Exam #1 Content Flashcards
(93 cards)
1
Q
Define scaling. Provide an example.
A
How the properties of things change.
Ex) the features of organisms
2
Q
What is the equation for finding running velocity?
A
Running velocity =
stride length x stride frequency
3
Q
What is an allometric relationship/allometry?
A
The relationship between two morphological parameters in a living organism. As one changes, the other also changes.
- Shape changes as size changes
Ex) Baby sheep have small horns, and adult sheep have big horns
4
Q
What is the equation that represents an allometric relationship?
A
y=mx+b, where y is one parameter and x is another
5
Q
Describe the allometric relationship between the area, square length, volume (and mass), and cube length.
A
Area increases with the square length, while volume (and mass) increases with the cube of length.
6
Q
What are the two benefits of using log-transform on an allometric equation?
A
1) it turns power relationships from curves into straight lines that are easier for the human eye to interpret
2) It renders variance independent of means, which makes relationships amenable to parametric statistical analysis
7
Q
What would a log-transformed allometric equation look like? What does the slope indicate in this equation?
A
y= log m + b log x
Slope is equal to the scaling exponent of the allometric equation
8
Q
In what way is area proportional to length?
A
Area = Length^2
9
Q
In what way is volume proportional to length?
A
Volume = Length^3
10
Q
In what way is area and volume together proportional to length?
A
(Area/Volume) = Length^2/3
11
Q
In what way is length proportional to mass?
A
Length = Mass^1/3
12
Q
In what way is area proportional to mass?
A
Area = Mass^2/3
13
Q
In what way is volume proportional to mass?
A
Volume = Mass
14
Q
What does isometry mean?
A
No change in shape with change in size.
Length = Mass^1/3
Area = Mass^2/3
Volume = Mass
15
Q
What is positive allometry? Provide an example
A
When a structure becomes relatively, as well as absolutely, larger with increasing size
Ex) Baby sheep w/ small horns and adult sheep w/ big horns
16
Q
What is negative allometry? Provide an example
A
When a structure becomes relatively smaller with increasing size
Ex) Babies have big eyes and adults have small eyes
17
Q
X represents which type of variable in a least-squares linear regression
A
independent variable
18
Q
y represents which type of variable in a least-squares linear regression?
A
dependent variable
19
Q
What is least-squares linear regression? What does it mean to regress variable y on variable x?
A
When we regress variable y on variable x, we posit a causal relationship between x and y such that a change in x causes a corresponding change in y
20
Q
When you have the log-transform of both length and mass, which is the x and y?
A
The log(mass) is the x and the log(length) is y
21
Q
What is a synapomorphy?
A
A shared derived character used to help categorize species into a phylogenetic tree
22
Q
What is a phylogenetic tree?
A
A hypothesis about evolutionary relationships. Closer proximity on the tree means those species are more closely related.
23
Q
What are true wings?
A
Structures that generate lift needed for true powered flight
24
Q
What are true legs?
A
They are structures that have joints
25
What is homology? Provide an example
Homology is the sharing of traits by organisms due to common ancestry.
Ex) Bird and bat wings
26
What is analogy? Provide an example
Analogy is the sharing of traits due to independent, convergent evolution
Ex) insects and pterodactyl wings
27
What happens to the bones of larger animals as they grow? Why is this beneficial/what does it prevent? Provide an example
As animals increase in size, their bones become more robust, and their behavior changes to keep them from experiencing bone stresses that might cause catastrophic mechanical failure.
Ex) Elephants don't jump
28
Is an elephant or a mouse cheaper in terms of kg of food?
The elephant is cheaper than the mouse because it's less food per kilogram of elephant.
29
What integer represents the relationship between body weight and scat volume?
0.75
30
What is fitness?
The number of offspring contributed by an individual relative to the number of offspring produced by other members of the population
31
What is the cause of adaptation?
Natural selection
32
What is natural selection?
Differential reproduction and survival of individuals in a population due to environmental influences on the populations.
33
What is maladaptation?
Describes a trait or behavior that is harmful to an organism in its environment
34
What happens when environments vary over short time scales?
A variable environment leads to natural selection, which then favors genotypes that alter phenotypes in ways that increase fitness in changed conditions
35
What factors does temperature vary?
Geographically, seasonally, and diurnally. Temperature has an impact on life processes
36
What are the life processes impacted by temperature?
- Increased rates of chemical reactions --> Earth life is aqueous, so frozen cells are a problem
- Change in biomolecule structure --> function changes (ex. catalysts (enzymes), lipids)
37
What is a temperature conformer?
Their internal state changes with the external state
38
What is a temperature regulator?
They maintain the same state regardless of the external state
39
What is. performance curve?
illustrates how an organism's performance or fitness changes across a range of environmental conditions, like temperature, showing an optimal range and declining performance beyond critical limits
40
Where is the optimal temperature located on a performance curve?
The top of the curve
41
What is acclimation?
Short-term change to cope with a change in thermal environment. Due to changes in individual physiology, it is reversible by reversing the physiological changes
42
What are the 4 things in the Darwin-Wallace Model of evolution by natural selection? What is the outcome of these things?
1) Variation in traits
2) Variation from traits can be inherited
3) Individuals with better traits/fitness will produce more offspring
4) Overpopulation & struggle for existence
Outcome: the population changes over time, with favorable variations accumulating, leading to the evolution of adaptation
43
What equation can be used to determine lifetime reproduction?
P(survival to reproductive age) x number of offspring (viability)
44
What equation can be used to determine the number of offspring an individual has?
mate number (mating success)
x offspring per mating (fertility)
45
What is adaptation?
A feature that evolved because it confers (or once conferred) high probabilities of survival or reproduction in a particular population and environment
46
What's a study we talked about in class of how to test the hypothesis that some feature of an organism represents an adaption?
Irschick and Losos's study on lizards
Purpose: They wanted to identify traits with major effects on locomotor performance and determine the nature of those effects
Methods: They got Anoles (lizards) from 3 different regions (Jamaica, Bahamas, Puerto Rico) to test biomechanics of locomotion. Used convergent evolution
Conclusion: Depending on the region the Anoles were from, their morphology differed to increase fitness/performance in their environment
47
What is adaptive radiation? Provide an example
Rapid diversification of a clade into multiple species that differ in form, habitat, and lifestyle.
Ex) Darwin's finches
48
What is a clade?
A group of related organisms (taxon)
49
What does independent contrasts technique allow us to do? Two things...
It allows us to...
1) Take phylogeny into account when we ask questions about adaptation
2) Normalize data in ways to make them amendable to statistical analysis
50
How does the ratio between limb strength scale with body mass change?
Mass-specific strength--
the ratio of limb strength to the load of the body, which becomes smaller as animals become larger
51
How does metabolic rate scale with body mass?
Metabolic rate scales with body mass^3/4
52
How does mass-specific metabolic rate scale with body mass?
(body mass)^ -1/4
"Mass-specific metabolic rate scales with body mass with scaling exponent of b= -0.25
53
What is natural history?
The study of how organisms in a particular area are influenced by factors such climate, soils, predators, and competitors
54
What are biomes and how are they distinguished?
Biomes are major divisions of the terrestrial environment. They're distinguished primarily by predominant plants
55
What is a macroclimate?
Prevailing weather conditions over a long time period
56
What is a microclimate?
Small scale weather variation, over shorted time periods. It's influenced by landscape features (altitude, aspect, vegetation, ground cover, etc)
57
What does the interaction between a microclimate and local landscape produce?
Macroclimate interacts with the local landscape to produce microclimatic variation in temperature. Plants create microclimates as they shade the landscape
58
What is the Principle of Allocation?
Organisms have access to limited energy supplies. Energy allocated to one life function reduces the amount for other functions. As population adapts to one set of conditions its fitness in the other environments is reduced
59
What is the equation for heat gain & loss? What do the variables all mean?
Hs = Hm +/- Hcd +/- Hcv +/- Hr - He
Hs: Total heat stored in an organism
Hm: Metabolic rate
Hcd: Gained/lost via conduction
Hcv: Gained/lost via convection
Hr: Gained/lost via electromagnetic radiation
He: Lost via evaporation
60
How does the equation for heat gain & loss work for plants?
Hs = Hm +/- Hcd +/- Hcv +/- Hr - He
Hs = Hm +/- Hcd +/- Hcv +/- Hr - He
Hs: Total heat stored in an organism
Hm: Heat gain by metabolism
Hcd: Heat loss/gain through conduction (roots)
Hcv: Gained/lost via convection (petals)
Hr: Heat gain (sun) Heat loss by radiation (heat)
He: Lost via evaporation
61
What is an endrotherm?
They use metabolic rate and heat conservation, like insulation, counter-current heat exchange, to stay warm
62
What is an ectotherm?
More commonly referred to as a "cold-blooded animal", is an animal in which internal physiological sources of heat, such as blood, are of relatively small or of quite negligible importance in controlling body temperature.
63
What is optimal condition?
It's the condition under which the largest number of individuals can live
64
What's the zone of intolerance?
The part of the physical factor and number of individuals graph where the individuals die because the conditions are too bad
65
Review time: 2/7/25 packet
- Temperature performance curves - ectotherms
- That one equation with the Q10 and R1 and R2
- Endothermic response to temperature graph
xxx
66
How do human veins and arteries play a role in counter-current heat exchange?
Warm blood is pumped from the trunk to the rest of the body. As the blood flows further away from the heart, the blood begins to cool until it enters the veins and heads back towards the trunk. Then it begins to warm back up
67
What is torpor?
Allowing the body temperature to drop temporarily by reducing metabolic rate to save energy
68
What is hibernation?
Reducing metabolic rate for several months during the winter
69
What is estivation?
Reducing metabolic rate during the summer
70
Is absolutely or relatively more expensive to be big or small?
It is absolutely more expensive to be big but relatively more expensive to be small
71
Do endotherms or ectotherms need to eat more food?
endotherms have high activity, regulated performance, so they must eat all the time. While ectotherms have a much lower energy consumption rte, lower energy, so they need less food (less poop).
72
How have plants adapted to live in the desert?
(not including CAM plants)
- They orient their leaves so they're parallel to the sun to reduce Hr
- They have highly reflective leaves to reduce heat gain via Hr
- High convective heat loss to the wind, low conductive heat gain from the ground
73
What is laminar flow?
Wind blows in layers, slowing down as it gets closer to the surface of the leaf
74
What is turbulent flow?
When the wind to so close to the leaf, it causes wind drag
75
What does a higher R^2 value represent?
It means that the points on the scatter plot are a better fit to the line. The larger the R^2 value, the more accurate the line of best fit is in representing the data
76
What does the R^2 value tell you?
It's the coefficient of determination. It's the percent of the variation in y that can be explained by x
77
If an animal is isometric, what will the slope be if the (log)mass is on the y-axis and the (log)length is on the x-axis?
Slope = 3
78
If an animal is isometric, what will the slope be if the (log)length is on the y-axis and the (log)mass is on the x-axis?
Slope = 1/3
79
What way does water flow?
From a high concentration to a low concentration
80
What are some water-conservation adaptations in terrestrial organisms?
- Waterproof/water-resistant outer covering
- Concentrated urine/feces
- Strees-avoiding behaviors (nocurnality for desert animals)
- Drought deciduousness
- Leaves: thick, few stomates, C4 and CAM photosynthesis
- Dormacy during stressful periods
81
What are water challenges of terrestrial envrionments?
- We need to get enough of it from food, drink, metabolism
- We must not lose too much of it to evaporation and excretion
82
What are water challenges of aquatic environments?
- They need to not gain too much water while in hypoosmotic conditions (fresh water fish)
- They need to not lose too much water while in hyperosmotic conditions (salt water fish)
83
What kind of condition do fresh water fish live in? What must they do to overcome any water challenges?
They live in a hypoosmotic environment. They must not gain too much water because they are hyperosmotic where salt diffuses out of the fish at high rates and water diffuses in at high rates too
84
What kind of condition do salt water fish live in? What must they do to overcome any water challenges?
They live in a hyperosmotic environment. They must not lose too much water because they are hypoosmotic where salt diffuses into the fish at high rates and water diffuses out at high rates too
85
What does isomotic mean?
Same conditions inside and out compared to surrounding environment
86
What does hyperosmotic mean?
Push salt out, pull water in
87
What does hypoosmotic mean?
Push water our, pull salt in
88
What is water potential?
The potential energy of water in the system to pure water when the pressure and temperature are held constant
89
How do plants use water potential?
Plants use a high water potential in the soil to absorb most of the water, then they bring the water potential up the stem towards the leaves, where the water is evaporated
90
What is the equation to find water potential?
Water potential = pressure potential + solute potential
91
What is ultimate cause?
Ultimate causes explain why it evolved, focusing on its evolutionary history and adaptive significance
92
What is proximate cause?
Proximate causes explain how a trait or behavior occurs, focusing on immediate mechanisms like hormones or environmental stimuli
93
What's
C4 plants have higher PS
