BIOL 2030 COMPREHENSIVE EXAM 2026 QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔Ecology - ✔✔Scientific study of organisms interactions with each other and with their
physical environment
✔✔Sub-disciplines of ecology - ✔✔- Population ecology
- Community ecology
- Ecosystem ecology
- Landscape ecology
✔✔Ecosystem - ✔✔Biotic community and its interaction with the abiotic (non-living)
environment
✔✔Community - ✔✔All populations of living organisms in an area and their interactions
with each other (aka biotic community)
✔✔Habitat - ✔✔Place where an organism lives; specific environment for that organism -
including biotic and abiotic components
✔✔Niche - ✔✔Role an organism plays in the community
✔✔Population size - ✔✔Number of individual organisms present at a given time
✔✔Population density - ✔✔Number of individuals per unit area
✔✔Population distribution - ✔✔The way individuals are arranged, spatially, in an area
✔✔Types of population distribution - ✔✔- Random distribution
- Uniform distribution
- Clumped distribution
✔✔Natality - ✔✔Births
✔✔Mortality - ✔✔Deaths
✔✔Immigration - ✔✔Individuals from outside population move in
✔✔Emigration - ✔✔Individuals from within population move out
✔✔Birth rates or death rates often per 1000 individuals over ___ - ✔✔a year (e.g., 20
births/1000 indiv/yr
✔✔Population growth rate = - ✔✔(b-d) + (i-e)
, ✔✔Exponential Population Growth - ✔✔- Growth by a fixed rate each year
- Only occurs when there are plenty of resources and conditions are ideal, no
competition, not predation, etc.
✔✔Limits to exponential growth - ✔✔- Competition
- Lack of some resource
- Diseases, parasites predators
- Non-ideal environmental conditions
- Limiting factor
- Carrying Capacity
✔✔Limiting factor - ✔✔Attributes of the environment that restrain population growth
✔✔Carrying Capacity - ✔✔Maximum population size an area can support for the long
term without damage to resources
✔✔Logistic growth - ✔✔- Population grows almost exponentially at first while it is small
- As population increases, competition increases and the environment can't support all
- Population levels off at carrying capacity
✔✔Population regulation - ✔✔- Density dependent population regulation
- Density-independent population regulation
✔✔Density dependent population regulation - ✔✔Factors that influence the population
differently depending on population density
- If population dense, they exert greater impact
- These are what cause the populations to level off at carrying capacity
- Tend to be biotic factors
✔✔Density-independent population regulation - ✔✔- Factors that have the same
influence on populations regardless of population density
- Tend to be abiotic factors
✔✔R-selected - ✔✔- Produce lots of offspring with poor survival
- Little parental care or investment
- Populations fluctuate a lot
- Populations often below carrying capacity
✔✔K-selected - ✔✔- Produce few offspring but invest lots of energy into them
- Usually have long gestation and parenting periods
- Populations tend to stabilize near carrying capacity
ANSWERS RATED A+
✔✔Ecology - ✔✔Scientific study of organisms interactions with each other and with their
physical environment
✔✔Sub-disciplines of ecology - ✔✔- Population ecology
- Community ecology
- Ecosystem ecology
- Landscape ecology
✔✔Ecosystem - ✔✔Biotic community and its interaction with the abiotic (non-living)
environment
✔✔Community - ✔✔All populations of living organisms in an area and their interactions
with each other (aka biotic community)
✔✔Habitat - ✔✔Place where an organism lives; specific environment for that organism -
including biotic and abiotic components
✔✔Niche - ✔✔Role an organism plays in the community
✔✔Population size - ✔✔Number of individual organisms present at a given time
✔✔Population density - ✔✔Number of individuals per unit area
✔✔Population distribution - ✔✔The way individuals are arranged, spatially, in an area
✔✔Types of population distribution - ✔✔- Random distribution
- Uniform distribution
- Clumped distribution
✔✔Natality - ✔✔Births
✔✔Mortality - ✔✔Deaths
✔✔Immigration - ✔✔Individuals from outside population move in
✔✔Emigration - ✔✔Individuals from within population move out
✔✔Birth rates or death rates often per 1000 individuals over ___ - ✔✔a year (e.g., 20
births/1000 indiv/yr
✔✔Population growth rate = - ✔✔(b-d) + (i-e)
, ✔✔Exponential Population Growth - ✔✔- Growth by a fixed rate each year
- Only occurs when there are plenty of resources and conditions are ideal, no
competition, not predation, etc.
✔✔Limits to exponential growth - ✔✔- Competition
- Lack of some resource
- Diseases, parasites predators
- Non-ideal environmental conditions
- Limiting factor
- Carrying Capacity
✔✔Limiting factor - ✔✔Attributes of the environment that restrain population growth
✔✔Carrying Capacity - ✔✔Maximum population size an area can support for the long
term without damage to resources
✔✔Logistic growth - ✔✔- Population grows almost exponentially at first while it is small
- As population increases, competition increases and the environment can't support all
- Population levels off at carrying capacity
✔✔Population regulation - ✔✔- Density dependent population regulation
- Density-independent population regulation
✔✔Density dependent population regulation - ✔✔Factors that influence the population
differently depending on population density
- If population dense, they exert greater impact
- These are what cause the populations to level off at carrying capacity
- Tend to be biotic factors
✔✔Density-independent population regulation - ✔✔- Factors that have the same
influence on populations regardless of population density
- Tend to be abiotic factors
✔✔R-selected - ✔✔- Produce lots of offspring with poor survival
- Little parental care or investment
- Populations fluctuate a lot
- Populations often below carrying capacity
✔✔K-selected - ✔✔- Produce few offspring but invest lots of energy into them
- Usually have long gestation and parenting periods
- Populations tend to stabilize near carrying capacity
