the age ranges in a country that is in stage 2 of the demographic transition?
An expansive pyramid age-structure diagram. Stage 2 in the demographic transition has high birth rates and fairly high death rates, with a rapidly growing population. This is illustrated by high numbers of prereproductive-age individuals in the age-structure diagram, leading to a pyramid shape.
What do the arrows in a food web mean
Arrows in a food web depict the flow of energy between trophic levels.
An island off the coast of Africa contains a larger percentage of specialist species than generalist species. What describes the most immediate effect if an invasive generalist species is introduced to the island?
As competition for resources increases, the population size of the island's specialist species will decrease. The invasive generalist species would most likely outcompete the island's species for food and other resources, as these are extremely limited on islands and specialists can thrive in a narrow range of conditions.
Based on current trends and patterns, what best predicts how the human population will change over the next 50 years?
As the population density increases, there will be an increase in disease transmission, leading to increased mortality.
A field is abandoned, and an invasive plant that can live in nutrient-poor soil moves into the field. If the land is later cleared of this invasive species and it is discovered that the soil has an abundance of nitrogen compounds, what conclusion can best be made?
Bacteria in soil and in root nodules converted free nitrogen into nitrogen compounds.
What type of organism are required to complete the nitrogen cycle, including the process of denitrification?
Bacteria. Certain bacteria are specialized in fixing nitrogen, in association with plants such as soybeans and other legumes. Other types of bacteria perform nitrification: converting ammonium ions into nitrite ions, and then into nitrate ions. Finally, other bacteria perform denitrification, the reduction of nitrates back into nitrogen gas.
Population Change:
Births - Deaths + Immigration - emigration/pop
Population Growth Rate:
Births - Deaths + Immigration - emigration/pop X
Are fossil fuels a carbon source?
Burning fossil fuels is a source because it releases carbon that has been stored in coal, oil, or natural gas, which are carbon sinks.
Human influences on sulfur Cycle
Burning of Coal Refining of petroleum Production of Iron
Exchange
CO₂ in the atmosphere and CO₂ in the water are constantly exchanged
What type of carbon sink holds carbon compounds for the shortest period of time?
Carbon compounds are held for the shortest amount of time in vegetation. Carbon dioxide can move into plants to be stored as glucose much more quickly than sedimentary rocks and fossil fuels can be stored.
What rate of reaction can be measured in the dark by determining the amount of oxygen gas consumed in a period of time?
Cellular respiration.
Which of the following best exemplifies population momentum?
Continued growth of a population after fertility drops to replacement level
Step 3: nitrogen assimilation
Conversion of atmospheric nitrogen gas into forms useful to plants by lightening, bacteria, and cyanobacteria; it is part of the nitrogen cycle. Nitrogen gets "fixed" when it is combined with oxygen or hydrogen. Ammonia is converted to nitrite, then to a nitrate. -Plants absorb nitrates and grow!
Combustion
Converts fossil fuels and plant material into CO₂
sulfur cycle process
Cycles in both a gas and sedimentary cycle. - The source of Sulfur is the lithosphere(earth's crust. )Sulfur (S) enters the atmosphere as hydrogen sulfide (H2S) during fossil fuel combustion, volcanic eruptions, gas exchange at ocean surfaces, and decomposition. H2S is immediately oxidized to sulfur dioxide (SO2) SO2 and water vapor makes H2SO4 ( a weak sulfuric acid), which is then carried to Earth in rainfall. Sulfur in soluble form is taken up by plant roots and incorporated into amino acids such as cysteine. It then travels through the food chain and is eventually released through decomposition.
Describe three separate ways in which humans are altering/modifying the water cycle?
Deforestation, pollution, and withdrawing from it
What is an example of a carbon sink?
Deposition of organic matter on the deep ocean floor
What best describes the movement of energy in an ecosystem?
Energy is harnessed by producers, and available energy decreases with each trophic level transfer. Energy is harnessed from the sun by producers and is passed through trophic levels. The second law of thermodynamics explains how 90% of energy is lost between trophic levels.
Describe a freshwater wetland
Freshwater wetlands have trees with roots that are submerged in water. The trees drop their leaves, and the water traps organic materials released from decomposition. The wetlands also trap pollutants.
A variety of plants and animals inhabit a forest ecosystem. What correctly explains why certain organisms would be more likely to survive than others if a forest fire burned the area?
Generalist species are more likely to survive because they can thrive in a wide variety of environmental conditions and can make use of a variety of different resources. A generalist species is able to thrive in a wide variety of environmental conditions and can make use of a variety of different resources. A specialist species can thrive only in a narrow range of environmental conditions or has a limited diet. Loss of habitat leads to a loss of specialist species before a loss of generalist species.
What best describes a difference between generalist species and specialist species?
Generalists use a large range of resources, while specialists have a limited range of resources they use to survive.
A scientist is studying a biome that experiences large seasonal fluctuations in both temperature and precipitation patterns. What would best characterize the organisms that inhabit the biome?
Generalists would be most abundant, because the resources available would be constantly changing. Generalists have an advantage in habitats that are changing; they are capable of surviving in a wide range of conditions and use a wide range of food resources.
What can be used to assess the biological diversity of an area?
Genetic variation within each species and number of species present
What is defined as the total rate of photosynthesis in a given area?
Gross Primary Productivity.
Extraction
Human extraction of fossil fuels brings carbon to Earth's surface, where it can be combusted
What stores almost 70% of Earth's total freshwater?
Ice caps (and glaciers).
What best explains how the energy is transferred in a food chain?
If a primary producer stores 10,000kcal of energy, then a tertiary consumer will have 10kcal of energy available. Energy lost is 90% per trophic level so 10% is transferred. If level 1 (primary producer) stores 10,000kcal of energy, than level 2 (primary consumer) would have 1,000kcal of energy available, level 3 (secondary consumer) would have 100kcal of energy available, and level 4 (tertiary consumer) would have 10kcal of energy available. (10,000kcal×0.10×0.10×0.10=10kcal)
Summarize the first law of thermodynamics
In a closed system of constant mass, the energy involved in any physical or chemical change is neither created nor destroyed, but merely changed from one form to another.
What would most likely result from the deforestation of large areas of tropical rain forests caused by slash-and-burn agriculture?
Increased global temperature because of the release of CO2.
What best describes why birth and death rates are changing in a country that is in Phase 2 of the demographic transition?
Individuals have better sanitation and access to clean drinking water. In phase 2, there is rapid population growth as the result of better access to clean drinking water, food, vaccinations, and other medical care.
Which of the following is a true statement about replacement-level fertility?
It is greater in countries with high infant-mortality rates than in countries with low infant-mortality rates.
Summarize the second law of thermodynamics
Losses of usable energy between successive trophic levels in an ecosystem are best accounted for by which of the following
What best illustrates an abiotic component of the environment affecting a biotic component of the environment?
Low phosphorus content in soil limits the growth of vegetation.
What type of biomes is NPP higher in?
Net primary productivity (NPP) is higher in biomes that are warm year-round and receive abundant rainfall and sunlight to encourage the growth of producers, which are all characteristics of tropical rain forests.
What is NPP?
Net primary productivity is the rate of energy storage by photosynthesizers after subtracting energy used for cellular respiration in plants. NPP = GPP - energy used in respiration.
A North Carolina timber company proposes to clear-cut 45 hectares of oak-hickory deciduous forest in the Appalachian Mountains. The company has said that the forest will regrow naturally, and 50 years after the clear-cutting the company plans to harvest again, cutting all the oaks and hickories that have at least a 40-centimeter diameter. A local citizens' group claims that this is not a realistic plan. Which of the following, if true, best supports the claim of the citizens' group?
Oak and hickory are late-successional species; pioneer species will dominate for many decades before the oaks and hickories are reestablished.
What happens if farmers use no-till agriculture to reduce soil erosion?
Phosphorous is a limiting factor in biological systems. By decreasing the amount of erosion, less phosphorous will run off into waterways and be available to algae to use for growth.
What element is most likely to limit primary production in freshwater lakes?
Phosphorus
6 Processes of the Carbon Cycle
PhotosynthesisRespirationExchangeSedimentation and BurialExtractionCombustion
What describes the changes in a country's demographics as it begins its transition from a preindustrial state to an industrial state?
Population increases rapidly, birth rate remains high, death rate decreases
Photosynthesis
Producers convert carbon into sugars
What correctly describes the disruption of an ecosystem service by an anthropogenic activity?
Provisioning services are disrupted by increased combustion of fossil fuels, which leads to an increase in air pollution. The combustion of fossil fuels is an anthropogenic activity that disrupts provisioning services.
Which of the following best describes how ecologists could determine when an ecosystem is approaching a climax community?
Record the number and type of producers present every year after the eruption. A high number of late successional plant species would indicate that the ecosystem is approaching a climax community.
Which of the following is most typically associated with the transition from a rural to an urbanized society?
Reduced birth rates
Five different species of warblers, seed-eating birds, live in the same species of conifer trees. All of the birds migrate to coniferous forests during the summer, and different species reside in different areas in the same tree. They feed on the seeds of the conifer trees, but the different species do not mate with each other. Explain why the different warbler species can all have habitats in the same conifer trees.
Resource partitioning of the seeds reduces competition, and the five different species can live in the same tree. The warblers are using the same resource (tree) in slightly different places, and since they are not feeding in the same place, this reduces competition. This concept is known as resource partitioning.
Salamanders, ospreys, snapping turtles, and beavers all live in aquatic habitats. Salamanders lay their eggs in small freshwater pools and feed on insects. Osprey habitats include rivers, bays, and swamps and the birds feed on fish and other animals in the water or on land. Snapping turtles live in fresh or brackish water and feed on plants, fish, frogs, and snakes. Beavers build lodges on islands, pond banks, and lake shores and eat a variety of shrubs, grasses, and crops. Based on the information provided above, which of the following species would best be classified as a specialist?
Salamanders. A generalist species is able to thrive in a wide variety of environmental conditions and can make use of a variety of different resources. A specialist species can thrive only in a narrow range of environmental conditions and/or has a limited diet. The salamander best fits this description, as it can only reproduce in small pools and feeds only on insects. All other species listed are generalists.
Sedition and Burial
Some carbon can be buried
During which stage of the demographic transition shown above does a population begin to experience an explosive increase in growth?
Stage 2
Respiration
Sugars are converted back into carbon
Major sulfur Sink
Terrestrial Rock
The rate of population growth starts to slow down at which point?
The beginning of phase III
A one-hectare pond is sampled in early September. The sample yields 1 small catfish as well as 17 benthic invertebrates that represent 10 species. If the pond is resampled a year later, what would best indicate that the pond had been adversely affected by adjacent development?
The biodiversity of the pond has decreased.
A country is currently in the second stage of the demographic transition. Currently the country has a birth rate of 37.9 births per 1,000 individuals and a death rate of 13.4 deaths per 1,000 individuals. Which would indicate that the country is moving from the second stage into the third stage of the demographic transition?
The birth rate declines to 25.3 births per 1,000 individuals. The birth rate falls but does not yet match the death rate during the third stage.
Evaporation
The changing of a liquid into a gas, often under the influence of heat
sulfur cycle
The chemical and physical reactions by which sulfur moves into or out of storage and through the environment.
water cycle
The continuous process by which water moves from Earth's surface to the atmosphere and back
A small developing country with negligible rates of immigration and emigration is going through a demographic change. Thirty years ago the crude birth rate was 44 per thousand per year and the crude death rate was 17 per thousand per year. Now the crude birth rate is 16 thousand per year and the crude death rate is 5 per thousand per year. What is a true statement about the country now?
The country is at the industrial stage of the demographic transition.
A certain species of dinosaur laid large numbers of eggs, and the hatchlings had high mortality early in life. But if they survived, the young dinosaurs were able to grow at a rapid pace and disperse into the environment in order to thrive. Based on this information and the graph above, which of the following best characterizes this species of dinosaur?
The dinosaurs were r-strategists and exhibited a Type III survivorship curve. This species of dinosaur laid many eggs, which is a characteristic of r-strategists. A high mortality early in life is characteristic of a Type III survivorship curve.
What describes the most likely change to terrestrial biomes resulting from warmer average global temperatures?
The global distribution of midlatitude biomes, such as grasslands and temperate rain forests, would increase. Warmer average global temperatures would expand the range of biomes currently found at midlatitudes.
The majority of nitrogen can be found where?
The largest reservoir of nitrogen is the atmosphere, which is about 80% free nitrogen (N2) and contains 3,870,000,000 tetragrams of nitrogen.
What two main factors would best indicate the quality of life of a country's population?
The life expectancy and the infant mortality rate.
phosphorus cycle
The movement of phosphorus atoms from rocks through the biosphere and hydrosphere and back to rocks.
Why is the ocean the greatest source for evaporation in the water cycle?
The ocean is the largest reservoir and over 70% of the Earth's surface of water and therefore the greatest source for evaporation.
carbon cycle
The organic circulation of carbon from the atmosphere into organisms and back again
A 163 square-kilometer (km2) small island is found 2,000km from the mainland. A second, larger, 230,000km2 island is found 1,000km from the mainland. Based on the theory of island biogeography, which of the following statements is most likely true about the small island when compared with the large island?
The rate of immigration is lower for the small island than for the large island. More species would migrate to this large island over the small one since the large island is closer and larger.
Six white-tailed deer and six sika deer were enclosed in a pasture for observation during an eight-year study in central Texas. White-tailed deer are a native species to central Texas, while sika deer are a nonnative species to central Texas. White-tailed deer feed on flowering plants and the tips of trees and shrubs but do not eat grass. Sika deer feed on flowering plants, the tips of trees and shrubs, and grass. All other grazing animals were kept out of the pasture during the study. The number of sika deer more than doubled after the eight years, while the population of white-tailed deer decreased by 50 percent.
The sika deer out competed the white-tailed deer in consuming flowering plants and shrubs.
A one-hectare pond is sampled in early September. The sample yields 1 small catfish as well as 17 benthic invertebrates that represent 10 species. What can be estimated from the sample for the invertebrates in the pond?
The species richness
What is a true statement about the total fertility of a society?
The total fertility of a society decreases as the society progresses through the demographic transition.
nitrogen cycle
The transfer of nitrogen from the atmosphere to the soil, to living organisms, and back to the atmosphere
As a country goes through the demographic transition, the greatest rate of population growth takes place during which phase?
The transitional
Based on the theory of island biogeography, which of the following is the most likely reason that an island in the ocean that is 5 kilometers from a continent would have a higher number of species than one that is 15 kilometers from a continent?
There are more species that have the ability to travel 5 kilometers than can travel 15 kilometers. It takes less energy and potentially less complicated locomotion to travel 5 kilometers than it does 15 kilometers, so more species are able to travel 5 kilometers than 15 kilometers.
What is the soil like in tropical rainforests?
They are quickly depleted nutrients when the forest is removed.
What is generally true of K-strategist species as compared to r-strategist species?
They have longer life spans.
What best describes the flow of energy in most terrestrial and near-surface marine ecosystems?
Through the process of photosynthesis, plants convert solar energy into chemical energy, which moves through the food chain when one organism feeds on another.
Crude Birth Rate:
Total # births/total populationX1000
Crude Death Rate:
Total # deaths/total population X 1000
Birth Rate (per 1000):
Total births/total population /1000
Birth Rate (as a %)
Total births/total population X 100
Death Rate (per 1000):
Total deaths/total population /1000
Death Rate (as a %):
Total deaths/total population X 100
In a human population, the population momentum effect is most likely to occur in cases in which a large percent of people in the population are in which age-group?
Younger than eighteen years old
Step 2: nitrification
ammonia (NH3) is converted to nitrate ions (NO3)-
Traveling southward from the Arctic regions of Canada to the tropics of Panama, one passes through several biomes - tundra, coniferous forest, temperate deciduous forest, and tropical rain forest. This pattern of change in vegetation is primarily the result of
an increase in both mean annual temperature and mean annual precipitation
Natural Rate of Population Increase:
births - deaths
Which of the following density-independent factors can affect the size of a human population?
heat-waves
major cycles?
hydrologic cycle carbon cycle nitrogen cycle phosphorus cycle
Percent change:
new-old/old X 100
The rule of 70 can be used to determine a population's doubling time. Doubling time is a measure of the
population growth rate. The rule of 70 states that dividing the number 70 by the percentage population growth rate approximates the population's doubling time.
Precipitation
rain, snow, sleet, or hail that falls to the ground.
Runoff
the draining away of water (or substances carried in it) from the surface of an area of land, a building or structure, etc
what do biogeochemical cycles describe?
the flow of essential elements from the environment to living things and back to the environment
Percolation
the process of a liquid slowly passing through a filter. It's how coffee is usually made
Leaching
the process of draining away from soil, ash, or similar material by the action of percolating liquid, especially rainwater
Transpiration
the process where plants absorb water through the roots and then give off water vapor through pores in their leaves
Small populations of animals, such as those typically found on islands, are prone to extinction because
they are more vulnerable to unpredictable events
Infiltration
to cause (as a liquid) to permeate something by penetrating its pores or interstices
Population Density: Total Population/total area
to solve: population/area
