FAQ Unit 1


Lecture Questions	Laboratory Questions

Lecture Questions
	What is biomass? Is it the actual matter/weight at each trophic level?
	How does natural selection explain adaptations? For example, if the environment changed to favor pink beetles rather than brown beetles, where would pink beetles come from?
	Please explain what a tertiary and secondary consumer is. I am having trouble understanding this part of the progression of the food web.
	On page 1- 9 in the Study Guide there are references to strict primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary consumers. Does the word 'strict' mean that the consumer is only a consumer at that level?
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Laboratory Questions
	How is a hypothesis usually worded? Is it a question? A statement? or a prediction (if...then) statement?
	I found it very difficult to count the breaths of the goldfish. Besides him swimming around the bowl, he was also opening his mouth at a very rapid pace. Is this normal?
	I don't understand the "nearest smooth line" concept. How is this different from connecting the dots on a line graph?
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What is biomass? Is it the actual matter/weight at each trophic level? Biomass is the organic material (usually determined by dry weight in grams or kilograms) of an organism or a group of organisms. That is, one could talk about the biomass of an individual organism, the biomass of producers in a given ecosystem, or the biomass of all the organisms in an ecosystem. Top
How does natural selection explain adaptations? For example, if the environment changed to favor pink beetles rather than brown beetles, where would pink beetles come from? Adaptations result from natural selection. In a population of organisms, individuals in the population are diverse in most if not all traits - one of Darwin's observations. Thus, in your proposition, the beetle population would include beetles that ranged in color from, say light tan to purple. The pinkish tan would be more likely to escape predation possibly than the other color morphs. Each generation more and more of the members of the population would be pinkish (the color that has adaptive value in your example). You might wonder why the population doesn't become only pink - the perfect color. Two things are at work 1)the environment also is changing over time. Thus, 1,000 years later, natural selection may no longer favor the pink morph. Nature is constantly "editing". 2) Diversity continues to be reintroduced in the population each generation through genetic recombination in sexual reproduction and mutation. On the other hand, if the color range was from light tan to black and none resembled the new “pink” environment then this species of beetle may become extinct or very rare due to excessive predation of this species. Top
Please explain what a tertiary and secondary consumer is. I am having trouble understanding this part of the progression of the food web. A secondary consumer is an animal that eats a primary consumer. For example, if a grasshopper munches on grass, the grasshopper is a primary consumer. If a bird eats the grasshopper, the bird would be a secondary consumer. A tertiary consumer (3rd level consumer) eats a secondary consumer. So, in the example above, if a snake eats the bird, the snake would be a tertiary consumer. Top
On page 1- 9 in the Study Guide there are references to strict primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary consumers. Does the word 'strict' mean that the consumer is only a consumer at that level? Yes, strict does mean that the consumer feeds ONLY on one trophic level. You can readily determine from the chaparral food web diagram in your study guide if an organism is a "strict" secondary consumer (for example) - the organism's box will only be at the SC level. Thus, the gopher snake is a strict secondary consumer but the king snake is not. The king snake acts as both a secondary and tertiary consumer. Note that its box spans both the SC and TC levels. Top
. How is a hypothesis usually worded? Is it a question? A statement? or a prediction (if...then) statement? A hypothesis is not a question. Since it is a prediction, it is a positive statement. Often it is expressed in an if/then manner. For example, if one ingests an excess number of calories then one will gain weight Top
I found it very difficult to count the breaths of the goldfish. Besides him swimming around the bowl, he was also opening his mouth at a very rapid pace. Is this normal? Yes, it is difficult to count the breaths! Do your best. Remember, you are making 3 counts at each temperature so you can get an average value. Top
I don't understand the "nearest smooth line" concept. How is this different from connecting the dots on a line graph? You are attempting to find the trend of what happens to breathing rate as temperature increases. Thus, the line that you draw is often called a TREND line. If you've had a bit of math in college, you may have called the line a regression line. If you draw the nearest line to all the points, some points will be below the line and some will be above the line. You can then extend this line past the point where you would like to make a prediction (in this case, 25 degrees). Then you can read the breathing rate at 25 degrees from the graph. Excel allows you to make a trend line and has a good discussion of trend lines. From the Excel toolbar, click on "Help". Then type in "How do I make a trend line". Select "Project future values and perform regression analysis" from the list of choices. There is good information on how to use a graph to make a projection plus help topics on doing this using Excel. You may not want to use Excel to do this if you don't feel comfortable with that program, but even if you don't, you may find the information helpful in understanding the idea. Also, remember, we tell you that this is a LINEAR function. If you are doing this by hand using graph paper, put the ruler in the position that is nearest all points. Then draw the line along the ruler. Some point(s) will be above the line and some point(s) will be below the line. This is called a trend line - this allows you to continue the line past 25 degrees so that you can make a prediction. Top

FAQs

Unit 1