AP Environmental Science First Semester Final Review



APES Study Guide for 1st Semester Final

Unit 1: Chapters 1, 2 (sections 1, 4 and 5) and 3 (sections 1-4)

Terms to know:

Abiotic/biotic

Anthropogenic

Autotroph/heterotroph

Bioaccumulation

Biodegradable/ nondegradable

Biologic oxygen demand (BOD)

Biomagnification

Decomposers

Ecological Efficiency

Entropy

GDP, per capita GDP

Limiting factors

NPP, GPP

Open access resource

Photosynthesis

Point source/ nonpoint source pollutants

Prokaryotic/eukaryotic

Range of tolerance

Renewable/nonrenewable

Respiration

Sustainability

Sustainable Yield

Synergy

Time delays

Tipping points

Tragedy of the Commons (examples)

Trophic level

Concepts:

• Be able to solve problems using dimensional analysis (review on website)

• Be able to state and explain the 1st Law of Thermodynamics (Law of Conservation of energy).

• Be able to state and explain the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. Understand the implications of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics on the transfer of energy in a food chain (why food chains form energy pyramids and how this relates to biomagnification, energy implications of eating higher on the food chain etc.)

• Be able to explain the concept of Biological Oxygen Demand and the factors that control oxygen levels in water bodies, such as Ellis Pond.

• Understand the basic processes for the water cycle and these nutrient cycles: nitrogen, carbon, sulfur, and phosphorous. Know the ultimate sources for the nutrients (atmosphere, ocean, or rock), and how the nutrients are taken up into plants. Understand that bacteria in soil are important facilitators in nutrient cycles.

Evolution and Biodiversity: Chapters 4, 5 and 9

Terms to know:

Adaptation

Adaptive radiation

Artificial selection/selective breeding

Coevolution

Convergent evolution

Divergent evolution

Endemic species

Gene flow

Generalist vs. specialist species

Genetic drift

Habitat Fragmentation

Indicator species

Invasive (non-native, exotic, alien) species

Keystone species

Mutation

-Mutualism, Commensalism and Parasitism

Natural selection

Niche vs. habitat

Primary vs. secondary succession

Resource partitioning (evolutionary process)

Selective pressure

Speciation

Species diversity: species richness and evenness

Symbiotic relationships

Threatened vs. Endangered

Concepts:

• Be able to explain the requirement for natural selection: variability in the population due to mutations, heritability of trait, differential reproduction (differences in survival and or reproductive success due to favorable/unfavorable traits).

• Be able to explain the types of natural selection: directional, stabilizing and diversifying

• Be able to explain the advantages and disadvantages of generalist species and specialist species.

• Be able to explain the effects of various types of species on their habitats: keystone, indicator, invasive…

• Be able to explain speciation, extinction, and adaptive radiation

• Be able to explain the general trend after a disturbance from an immature ecosystem (early succession) to a mature ecosystem (late succession): (Figs. p. 116 and 117)

• Be able to give characteristics of extinction-prone species.

• Know the major threats to global biodiversity

• Know the provisions of the Endangered Species Act and CITES

Population Dynamics: Chapters 5.3 and 6

Terms to know:

Population size and density

Age structure

Age groups (pre-reproductive, reproductive, post-reproductive)

Biotic potential

Developed, Developing, and Underdeveloped nations

Intrinsic rate of growth (r)

Logistic Growth

Carrying capacity (K)

Environmental resistance,

Population cycles (irruptive, irregular, stable, cyclic)

Habitat fragmentation

Habitat corridors

Immigration/Emigration

Zero Population Growth

Replacement level fertility

Total fertility rate

Dispersion (random, uniform, clumped), Fig. 5-10

Concepts to know:

• Understand how scientists estimate the size of large populations and know how to solve a mark-and-recapture population estimate.

• Understand exponential growth and the relationship to intrinsic growth rate and biotic potential

• Know the shape of a logistic growth and be able to identify K. (Fig. p. 112)

• Know factors that affect the carrying capacity, including revolutions in human evolution

• What happens when species exceed their carrying capacity?

• Be able to explain what r-strategists vs. K-strategists are and identify examples of each. Know the advantages and disadvantages to each strategy and survivorship curves for each

• Know the most populous countries/continents and fastest growing countries/continents

• Know how to calculate growth rate problems- given that birth and death rates are typically given per 1000 and growth rates are as a percentage.

• Know factors that affect US fertility— (what makes us different from other developed countries?)

• Know factors that affect life expectancy and birth, fertility, infant mortality, and death rates

• Differences in birth rates between developed and developing countries

• Be able to interpret age structure diagrams: what they look like for different types of population growth (Figs. p. 131)

• Understand the demographic Transition Model (preindustrial, transitional, industrial, postindustrial stages): birth vs. death rates for each of the 4 stages and why (Fig. p. 134)

• Ways governments can control/affect/reduce population growth

• Know the formula for the rule of 70, and know how to use this formula to calculate the doubling time of a population.

Nutrient Cycles, Soils, and Food: Chapters 3.5 and 12

Terms to know:

Ammonification

Aquaculture

Aquifer

Biosphere

Clay, silt and sand

Combustion

conservation tillage

conventional tillage

DDT

Decomposition

Denitrification

desertification

Evaporation

Fixing or Fixation

Glyphosate (Roundup)

GMOs

Green Revolution

Herbicide

Humus

Hydrosphere

Infiltration

Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

Lithosphere

Loam

malnutrition

Monoculture

Nitrification

overnutrition

Percolation

Permeability

Pesticide

pH

plantation agriculture

Porosity

Runoff

Salinization

Soil Horizons

Smelting

strip cropping

terracing

Transpiration

Waterlogging

Concepts to Know:

• Be able to define the basic processes of the water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur cycles. Know why the nutrient is important; what forms it takes; what the major reservoirs are (sources and sinks), what the processes are that transform and move the nutrient in the cycle; how the nutrient gets into the food chain, the role of microbes (bacteria) in the N and S cycles, and how humans are influencing the cycle.

• Know what makes up a soil: major and minor sources. Know the different soil horizons

• Know the categories of inorganic soil components by particle size (sand, silt and clay). Know how the relative concentration of these different size particles affects the soil’s classification on a texture triangle, porosity, permeability, and water/nutrient –holding capacity. Understand the importance of each of these factors.

• Know the causes of soil erosion and degradation, and be able to describe the consequences of effects on the soil of each one: conventional tillage, overgrazing, deforestation, damage from wind and water, excessive irrigation (salinization and waterlogging)

• Know the advantages and disadvantages to using fertilizers to replenish soil.

• Be able to explain strategies to reduce soil erosion in agriculture, including conservation tillage farming (no till farming), terracing, contour farming, strip cropping, alley cropping techniques, wind breaks, organic fertilizer, crop rotation, and irrigation techniques that reduce water usage.

• Know the components to food security (i.e. access, availability, and utilization), and major threats to food security

• Know what the Green Revolution was and how it affected food production and soil use. Be able to describe some of the agriculture advances in the Green Revolution and know when this increase in agricultural output began.

• Know what industrialized agriculture is, including monocultures and plantation agriculture, vs. traditional agriculture. Know where these types of agriculture tend to take place.

• Know what GMO’s are and the advantages and disadvantages to using GMO’s, including the relationship to the herbicide glyphosate (Roundup).

• Know the advantages and disadvantages to using pesticides (both insecticides and herbicides).

• Be able to define Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Be able to describe pest reduction strategies.

• Know the advantages and disadvantages with industrialized meat production and aquaculture.

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