exam 1 study guide material

Question 1

factors that contribute to high biodiversity in a region

Answer 1

• size (bigger size, more diversity)
• location (increasing diversity with decreasing latitude, can come with normal temperatures for these regions are more moderate and less seasonality)
• habitat diversity (more habitat diversity, more biodiversity)

Question 2

vegetation

Answer 2

physiognomy (appearance) and species composition at a location
“association/community”

Question 3

flora

Answer 3

all the different types of plants that occur in a location –> “species” is the basic unit of description

Question 4

how do factors that contribute to high biodiversity apply to plants in California

Answer 4

California has a high diversity for a temperate region. this can be due to the fact that California is very large (size!!) (long latitudinal direction with oregon and mexico borders) and also have many different climates (north California is very different from south California and therefore they can have very different vegetations)
- mountains divide climates and vary elevations
- we have forests, woodlands, shrublands, grasslands, deserts
- majority of California flora are flowering plants (dicots)

MAIN BASIC FACTORS
- size
- location –> increasing diversity with decreasing latitude
- habitat diversity

Question 5

Composition of California’s flora

Answer 5

majority of california’s flora are flowering plant, i.e., angiosperms and mostly dicotyledonous

around 5867 species –> 4646 dicots (80%)

Question 6

how a floristic province is defined relative to a state

Answer 6

A floristic province is a geographic area that has plant communities composed of plant species that are characteristic of and best developed in that area or region

Question 7

Floristic province in california

Answer 7

Three floristic provinces occur in california
1. california floristic province (CFP)
- Cismontane CA as delimited by the Cascades, Sierra Nevadas, Transverse Mountains and Peninsular Ranges. 48% of the species are endemic
2. Great Basic Floristic Province
3. Sonoran Floristic Province
- Includes all the hot dry deserts of california

Question 8

dendrochronology and its use to determine past climate

Answer 8

dendochronology is the science of technique of dating events, environmental change, and archaeological artifacts by using the characteristic patterns of annual growth rings in timber and tree trunks
- can see rainy periods when the ring is large and dry periods when the ring is thinner
- can even identify scars from forest fires
- can identify compression, competition, insect attacks

Question 9

biological species – different from ecotypes and subspecies

Answer 9

subspecies are applied to ecotypes (?) page 27 of naming plants 1

Question 10

why is the use of scientific names preferable to common names for plants

Answer 10

• “French public warned over edible chestnut confusion” –> Horse chestnuts seeds is used to make medicine but contains poison that can cause death if eaten raw

Question 11

taxonomic species

Answer 11

groups of morphologically and ecologically similar natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups

Question 12

ecological species

Answer 12

subunits of taxonomic species are ecotypes

-ecotypes represent the genetic response of population to habitat and are distinguished by morphological and/or physiological characteristics. infertile with other ecotypes even of the same species

• ecocline; gradation in the attributes of a species associated with an environmental gradient

definitions that may help me understand:
a set of organisms adapted to a particular set of resources, called a niche, in the environment / set of organisms that share environmental niches, with differences between groups being adaptive behaviors and forms in response to the availability of resources

Question 13

identify the parts of a scientific name

Answer 13

1. Genus name 2. specific epithet 3. author

examples

Quercus (genus) alba (specific epithet) Linnaeus (author)

Cirsium (genus) andersonii (epithet) (A. Gray) (parenthetical author) Petrak (combining author)

Pinus (genus) contorta (epithet) Louden (author) ssp. bolanderi (subspecies) (Parl.) Critchf.

Question 14

Authority

Answer 14

refers to the individual who named the species
- parenthetical author (in parentheses) is who published the epithet
- combining author (comes after the parentheses) is who transferred the epithet to the current genus

Question 15

name changes

Answer 15

reasons: name contrary to the rules and therefore illegitimate, additional research has changed definition and delimitation of a taxon

ways: two names united into one, divided into multiple, change in rank, changed in position

Question 16

evolutionary phylogenetic classification

Answer 16

phylogenetic classification can be evolutionary or cladistics
EVOLUTIONARY
-collect taxonomic evidence
- weight the evidence
- determine which features are primitive versus advanced
-construct the classification
-types: Takhtajan, Cronquist, Thorne, Dahlgren

problems; convergent evolution, lack of appropriate fossils, assumes a monophyletic origin of groups, intuitive (affects reproducibility)

Question 17

cladistics phylogenetic classification

Answer 17

taxa are grouped on the basis of the branching pattern of evolution. assumes that species arise by ancestral species splitting into two to produce a cladogram. characters are based on shared, derived characters.

-homologous characters; shared by common ancestry, only homologous characters can be used in constructing a cladogram

problems; determining which characters to use, parallel and convergent evolution, selecting relevant outgroup

Question 18

taxonomic evidence

Answer 18

in selecting/ using characters (variable features of plants), the following must be considered; inherited variation patterns v environmentally induced variation, usefulness of particular variables, convergences and parallelism, and determining and describing the extent of variation.

• all parts of a plant at all stages of development can provide useful taxonomic characters

Question 19

approaches to classification- factors

Answer 19

morphology, comparative anatomy, embryology, cytology, palynology, paleobotany, macromolecular and macromolecular

Question 20

artificial classification

Answer 20

based on one character (sometimes a few) chosen a priori

• disadvantages; not natural, does not group together similar or phylogenetically related species, no predictive power to the information
• advantages; very easy to place unknown species, does not change, the basis of most keys

Question 21

linnaeus classification

Answer 21

• type of artificial classification that is based on one character (or a few) chosen a priori
  sexual system– 24 groups based on the number of stamens with subgroups based on the numbers of stigmas

Question 22

natural or phenetic classification

Answer 22

basis; sum total of as many characters as possible chosen a posteriori

-disadvantages; identification can be difficult, the placing of poorly known species may be difficult, may change with advancement of knowledge
- advantages; high information content and predictive value, closely related to phylogenetic classification, recent advancement in understanding can be added

Question 23

numeric phenetics / dendrogram

Answer 23

• classified based on numerous characters in large data sets. can be morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical, etc
• determined in unbiased way
• total number of characters in common is the basis for the classification and groups are linked together according to the degree of similarity
• resulting classification is represented in a dendrogram

-disadvantages; convergent evolution is difficult to account for and not phylogenetic

Question 24

Give examples of characters used in the classification of plants and explain why they may be good or useful

Answer 24

need to answer this

Question 25

vascular plants

Answer 25

most important in terms of number of species and biomass. dominate most terrestrial environments and show progressive adaptation to a terrestrial habitat

Question 26

some major evolutionary trends -- vascular plant body

Answer 26

1. vascular plant body a. development of root and shoot b. morphological diversity c. primary growth supplemented by secondary growth d. treacheary elements become lignified e. vessels arose independently from trackeids several times f. stele g. leaves

Question 27

flora

Answer 27

all the different types of plants that occur in a location - "species" is the basic unit of description

Question 28

vegetation

Answer 28

physiognomy (appearance) and species composition at a location -"association/community" - vegetation types are often named for the dominant growth form - large number of vegetation types reflects climatic and habitat diversity

Question 29

native species

Answer 29

naturally occurring prior to colonization by Europeans

Question 30

alien introduced species

Answer 30

introduced such as tamarisk and mustard. numbers of alien species increasing with increasing anthropogenic (resulting from the influence of human beings on nature) disturbance

Question 31

naturalized species

Answer 31

alien species that have become established as part of the natural vegetation

Question 32

endemic species

Answer 32

confined to a specific geography. CA has a high proportion of endemic species (more than 30%) - reflects habitat diversity

Question 33

paleoendemics

Answer 33

relict (something that has survived from an earlier time period) species such as redwoods - used to be broadly distributed and then became restricted

Question 34

neoendemics

Answer 34

new endemics, evolved recently so no movement yet

Question 35

extirpated

Answer 35

extinct in one area

Question 36

Linnaeus

Answer 36

developed the binomial system of nomenclature and named hundred of species

Question 37

flower

Answer 37

the generalized flower is generally defined as a reduced branch system with the leaves modified into sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels. multiples of these parts are arranged in successive whorls of the slower

Question 38

1st whorl

Answer 38

sepals

Question 39

2nd whorl

Answer 39

petals

Question 40

3rd whorl

Answer 40

stamens

Question 41

4th whorl

Answer 41

carpels

Question 42

phylogenetic tree v cladogram

Answer 42

phylogenetic tree shows evolutionary and genetic distance while a cladogram displays related characteristics. a cladogram is a hypothesis about evolution, and a phylogenetic tree is a much more supported and tested hypothesis. neither one is considered a fact FOCUS E- degree of advancement and divergence from a common ancestor C- branching patterns of evolution APPROACH E-intuitive C- analytical SCIENTIFIC APPROACH E- does not generate hypotheses, classification influenced by personal research of material C- generates testable hypotheses about branches and tests by collecting data