NASA scientist discovers new life form

GFAJ-1
Remember how I always say all life on Earth makes DNA the same way? That life builds DNA with a backbone of sugar and phosphate? Well, not anymore. Nasa Scientist Felisa Wolfe Simon and her team of researchers have discovered a bacterium that does not build its DNA with phosphate, but uses Arsenic instead!!



The organism was discovered in Mono Lake here in California. This bacteria, called GFAJ-1 can eat arsenic, but so can a few other bacteria. What makes this bacteria so unusual is that it makes its DNA from it!

Arsenic is very toxic to most of us, but this single celled organism has found a way to make DNA, RNA, proteins and even its cell membranes from it.


To read the press release from NASA click here

Bio 120 review for the final

Population Ecology and Interactions

1. Define resource partitioning and give an example of it.

2. How is a parasite different from a parasitoid?

3. How is a parasite different from a predator?

4. How are density dependent limiting factors different from density independent limiting factors? Give examples of each.

5. Coevolution happens also between parasites and their hosts. Why is this not surprising?

6. Define and give examples of the following: Mutualism, Commensalism, social parasite.

7. What are common strategies predators use to capture prey, and common defenses found in prey?

8. Draw a food web that could occur in your backyard or here at Cerritos. Include all the trophic levels we discussed in class.

9. Why are there fewer members of the upper trophic levels as compared with primary consumers or the producers?

10. What is carrying capacity?

Genetics

1. How is a genotype different from a phenotype?
2. What name is given to each of the following genotypes: TT Tt tt
3. Which of Mendel's laws discusses the separation of alleles in meiosis?
4. Which of his laws would describe the behavior of human chromosome 2 and 13 during meiosis?
5. In peas, tall is dominant over short. If two plants tall heterozygous plants were crossed, what proportion of the offspring would you expect to be short?
6. In one breed of chickens feather color is black, blue-gray, or white. How is feather color inherited and why do you think so?
7. If mom has 0 blood, and dad has AB blood, what proportion of the children will have B blood?

Bio 120 Review for the third exam:

Here's some questions to make those brain cells churn out the ATP!

1. What are the differences between aerobic and anaerobic respiration, and which is more efficient?

2. What are NAD+ and FAD used for?

3. What are the three steps in aerobic respiration, and where does each occur?

4. During which step of cellular respiration is the most ATP made?

5. During aerobic respiration, how many ATPs are made from one molecule of glucose in most cells?

6. What is the role of oxygen in aerobic respiration?

7. Describe how the ATP is made during chemiosmosis

8. What is produced by your muscle cells if there is not enough oxygen available at the end of glycolysis for aerobic respiration to continue?

9. Yeasts do a kind of anaerobic respiration called ____________, and produce ___________ and _________ along with 2 ATP

10. What are the important end products of the Citric Acid Cycle, and what happens to each of these products?



Here are the photosynthesis questions for review:

1. Which colors of light are most strongly absorbed by chlorophyll?
2. How is oxygen released during photosynthesis?
3. Why is water needed in photosynthesis?
4. What are the products of the light dependent reactions?
5. What is made in the light independent reactions?
6. What is the role of RUBP in photosynthesis?
7. What kind of plants use PEP and what advantage does it give them?
8. How are CAM plants different from others in the way they do photosynthesis?
9. What kind of organisms can do photosynthesis?
10. Where inside the chloroplast do the light dependent reactions happen?


1. How do biologists define evolution?

2. What is a population?

3. What islands were important to Charles Darwin's thinking on evolution?

4. Biogeography is how living things are distributed around the world. How was Darwin surprised by the the biogeography he observed on his trip around the world?

5. While fossils support the theory of evolution, we can't rely on the fossil record ever being complete. Why?

6. How does the existence of fossils support the theory of evolution?

7. How did LaMarck explain inheritance?

8. What was the hypothesis of catastrophism?

9. While the theory of evolution does not indicate humans came from chimps, it does indicate a _________________________ between chimps and humans.

10. Upon what observations did Darwin base his theory of evolution by natural selection?

11. How can speciation happen?

12. What mechanisms drive evolution?

Plant Review Questions for Exam 2

Review Questions about Plants:
1. Compare and contrast the movement of water and food in plants. Include in your answer what kinds of tissues and processes are involved in both.

2. Xylem is functional when dead at maturity while phloem is functional only when alive. Why?

3. In phloem, what is the role of the companion cell?

4. What is the difference between xylem in flowering plants and the xylem found in gymnosperms?

5. What is cohesion of water, and how is this different from adhesion?

6. What part of the root absorbs water?

7. What is the function of the anther in the flower?

8. Which of the following is where one would find ovules?
A. in an anther
B. in the ovary
C. in the stigma
D. in the style

9. Ovules are
A. eggs
B. spores that will become pollen
C. spores that will become eggs
D. immature seeds
E. pollen grains

10. In double fertilization the first sperm fertilizes the egg and the second
A. dies
B. is only used if the first sperm cell dies
C. fertilizes another egg
D. fertilizes a haploid endosperm mother cell to make diploid endosperm
E. fertilizes a diploid ( n+n) endosperm mother cell to make triploid endosperm

11. What is the function of fruit?

12. Microspores become
A. the embryo sac
B. the mature male gametophyte
C. pollen grains
D. all of the above
E. only B and C above

Review questions Bio 120 exam 2

Mitosis and Meiosis Review

1. If a cell has 8 chromosomes and does mitosis, how many cells will be made, and how many chromosomes will each cell have?

2. If a cell has 8 chromosomes and does meiosis to make sperm cells, how many cells will be made, and how many chromosomes will each cell have?

3. Mitosis creates cells which are ________, while meiosis makes cells which are _____.

4. What are homologous chromosomes?

5. What are sister chromatids?

6. What is crossing over, and during which process, (mitosis or meiosis) does it occur?

7. Why is crossing over important?

8. During __________ of mitosis sister chromatids separate.

9. During _________ of meiosis homologous pairs of chromosomes separate, but during ____________ of meiosis sister chromatids separate.

10. In meiosis, typically four sperm cells are made, but meiosis only makes one large egg cell. Why?


DNA Review Questions

1. Describe the structure of the DNA molecule

2. If the sequence of bases on one stand of the molecule is AAC TGC CCG, what is the sequence on the complemetary strand?

3. During DNA replication, what enzyme breaks the hydrogen bonds between the base pairs, and what enzyme matches up nucleotides to the existing ones on the parent strand of DNA?

4. Why is this type of replication called Semi Conservative?

5. How is RNA different from DNA?

6. The production of messenger RNA from DNA is called ________, and this happens in the __________ of the cell.

7. The parts of the mRNA molecules which are edited out before RNA reaches the cytoplasm are called __________

8. mRNA gets a cap and a tail prior to being read by the ribosome. What is the function of the cap and tail?

9. If the DNA strand being copied had this sequence: ACT GGC ATA CTA what would the sequence of the mRNA be?

10. The function of transfer RNA is ?

11. What is the name of the enzyme that produces RNA from DNA?

12. If the sequence of DNA is the same in your body cells, why are all cells not the same?

13. The DNA in you, an earthworm, and a fungus is the same. So why are you a human and not an earthworm?

14. What is an anti-codon and where is it found?

15. The protein synthesis process that occurs at the ribosome is called _____________

16. What is a stop codon?

Genetic Engineering

1. What are restriction enzymes?
2. What kind of cells have restriction enzymes, and what is the purpose of these enzymes in the cell?
3. What is a plasmid?
4. How are plasmids used in genetic engineering?
5. Why does human DNA work in a bacterial cell?
6. What is gene therapy?

Global warming and the tropics

We have all heard in the news about the stresses global warming and the associated climate changes are causing organisms in the north. The polar bear has become some what of a poster child for the impacts of global warming in the north. However,researchers are now reporting on the impacts even small changes in the tropics can have on animals there.

The tropics teem with insects which are ectotherms. These animals vary their metabolic rate with their environment. As the environment warms, their metabolism rises, and they need to eat more. The most current estimate I know of places the number of insect species in the tropics at about 3.7 million. This is a huge reduction from the previously held estimate of 30 million. The real number would be somewhere in between the two I suspect.

In any case, there are millions of insects that are being affected by warming. Why does this matter? Insects are key to life in the tropics. They play all kinds of important roles. They are a rich source of food for other animals, they are pollinators of the flowering plants that dominate the tropics, and some keep the population numbers of other species in check.

As warming causes their body temperatures to rise, their metabolic rates rise and they have to eat more, or reduce their activity to conserve the food they have.

To see a Science Digest article about this topic click here.

Review questions Bio 120 exam 1

1. A cell must maintain an imbalance of sodium ions on either side of the membrane for it to function. What process would it most likely use of the ones we discussed in class?
2. How are polar and non polar covalent bonds different?
3. What is a hydrogen bond, and why are these bonds important to life?
4. Oxygen has 8 electrons, with 6 in the outermost energy level. Will this atom react?
5. How are ions formed?
6. A solution with a pH of 5 is how many times more acidic than a solution with a pH of 7?
7. What determines if an atom with react with another?
8. A plant cell in a hypertonic solution will under go _____________
9. An animal cell in a hypotonic solution may undergo _____________
10. A Paramecium can survive in fresh water without bursting. Why?
11. How are the mitochondria and chloroplasts similar?
12. Why do we think the mitochondria was once an independent organism?
13. Describe the plasma membrane. Include how a lipid membrane functions in a watery environment.
14. What role do the proteins in the plasma membrane play?
15. How is active transport different from diffusion and osmosis, and facilitated diffusion?
16. How is dialysis different from osmosis?
17. What affect would a hypertonic solution have on a cell?
18.How is a hypothesis different from a theory?
19.What are five characteristics of living things?
20.How are prokaryotic cells different from eukaryotics cells?
21.What can cyanobacteria do that the bacteria living in your mouth do not do?
22.How are archea different from the bacteria living on your skin?
23.Describe briefly what organelles would be involved in making a protein and exporting it from the cell.
24.Give an example of two cell organelles working together to accomplish a task.
25.What organelle is found on the ER?
26.What is the function of lysosomes?
27.Where is the nucleolus, and what is its function?
28.What are the functions of the Golgi bodies?

Chapter 3
1. What are the building blocks of carbohydrates?
2. What is the difference between a saturated and unsaturated fatty acid?
3. Why is the shape of an enzyme important to the function of the enzyme?
4. At what level of complexity do proteins usually become functional?
5. What makes up a nucleotide?
6. What bond forms between amino acids as they react to form proteins?
7. How is the function of carbohydrates different in plants and animals?
8. What is the name of the carbohydrate human cells use to store glucose?
9. Which of the macromolecules we discussed stores energy in the most efficient way?
10. What is the most common steroid in the body?

Tell your Calif. State Senator to Support AB 1998

This bill will ban the use of plastic bags by grocery stores and other retailers.

Review for the Bio 120 Summer Session Final Exam

1. What are two important factors in determining what type of Biome one will find in a given area?

2. What causes the seasons here in North America?

3. What are three strategies plants have developed to survive in the cold dry,and sometimes dark conditions of the Tundra?

4. What kind of adaptations have animals developed to survive in:
A. The tundra
B. The deserts
C. Coniferous forests

5. What is a rain shadow, and how does it account for different plant communities occurring at the same latitude, but on opposites sides of a mountain range?

6. In what biomes does fire play an important role, and what is this role?

7. To what kind of environmental stresses are the plants and animals in the chaparral adapted?

8. How is a deciduous forest different from a coniferous forest, other than the types of trees found in each?


1. Define resource partitioning and give an example of it.

2. How is a parasite different from a parasitoid?

3. How is a parasite different from a predator?

4. How are density dependent limiting factors different from density independent limiting factors? Give examples of each.

5. Coevolution happens also between parasites and their hosts. Why is this not surprising?

6. Define and give examples of the following: Mutualism, Commensalism, social parasite.

7. What are common strategies predators use to capture prey, and common defenses found in prey?

8. Draw a food web that could occur in your backyard or here at Cerritos. Include all the trophic levels we discussed in class.

9. Why are there fewer members of the upper trophic levels as compared with primary consumers or the producers?

10. What is carrying capacity?


9. Why don't grasslands become forests?

10. What is the one thing all deserts have in common?


10. Upon what observations did Darwin base his theory of evolution by natural selection?

11. What must occur for a new species to evolve?

12. What isolating mechanisms help maintain a species as a distinct group?

13. Describe how allopatric speciation could happen.

14. What is usually involved in sympatric speciation?

15. How is stabilizing selection different from directional selection?

16. Is their a plan to evolution?

17. What mechanisms of evolution can lead to less genetic diversity in a population?

18. What is a gene pool?

19. Who was Alfred Wallace and why is he an important figure in the history of the theory of evolution?

20. What is the source of all new genes in a population?

21. What mechanism of evolution keeps separate populations from being isolated?

Genetics

1. How is a phenotype different from a genotype?

2. How is the law of segregation different from the law of independent assortment?

3. What is an allele?

4. If a pair of alleles are the same we call this genotype _____, and if the alleles are different the genotype is called _____.

5. PKU is a recessive disorder. If "dad" has PKU , and "mom" is homozygous dominant, what is the chance a child will have PKU?

6. In four o'clock flowers, the petal color is either red, pink, or white. How do you think flower color is inherited and why?

7. Hemophilia is an X-linked disorder. If mom carries the gene, and dad is normal, what is the chance the couple's daughter will be a carrier? What is the chance the daughter will have hemophilia?

What is the chance their son will have hemophilia?

8. Mom has O blood, and Dad has AB. They have a child with B blood. Is this possible?

9. There are three alleles present in the population for blood type. This is called _____________

10. A gene that is only expressed if it is in the homozygous condition must be a ______ gene.

I1. In a certain species of flower there are two petal colors, blue or red. If two blue flowered plants are crossed, the offspring are always blue. If two red plants are crossed, sometimes only red flowering plants are produced, while other times both red and blue flowering plants are produced. If a red plant and blue plant are crossed, sometimes the offspring are all red, while other times both red and blue offspring are produced. Which color is dominant?

Bio 120 review for second exam: Summer 2010

Here's some questions to make those brain cells churn out the ATP!

1. What are the differences between aerobic and anaerobic respiration, and which is more efficient?

2. What are NAD+ and FAD used for?

3. What are the three steps in aerobic respiration, and where does each occur?

4. During which step of cellular respiration is the most ATP made?

5. During aerobic respiration, how many ATPs are made from one molecule of glucose in most cells?

6. What is the role of oxygen in aerobic respiration?

7. Describe how the ATP is made during chemiosmosis

8. What is produced by your muscle cells if there is not enough oxygen available at the end of glycolysis for aerobic respiration to continue?

9. Yeasts do a kind of anaerobic respiration called ____________, and produce ___________ and _________ along with 2 ATP

10. What are the important end products of the Citric Acid Cycle, and what happens to each of these products?



Here are the photosynthesis questions for review:

1. Which colors of light are most strongly absorbed by chlorophyll?
2. How is oxygen released during photosynthesis?
3. Why is water needed in photosynthesis?
4. What are the products of the light dependent reactions?
5. What is made in the light independent reactions?
6. What is the role of RUBP in photosynthesis?
7. What kind of plants use PEP and what advantage does it give them?
8. How are CAM plants different from others in the way they do photosynthesis?
9. What kind of organisms can do photosynthesis?
10. Where inside the chloroplast do the light dependent reactions happen?

More Review Questions about Plants:
1. Compare and contrast the movement of water and food in plants. Include in your answer what kinds of tissues and processes are involved in both.

2. Xylem is functional when dead at maturity while phloem is functional only when alive. Why?

3. In phloem, what is the role of the companion cell?

4. What is the difference between xylem in flowering plants and the xylem found in gymnosperms?

5. What is cohesion of water, and how is this different from adhesion?

6. What part of the root absorbs water?

7. What is the function of the anther in the flower?

8. Which of the following is where one would find ovules?
A. in an anther
B. in the ovary
C. in the stigma
D. in the style

9. Ovules are
A. eggs
B. spores that will become pollen
C. spores that will become eggs
D. immature seeds
E. pollen grains

10. In double fertilization the first sperm fertilizes the egg and the second
A. dies
B. is only used if the first sperm cell dies
C. fertilizes another egg
D. fertilizes a haploid endosperm mother cell to make diploid endosperm
E. fertilizes a diploid ( n+n) endosperm mother cell to make triploid endosperm

11. What is the function of fruit?

12. Microspores become
A. the embryo sac
B. the mature male gametophyte
C. pollen grains
D. all of the above
E. only B and C above

Evolution:

1. How do biologists define evolution?

2. What is a population?

3. What islands were important to Charles Darwin's thinking on evolution?

4. Biogeography is how living things are distributed around the world. How was Darwin surprised by the the biogeography he observed on his trip around the world?

5. While fossils support the theory of evolution, we can't rely on the fossil record ever being complete. Why?

6. How does the existence of fossils support the theory of evolution?

7. How did LaMarck explain inheritance?

8. What was the hypothesis of catastrophism?

9. While the theory of evolution does not indicate humans came from chimps, it does indicate a _________________________ between chimps and humans.

10. Upon what observations did Darwin base his theory of evolution by natural selection?

11. What is adaptive radiation, and give an example of adaptive radiation in plants.

12. How has evidence from molecular biology supported the theory of evolution?

13. What is sympatric speciation, and how is it different from allopatric speciation?

Botany 120 Biome and genetics review

Genetics

1. How is a phenotype different from a genotype?

2. How is the law of segregation different from the law

of independent assortment?

3. What is an allele?

4. If a pair of alleles are the same we call this

genotype _____,and if the alleles are different

the genotype is called _____.

5. In four o'clock flowers, the petal color is either red,

pink, or white. How do you think flower color

is inherited and why?

6. A gene that is only expressed if it is in the homozygous

condition must be a ______ gene.

7. In a certain species of flower there are two petal colors,

blue or red.If two blue flowered plants are crossed,

the offspring are always blue.If two red plants are crossed,

sometimes only red flowering plants are produced, while

other times both red and blue flowering plants are

produced. If a red plant and blue plant are crossed,

sometimes the offspring are all red, while other

times both red and blue offspring

are produced. Which color is dominant?

8. A plant that breeds true for tall is crossed with one that

breeds true for short. All of the offspring in the F-1 are tall.

The F-1 generation is allowed to self-fertilize, and the

F-2 are 3/4 tall and 1/4 short.

a. which allele is dominant, the one for tallness or shortness?

b. what is the genotype of an F-1 individual?

c. what are the genotypes of the parental generation?

9. In peas, purple flowers (P) are dominant to white flowers (p),

and yellow seeds are dominant (Y) to green(y). If two plants

heterozygous for both traits are crossed, what proportion

of the offspring will have purple flowers and

produce green seeds?

10. Which of the following are homozygous

genotypes?

a. AABb

b. aabb

c. AaBb

d. aaBB

e. Aabb

Biomes

1. What are two important factors in determining what

type of Biome one will find in a given area?

2. What causes the seasons here in North America?

3. What are three strategies plants have developed to survive

in the cold dry,and sometimes dark conditions of the Tundra?

4. What is a rain shadow, and how does it account for different

plant communities occurring at the same latitude, but on

opposites sides of a mountain range?

5. In what biomes does fire play an important role, and

what is this role?

6. To what kind of environmental stresses are the plants

in the chaparral adapted?

7. How is a deciduous forest different from a coniferous

forest, other than the types of trees found in each?

8. Why don't grasslands become forests?

9. What is the one thing all deserts have in common?

Genetics and Evolution Review Bio 120

1. How do biologists define evolution?

2. What is a population?

3. What islands were important to Charles Darwin's thinking on evolution?

4. Biogeography is how living things are distributed around the world. How was Darwin surprised by the the biogeography he observed on his trip around the world?

5. While fossils support the theory of evolution, we can't rely on the fossil record ever being complete. Why?

6. How does the existence of fossils support the theory of evolution?

7. How did LaMarck explain inheritance?

8. What was the hypothesis of catastrophism?

9. While the theory of evolution does not indicate humans came from chimps, it does indicate a _________________________ between chimps and humans.

10. Upon what observations did Darwin base his theory of evolution by natural selection?

11. What must occur for a new species to evolve?

12. What isolating mechanisms help maintain a species as a distinct group?

13. Describe how allopatric speciation could happen.

14. What is usually involved in sympatric speciation?

15. How is stabilizing selection different from directional selection?

16. Is their a plan to evolution?

17. What mechanisms of evolution can lead to less genetic diversity in a population?

18. What is a gene pool?

19. Who was Alfred Wallace and why is he an important figure in the history of the theory of evolution?

20. What is the source of all new genes in a population?

21. What mechanism of evolution keeps separate populations from being isolated?

Genetics

1. How is a phenotype different from a genotype?

2. How is the law of segregation different from the law of independent assortment?

3. What is an allele?

4. If a pair of alleles are the same we call this genotype _____, and if the alleles are different the genotype is called _____.

5. PKU is a recessive disorder. If "dad" has PKU , and "mom" is homozygous dominant, what is the chance a child will have PKU?

6. In four o'clock flowers, the petal color is either red, pink, or white. How do you think flower color is inherited and why?

7. Hemophilia is an X-linked disorder. If mom carries the gene, and dad is normal, what is the chance the couple's daughter will be a carrier? What is the chance the daughter will have hemophilia?

What is the chance their son will have hemophilia?

8. Mom has O blood, and Dad has AB. They have a child with B blood. Is this possible?

9. There are three alleles present in the population for blood type. This is called _____________

10. A gene that is only expressed if it is in the homozygous condition must be a ______ gene.

I1. In a certain species of flower there are two petal colors, blue or red. If two blue flowered plants are crossed, the offspring are always blue. If two red plants are crossed, sometimes only red flowering plants are produced, while other times both red and blue flowering plants are produced. If a red plant and blue plant are crossed, sometimes the offspring are all red, while other times both red and blue offspring are produced. Which color is dominant?

Nesting season in the desert

I was out at Joshua Tree National Monument, and the Morongo Valley Preserve this weekend. Lot's of nesting birds around including these:

Young red-tailed hawk looks down at a visitor.

Stretching the wings, and building up the flight muscles. This hawk won't leave the nest until it is as big as its parents.

Great-horned owl chick still in its fluffy down feathers.

Botany review photosynthesis and cell respiration

1. What are the differences between aerobic and anaerobic respiration, and which is more efficient?

2. What are NAD+ and FAD used for?

3. What are the three steps in aerobic respiration, and where does each occur?

4. During which step of cellular respiration is the most ATP made?

5. During aerobic respiration, how many ATPs are made from one molecule of glucose in most cells?

6. What is the role of oxygen in aerobic respiration?

7. Describe how the ATP is made during chemiosmosis

8. What is produced by your muscle cells if there is not enough oxygen available at the end of glycolysis for aerobic respiration to continue?

9. Yeasts do a kind of anaerobic respiration called ____________, and produce ___________ and _________ along with 2 ATP

10. What are the important end products of the Citric Acid Cycle, and what happens to each of these products?



Here are the photosynthesis questions for review:

1. Which colors of light are most strongly absorbed by chlorophyll?
2. How is oxygen released during photosynthesis?
3. Why is water needed in photosynthesis?
4. What are the products of the light dependent reactions?
5. What is made in the light independent reactions?
6. What is the role of RUBP in photosynthesis?
7. What kind of plants use PEP and what advantage does it give them?
8. How are CAM plants different from others in the way they do photosynthesis?
9. What kind of organisms can do photosynthesis?
10. Where inside the chloroplast do the light dependent reactions happen?

Spring in the Mojave Desert

This diminutive plant has a wonderful flower. This is Lilac Sunbonnet Langloisia setosissima. The whole plant is about 2 inches tall. Check out the blue pollen.

Climbing milkweed, Sarcostemma cyanchoidies, is an important host plant for the larvae of butterflies. Notice the tendrils it uses to cling to other plants for support.

Desert Five Spot. Eremalche rotundifloria. How about that? A scientific name that is very logical. Rotundifloria, round flower. These flowers look like little domes until just before they wilt, then they open up to show off their spots.

Hey, that's no flower! This rattle snake was snoozing in the shade of a creosote shrub until we rudely walked by and disturbed it.

One of the best things about camping is seeing the sunrise.

The clouds were beautiful on Saturday.

A rainbow cloud

Review for exam 4 Bio 120

1. What are two important factors in determining what type of Biome one will find in a given area?

2. What causes the seasons here in North America?

3. What are three strategies plants have developed to survive in the cold dry,and sometimes dark conditions of the Tundra?

4. What kind of adaptations have animals developed to survive in:
A. The tundra
B. The deserts
C. Coniferous forests

5. What is a rain shadow, and how does it account for different plant communities occurring at the same latitude, but on opposites sides of a mountain range?

6. In what biomes does fire play an important role, and what is this role?

7. To what kind of environmental stresses are the plants and animals in the chaparral adapted?

8. How is a deciduous forest different from a coniferous forest, other than the types of trees found in each?


1. Define resource partitioning and give an example of it.

2. How is a parasite different from a parasitoid?

3. How is a parasite different from a predator?

4. How are density dependent limiting factors different from density independent limiting factors? Give examples of each.

5. Coevolution happens also between parasites and their hosts. Why is this not surprising?

6. Define and give examples of the following: Mutualism, Commensalism, social parasite.

7. What are common strategies predators use to capture prey, and common defenses found in prey?

8. Draw a food web that could occur in your backyard or here at Cerritos. Include all the trophic levels we discussed in class.

9. Why are there fewer members of the upper trophic levels as compared with primary consumers or the producers?

10. What is carrying capacity?


9. Why don't grasslands become forests?

10. What is the one thing all deserts have in common?
Labels: Biomes

Botany Review Questions Exam 3

Evolution:

1. How do biologists define evolution?

2. What is a population?

3. What islands were important to Charles Darwin's thinking on evolution?

4. Biogeography is how living things are distributed around the world. How was Darwin surprised by the the biogeography he observed on his trip around the world?

5. While fossils support the theory of evolution, we can't rely on the fossil record ever being complete. Why?

6. How does the existence of fossils support the theory of evolution?

7. How did LaMarck explain inheritance?

8. What was the hypothesis of catastrophism?

9. While the theory of evolution does not indicate humans came from chimps, it does indicate a _________________________ between chimps and humans.

10. Upon what observations did Darwin base his theory of evolution by natural selection?

11. What is adaptive radiation, and give an example of adaptive radiation in plants.

12. How has evidence from molecular biology supported the theory of evolution?

13. What is sympatric speciation, and how is it different from allopatric speciation?

Bacteria

1. What is the name of the bacteria that do photosynthesis,and what can they do in addition to photosynthesis?

2. In what major way are bacterial cells different from plant cells?

3. Describe how bacterial cells can reproduce.

4. What is in the cell walls of bacteria?

5. What is a capsule used for?

6. What are the three basic shapes of bacteria?

7. What roles do bacteria play in the ecosystem where they are found?

8. How are Archea different from bacteria?

9. Some bacteria live in the roots of plants. What are they doing there?

10. What is a plasmid?

Fungi Questions

1. How are fungi classified?

2. What role do fungi play typically in their habitat?

3. How are fungi different from plants?

4. How do fungi feed?

5. What does heterokaryotic mean?

6. How do fungi spread out in their habitat?

7. The body of a fungus is a thread like structure called a ____

8. A mass of the answer in question 7 is call a ____

9. A lichen is made of a ____ and a ____. What is the ecological role of lichens?

Land Plants, Mosses and Ferns

1. Liverworts and mosses both have a dominant ________ generation

2. What are three ways plants are adapted to life on land?

3. What organisms are believed to be the ancestors of land plants?

4. Sporophytes do what kind of cell division to make spores?

5. Are gametophytes are haploid or diploid?

6. Why are most mosses small?

7. What do ferns have that is missing in mosses and liverworts?

8. Why are horsetails also called scouring rushes?

9. The dominannt generation in the ferns is the ____ generation

10. Under the leaves one can find ____ in ferns

Gymnosperms

1. What advancement is seen in the gymnosperms compared to the ferns?

2. How are Gingkos and cycads different from conifers?

3. What is in a male cone? What is in a female cone?

4. How are confirs adapted to cold dry climates?

5. What does it mean if a plant is monecious?

6. Ephedra belongs to what division of plants?

7. What is the male gametophyte in the conifers?

Angiosperms

1. What is the function of these parts of the flower?
petals
sepals
anther
ovary
stigma
style

2. Other than the flower, what other advantage do the flowering plants have over the gymnosperms?

3. What is the function of fruit?

4. How is an imperfect flower different from a perfect flower? How is a complete flower different from an incomplete flower?

Carrizo Plain National Monument

The Carrizo Plain is in a remote area of Southern California between the I-5 and San Luis Obispo. It is what California may have been like hundreds of years ago. It is an open expanse of grasslands with gentle rolling hills. It is quiet. Wind and birds are all one hears along with an occasional drone of bees pollinating the flowers at this time of year. There are no gas stations, or stores nearby. The campground has no water, and you pack out what you bring in. Go there.

Owl's clover

Great horned owl in nest. The campground where we stayed had some of the only trees in the area. Consequently there were a host of bird species in the area.

Moonrise over the Temblor Hills

Red-tailed hawk being harassed by a red-winged black bird

The campground shortly after dawn

Wild Hyacinth

In the hills behind the campground

Miles of fiddleneck and Phacelia gave the floor of the plain an orange and purple glow

California poppy

Stork's bill and goldfields paint the fields and hillsides