Ch 6 – 8 Key Concepts

Ch 6:
1. Know all the key vocabulary: Include on QSG: keystone species, ecological community
2. Include a labeled diagram of a food web on your QSG and on one side label the trophic
levels( 1 – 4): 1 - autotrophs (producers), 2 - Herbivores (primary consumers),
3 - 4 Carnivores (secondary consumers) Pg 110 can be your guide, but I want yours to
be terrestrial, not aquatic ( don’t forget to show decomposers in your web, at the
bottom) (see pg. 108)
3. Know key case study examples of keystone species and include 3 in your QSG (wolves,
bison should be two of those 3)
4. Know the two basic processes that must happen in any ecosystem, even the simplest.

Ch 7:
1. QSG: Key factors that increase diversity, Key factors that decrease diversity (a fold out
would be good for these!) see pg 133
2. QSG: Key Reasons to preserve biodiversity (see notes and Web of Life video)
3. Brush up on your justifications for preserving the env. (see pg 135)
4. Know the different types of biological diversity and be able to look at a diagram like
Pg 123 and analyze it (Include: genetic diversity, habitat diversity and species diversity in
your QSG.
5. Know the malaria story that exemplifies natural selection (pg 120) and the peppered moth
(notes)
6. Look over the opening case study in Ch 7 and the critical thinking essay in Ch 6 (pg 113).
7. Review your basic biology and terms (biological evolution, mutation, natural selection,
geographic isolation, divergent evolution, adaptive radiation (Ch 8))
8. Review your basic ecology terms: (niche, fundamental vs realized niche, habitat,
competitive exclusion, symbiosis, obligate symbionts) Be able to provide or analyze
examples of these interactions.
9. # of species known as of now and possible # of species on planet (give a range) : QSG
The following are not in your text: Include them in your QSG:
10. QSG: Compare R selection vs K selection (google it, it’s not in your text: wikepedia works
fine!) Provide a few examples of species of each and the type of environment where each
type of selection predominates) A fold out would be good here.
11. QSG: Compare specialists vs generalists (google it, it’s not in your text: wikepedia works
fine!) Provide a few examples of species. A fold out would be good here.

Ch 8:
1. Know your key biomes (we did an assignment on this): particularly relative temperatures
and/or season changes, relative rainfall amt., dominant types of vegetation
2. QSG: Diagram on pg 144 is helpful, if you know how to read it and what is says
2. QSG: Island biogeography, biological islands Include 4 bullets on pg 147 and diagram pg
148: bottom, be able to interpret it
3. Know Darwins finches as a classic example of adaptive radiation/divergence