BIO 311D FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 2026/2027 |
COMPLETE EXAM REVIEW
Migration - ANS ✔✔a regular long-distance change in location. Animals often use
environmental cues to guide this behavior.
Foraging - ANS ✔✔food-obtaining behavior; includes eating and the activities an animal uses to
look for, recognize, and capture food items.
Optimal Foraging Model - ANS ✔✔used to study the ultimate causation of foraging strategies;
applies a sort of cost(i.e. energy expenditure, risks)-benefit (the nutrition) analysis to the
development of foraging behaviors. According to this model, natural selection should favor a
foraging behavior that minimized the costs of foraging and maximizes the benefits.
Altruism - ANS ✔✔a behavior that reduces an animal's individual fitness but increases the
fitness of other animals in the population; a sort of evolutionarily adapted selflessness. An
example: When a Belding's ground squirrel detects a predator, it releases a high-pitch shrieking
sound that serves to warn other squirrels. While this alarm decreases the chances that other
squirrels will be caught by this predator, it also helps alert the predator of the location of the
squirrel that sounded the alarm.
Inclusive Fitness - ANS ✔✔The total effect an individual has on proliferating his genes by
producing its own offspring and by providing aid that enables close relatives to produce
offspring;Helps explain the evolutionary purpose of altruism. This works because close relatives
share genes. If one helps close relatives survive to reproduce, one increases the chance of one's
own genes being passed on.
Hamilton's Rule - ANS ✔✔Natural selection favors altruism when the benefit to the recipient
multiplied by the coefficient of relatedness exceeds the cost to the altruist; or when rB>C (r=avg
fraction of genes shared; B=average number of extra offspring that the recipient of an altruistic
act produces; C= how many fewer offspring an altruist produces)
, Kin Selection - ANS ✔✔natural selection that favors altruism by enhancing the reproductive
success of relatives
Biome - ANS ✔✔major life zones characterized by vegetation type (terrestrial) or by the physical
environment (aquatic); climate helps determine their nature/location.
Dispersal - ANS ✔✔...
Distribution - ANS ✔✔where a particular type of biome occurs (i.e. near the equator; near the
poles, etc)
Population - ANS ✔✔includes the individuals of one species in one place that presumably
interact, use the same resources, and are influenced by the same environmental conditions.
Density - ANS ✔✔the population in a given area. how many individuals of a species per unit of
area.
Dispersion - ANS ✔✔the pattern of spacing among individuals within the boundaries of the
population
Immigration - ANS ✔✔the influx of new individuals from other areas; a factor which influences
the density of populations
Emigration - ANS ✔✔the movement of individuals out of a population and into other locations;
a factor which influences the density of populations
Territoriality - ANS ✔✔the defense of a bounded physical space against encroachment by other
individuals; a type of antagonistic social interaction that can cause a population of animals to
exhibit uniform dispersion
COMPLETE EXAM REVIEW
Migration - ANS ✔✔a regular long-distance change in location. Animals often use
environmental cues to guide this behavior.
Foraging - ANS ✔✔food-obtaining behavior; includes eating and the activities an animal uses to
look for, recognize, and capture food items.
Optimal Foraging Model - ANS ✔✔used to study the ultimate causation of foraging strategies;
applies a sort of cost(i.e. energy expenditure, risks)-benefit (the nutrition) analysis to the
development of foraging behaviors. According to this model, natural selection should favor a
foraging behavior that minimized the costs of foraging and maximizes the benefits.
Altruism - ANS ✔✔a behavior that reduces an animal's individual fitness but increases the
fitness of other animals in the population; a sort of evolutionarily adapted selflessness. An
example: When a Belding's ground squirrel detects a predator, it releases a high-pitch shrieking
sound that serves to warn other squirrels. While this alarm decreases the chances that other
squirrels will be caught by this predator, it also helps alert the predator of the location of the
squirrel that sounded the alarm.
Inclusive Fitness - ANS ✔✔The total effect an individual has on proliferating his genes by
producing its own offspring and by providing aid that enables close relatives to produce
offspring;Helps explain the evolutionary purpose of altruism. This works because close relatives
share genes. If one helps close relatives survive to reproduce, one increases the chance of one's
own genes being passed on.
Hamilton's Rule - ANS ✔✔Natural selection favors altruism when the benefit to the recipient
multiplied by the coefficient of relatedness exceeds the cost to the altruist; or when rB>C (r=avg
fraction of genes shared; B=average number of extra offspring that the recipient of an altruistic
act produces; C= how many fewer offspring an altruist produces)
, Kin Selection - ANS ✔✔natural selection that favors altruism by enhancing the reproductive
success of relatives
Biome - ANS ✔✔major life zones characterized by vegetation type (terrestrial) or by the physical
environment (aquatic); climate helps determine their nature/location.
Dispersal - ANS ✔✔...
Distribution - ANS ✔✔where a particular type of biome occurs (i.e. near the equator; near the
poles, etc)
Population - ANS ✔✔includes the individuals of one species in one place that presumably
interact, use the same resources, and are influenced by the same environmental conditions.
Density - ANS ✔✔the population in a given area. how many individuals of a species per unit of
area.
Dispersion - ANS ✔✔the pattern of spacing among individuals within the boundaries of the
population
Immigration - ANS ✔✔the influx of new individuals from other areas; a factor which influences
the density of populations
Emigration - ANS ✔✔the movement of individuals out of a population and into other locations;
a factor which influences the density of populations
Territoriality - ANS ✔✔the defense of a bounded physical space against encroachment by other
individuals; a type of antagonistic social interaction that can cause a population of animals to
exhibit uniform dispersion
