Biology 103

1. A man's body is found floating in the ocean. The police investigator concludes that the man drowned at sea. During the autopsy, the pathologist discovered that the cells in the man's lungs were swollen and enlarged. Some of them looked as if they had exploded.   Knowing that lung cells have the same cell membranes as red blood cells and that when an individual is drowning, he/she inhales water into the lungs, does the evidence described above support a finding that the man drowned at sea? Explain your answer fully, and tell me how you came to your conclusions.

2. Red-green color blindness is a sex-linked, recessive trait. Two parents, M & W, have two daughters, D1 and D2. D1, who has normal vision, marries and has a son who is colorblind. What are the potential genotype pairs for D1’s mother and father? What is the probability of D1 having another color blind son? Could D1 have a color blind daughter? Under what circumstances?

3. You are carrying out an experiment where you have set one plant in a jar filled with pure oxygen and an identical plant in a jar filled with pure carbon dioxide and placed them both in the sun and provided them with a continuing source of a sufficient amount of water. Which (if either) plant would survive? Explain your answer in detail. The plant placed in the pure CO2 would survive. Plants grow faster at a higher temperature if they have adequate levels of CO2, water, sunlight and plant nutrients. Plants transpire water vapor to keep them at an even temperature. In other words, higher levels of CO2 increase the efficiency of water use by plants, which increase plant growth.

4. One of the meanings of the term “mimicry” is “to intentionally imitate.” For example, a person may choose to intentionally change his or her hairstyle in order look more like a movie star whose appearance he or she wishes to emulate. Does the meaning “to intentionally imitate” apply to the mimicry relationship between the venomous coral snake, and the non-venomous king snake, whose color patterns closely resemble that of the coral snake? Why or why not? Explain fully.

5. You have ordered the following meal: a steak smothered in sautéed mushrooms and onions with an ear of corn, baked potato and a salad. Draw a food web containing the organisms from which these foods were obtained. Identify each member of the food web you are consuming. What roles do each member including yourself perform in the food web? Be specific – simply answering “consumer” is not enough. Explain your answer.

potatoes

corn

cow

lettuce

onions

Mush-rooms

Me

6. The projected population growth for Country A from the year 2000 to the year 2100, based on a 3.5% growth rate, will cause the population to rise from 30 million to 960 million. Assume Country A is approximately the size of Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma taken together and has a similar climate. Considering the calculations of projected population for Country A and what you have learned in this class, would you recommend that the government concentrate on farming or cattle ranching in order to feed this growing population? You must choose only one option. Explain your decision in detail.