Biology Final Exam

Front 1

Biomass

Back 1

total dry weight of living organisms in an ecosystem

Front 2

Primary Producers

Back 2

autotrophs on first trophic level; i.e. plants

Front 3

Primary Consumers

Back 3

herbivores on second trophic level; i.e. grasshoppers

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Secondary Consumers

Back 4

carnivores on third trophic level; i.e. owls

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Tertiary Consumers

Back 5

carnivores on fourth trophic level; i.e. hawk

Front 6

Quaternary Consumers

Back 6

carnivores on fifth trophic level; i.e. great white shark

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Herbivore

Back 7

organism that consumes only plants

Front 8

Omnivore

Back 8

organism that consumes both plants and animals

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Carnivore

Back 9

organism that consumes only animals

Front 10

Decomposer

Back 10

organism that breaks down and gets energy from dead organisms

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Heterotroph

Back 11

organism that consumes other organisms - a consumer

Front 12

Autotroph

Back 12

organism that captures energy from sunlight or chemicals to produce its own food - a producer

Front 13

Food chain vs. food web

Back 13

both show the relationships between organisms in an ecosystem that consume each other; a food chain goes in a straight line, and therefore is limited to just a few organisms; a food web can show very complex relationships because it branches like a spider web and can show many organisms

Front 14

Ecosystem

Back 14

all the organisms that live in a place together with their nonliving environment

Front 15

Abiotic

Back 15

nonliving chemical and physical factors of the environment

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Biotic

Back 16

living or once living organisms

Front 17

Biogeochemical cycle

Back 17

process in which elements, chemical compounds, and other forms of matter are passed from one organism to another and from one part of the biosphere to another

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Evolution

Back 18

change over time; the process by which modern organisms have descended from ancient organisms

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Natural selection

Back 19

process by which organisms that are most suited to their environment survive and reproduce most successfully; also called survival of the fittest

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Common ancestor

Back 20

an ancient organism that is an ancestor to multiple modern organisms

Front 21

Genetic variation

Back 21

changes in the DNA among individuals of a species

Front 22

Cellular respiration

Back 22

process that releases energy by breaking down glucose and other food molecules in the presence of oxygen

Front 23

Photosynthesis

Back 23

process used by plants and other autotrophs to capture light energy and use it to power chemical reactions that convert carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and carbohydrates

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Prokaryote

Back 24

one cell organism that lacks a nucleus

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Eukaryote

Back 25

organism whose cells contain a nucleus

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Nucleus

Back 26

structure that contains the cell's DNA

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DNA

Back 27

deoxyribonucleic acid; genetic material that organisms inherit from their parents and dictates how an organism is formed

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Mitochondria

Back 28

cell organelles that create energy for a cell through cellular respiration and exists in the cytoplasm

Front 29

Chloroplasts

Back 29

organelles in plant cells that give leaves their green color and allow plants to acquire energy from the sun

Front 30

Ribosomes

Back 30

organelles that exist in the cytoplasm and on which protein synthesis occurs

Front 31

Cell membrane

Back 31

organelle surrounding all types of cells that controls what enters and leaves the cell

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Cell wall

Back 32

organelle that surrounds all of a plant cell (including the membrane) and provides rigidity

Front 33

RNA

Back 33

ribonucleic acid; single-stranded nucleic acid that is a copy of DNA and is sent out of the nucleus to form proteins

Front 34

Nucleotide

Back 34

what nucleic acids are composed of; consists of a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group, and a nitrogenous base

Front 35

Base pairing rules

Back 35

in DNA: adenine+thymine, guanine+cytosine
in RNA: guanine+cytosine, adenine+uracil

Front 36

DNA replication

Back 36

DNA polymerase breaks the hydrogen bonds and allows the DNA to split into 2 strands. Nucleotides then attach in the right spots on each strand, forming complementary strands, and two whole double-helixes.

Front 37

Transcription

Back 37

The hydrogen bonds break and and the double-helix unzips. Nucleotides attach themselves to one strand of DNA, except uracil takes the place of thymine. When the strand is done, it detaches and leaves the nucleus.

Front 38

Translation

Back 38

The mRNA that was made in transcription leaves the nucleus and goes to the cytoplasm where a ribosome attaches to it. The mRNA's codons pass through the ribosome and are read by tRNA. the tRNA's anticodons are complementary to mRNA's codons and carry amino acids that attach together in the correct order to make a protein.