Landmark | Home | Syllabus | Calendar | Labs | Email Dr. Tolman

NS 1021A: Introduction to Biology: Organisms and the Environment

Summer '08 Syllabus: Day 18
Thursday, July 24

In-Class:

  • Lecture/discussion: Ecosystems: Energy flow
  • Discussion: "How I fit in the web of life"
  • Activity: Start work on Food Webs
  • Lecture/discussion: Material cycles

Homework:


For Thursday, July 24
Read ch 2.6-2.7, pages 31-32 and ch 31.1-31.2, pages 677-682.

Answer the following questions (also available as a Word document in the class shared folder):

  1. List the levels of ecological organization and define each.
     
  2. How, in general terms, does energy flow through ecosystems - that is, what is the ultimate source of energy for life, and what is the path of that energy through living things?
     
  3. What is the difference between a habitat and an ecosystem?
     
  4. Name three producers and three consumers.
     
  5. Name one organism in each of trophic levels 1, 2, and 3.
     
  6. Why does a food chain typically have only three or four steps?

Test 3 question 2 due (see below)


For Friday, July 25
Read ch 31.3-31.8, pages 682 - 691.

Answer the following questions (also available as a Word document in the class shared folder):

  1. Draw a simple diagram to demonstrate this statement: "energy flows, materials cycle."
     
  2. How is transpiration different from   evaporation?
     
  3. Why would cutting down a rain forest create a desert area?
     
  4. How does carbon dioxide in the atmosphere enter the living part of the carbon cycle?
     
  5. How is combustion similar to   respiration?
     
  6. What type of organisms are able to fix nitrogen?
     
  7. Why is it hotter at the equator than at the poles?
     
  8. Look at the map on page 32, and the rain shadow diagram on page 689.  Where might there be a rain shadow effect in North America?
     
  9. Great Britain is further north than Vermont, yet it has warmer winters.  Why?
     

Succession lab due

Test 3 question 3 due (see below)


For Monday, July 28
Read ch 31.9-31.12, pages 692 - 700, ch 34.9, pages 764 - 765.
Read "Tragedy of the Commons" (handout).

Answer the following questions (also available as a Word document in the class shared folder):

  1. "Estuaries are among the most naturally fertile areas in the world." (p.692) Why?
     
  2. What is the role of hydrothermal vent systems in deep sea life?
     
  3. What is the difference between eutrophic and oligotrophic lakes?
     
  4. What is the difference between an ecosystem and a biome?
     
  5. List the seven major biomes.
     
  6. What is the biome of your home state?  (See map on p. 696.)
     
  7. "The average human birth rate has stabilized at about 22 births per year per 1000 people worldwide."  (p. 764)  If birth rates have stabilized, why are populations still rising?
     
  8. If humans do not control their own population, what factors may contribute to a leveling off of the human population?
     
  9. Garrett Hardin suggests that the "population problem" has no technological solution (see page 2 of the article).  Do you agree with him?  Why or why not?
     
  10. According to Hardin, what does "Commons" mean (see pages 4 to 5 of the article)?  Give two examples of Commons now.
     
  11. What is the tragedy around Commons?  Is this still a problem?

Food webs due

Test 3 question 4 due (see below)

Test 3 question 2:

Due Thursday, July 24

20 points
  • How does evolution connect to ecology?  Does the environment directly cause changes in an organism over time?  If so, how?  If not, what does cause changes in an organism?  Include in your answer a discussion of both ecological niches and coevolution.  

Test 3 question 3:

Due Friday, July 25
10 points. Choose one of the following to answer:
  • Choose a keystone species.  Discuss the following:
    1. Where it lives or lived.
    2. How we know it is a keystone species.
    3. What its niche is/was.
    Or
  • Choose an invasive/exotic species.  Discuss the following:
    1. Where is it "invading"?
    2. Where did it originate?
    3. What problems is it causing?
    4. What are suggested solutions?

Test 3 question 4:

Due Monday, July 28
8 points
  • "In Southeast Asia there's an old saying, 'There is only one tiger to a hill.'  In terms of energy flow in ecosystems, explain why big predatory animals such as tigers and sharks are relatively rare."  Include a discussion of trophic levels and food webs.
    from Campbell, Mitchell and Reece, Biology: Concepts and Connections, 3rd ed., Benjamin/Cummings, 2000, p.735.
 

Vocabulary:

ecology
community
habitat
ecosystem
producer
autotroph
consumer
heterotroph
trophic level
food chain
food web
herbivores
carnivores
omnivores
detritivores
decomposers
primary productivity
net primary productivity
biomass
ecological
top carnivore		 cycling
biogeochemical cycle
water cycle
evaporation
transpiration
precipitation
percolation
aquifer
carbon cycle
respiration
photosynthesis
combustion
fossil fuels
nitrogen cycle
nitrogen cycle
nitrogen fixation
denitrification
phosphorus cycle
eutrophication  		  

   

Landmark | Home | Syllabus | Calendar | Labs | Email Dr. Tolman