Chapter Questions
What are three basic population growth curves? When might you see them in nature?
Define biotic potential and environmental resistance, and give factors of each. Which generally remains constant, and which controls a population's size?
Differentiate between the terms critical number and carrying capacity.
What is density dependence?
Explain the difference between $r$-and $K$-strategists. Where do these terms come from, and what are the characteristics of each broad category?
Describe the predator-prey relationship between the moose and wolves of Isle Royale. What other factors influence these two populations?
Distinguish between intraspecific and interspecific competition. How do they affect species as a form of environmental resistance?
What is meant by territoriality, and how does it limit the effects of competition in nature?
What problems arise when a species is introduced from a foreign ecosystem? Why do these problems occur?
What are selective pressures, and how do they relate to natural selection?
Describe several types of adaptations a species might have that would allow it to survive in a dry environment, escape predation, or lower competition with another species.
What factors determine whether a species will adapt to a change or whether the change will render it extinct?
How may evolution lead to the development of new species (speciation)?
What is plate tectonics, and how does this theory explain past movements of the continents? How have past tectonic movements affected the present-day distribution of plant and animal species on Earth's surface?