AP Biology Course Map

I. Molecules and Cells …………………………………………. 25%

Chemistry of Life ………………………………7% Water

Organic molecules in organisms Free energy changes EnzymesCells …………………………………………….10% Prokaryotic and Eudaryotic cells Membranes Subcellular organizations Cell cycle and its regulationCellular Energetics…………………………….8%

Coupled reactions Fermentation and cellular respiration Photosynthesis

II. Heredity and Evolution …………………………………….. 25%Heredity ………………………………………..8% Meiosis and gametogenesis Eukaryotic chromosomes Inheritance patternsMolecular Genetics ………………………… 9% RNA and DNA structure and function Gene regulation Mutation Viral structure and replication Nucleic acid technology and applicationsEvolutionary Biology ………………………… 8% Early evolution of life Evidence for evolution Mechanisms of evolution

III. Organisms and Populations……………………………… 50%

Diversity of Organisms ……………………… 8% Evolutionary patterns Survey of the diversity of life Phylogenetic classification Evolutionary relationshipsStructure and Function of Plants and Animals..32% Reproduction, growth, and development Structural, physiological, and behavioral adaptation. Response to the environmentEcology …………………………………………10% Population dynamics Communities and ecosystems Global issues

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CHAPTER 51

BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY

Section A: Introduction to Behavior and Behavioral Ecology

1. What is behavior?

2. Behavior has both proximate and ultimate causes

3. Behavior results from both genes and environmental factors

4. Innate behavior is developmentally fixed

5. Classical ethology presaged an evolutionary approach to behavioral biology

6. Behavioral ecology emphasizes evolutionary hypotheses

Behavior is what an animal does and how it does it.

• (1) What are some examples of behavior in animals that you have observed this summer?

1. What is Behavior?

• Proximate questions are mechanistic, concerned with the environmental stimuli that trigger a behavior, as well as the genetic and physiological mechanisms underlying a behavioral act- the “how”.

• Ultimate questions address the evolutionary

significance for a behavior and why natural selection favors this behavior.

2. Behavioral has both proximate and ultimate causes

For an example, many animals breed in the spring or early summer.

• (2) What is the probable proximate cause of this behavior? / What is the probable ultimate cause of this behavior?

• These two levels of causation are related.–For example, many animals breed during the

spring and summer because of the warmth of the seasons.

–The abundant food supply may increase the chances of offspring surviving.

Proximate and Ultimate Questions

• Proximate, or “how,” questions about behavior– Focus on the environmental stimuli that

trigger a behavior– Focus on the genetic, physiological, and

anatomical mechanisms underlying a behavioral act

• Ultimate, or “why,” questions about behavior– Address the evolutionary significance of a

behavior

• In biology, the nature-versus-nurture issue is not about whether genes or environment influence behavior, but that both are involved.

• Are some behaviors genetically “programmed”?

3. Behavior results from both genes and environmental factors

• These behaviors are due to genetic programming.

• The range of environmental differences among individuals does not appear to alter the behavior.

• Case studies have shown this.• Want to know more?-

Human genome findings for genes related to specific behaviors

4. Innate behavior is developmentally fixed

One way to find out if a behavior has a genetic basis would be to show that behavioral differences exist prior

to any learning opportunity.

For example• Most newly hatched birds do not shove nearby eggs

out of the nest. • But consider the African cuckoo. When a nest of

another bird species is left unattended, the female cuckoo quickly swoops down and lays an egg in the nest.

• Even before the newly hatched cuckoo chick opens its eyes, it shoves the other eggs out of the nest.

• Surprisingly, the unsuspecting host bird will go on feeding the baby cuckoo, even when the cuckoo has grown much larger than the host!

Why would this behavior be instinctual (gene-based)?

• Ethology is the study of how animals behave in their natural habitat.–Karl von Frisch, Konrad Lorenz, and

Niko Tinbergen are three individuals who were foremost in the initial stages of this field.

5. Classical ethology presaged an evolutionary approach to behavioral

biology

Fixed action pattern (FAP)• A sequence of behavioral acts that is

essentially unchangeable and usually carried to completion once initiated.

• The FAP is triggered by an external sensory stimulus known as a sign stimulus (stimuli are usually obvious).

• The FAP usually occurs in a series of actions the same way every time.

• Many animals tend to use a relatively small subset of the sensory information available to them and behave stereotypically.

Example• In male stickleback fish, the stimulus for

attack behavior– Is the red underside of an intruder

(a) A male three-spined stickleback fish shows its red underside.

• When presented with unrealistic models– As long as some red is present, the attack

behavior occurs

\

(b) The realistic model at the top, without a red underside, produces no aggressive response in a male three-spined stickleback fish. Theother models, with red undersides, produce strong responses.

• Proximate and ultimate causes for the FAP attack behavior in male stickleback fish

ULTIMATE CAUSE: By chasing away other male sticklebacks, a male decreasesthe chance that eggs laid in his nesting territory will be fertilized by another male.

BEHAVIOR: A male stickleback fish attacks other male sticklebacks that invade its nesting territory.

PROXIMATE CAUSE: The red belly of the intruding male acts as a sign stimulusthat releases aggression in a male stickleback.

Flyfishing for trout may be an example of presenting a sign stimulus to an animal in order to elicit a Fixed Action Pattern.

• The artificial flies used by anglers resemble the living insect in some important aspects -e.g. size, shape and color.

• But as every flyfisherman knows a particular pattern of fly that works on one occasion may not catch a trout the next time it is presented. The effectiveness of the stimulus is affected by:

• the trout's hunger - i.e. its motivation to feed • some artificial flies are more effective than others, particularly

at certain times of the year presumably because the trout has expectations based on which insects are hatching.

• This example shows the importance of internal motivational factors in controlling behavior.

Lorenz' Hydraulic Model of motivation

• Behavioral ecology is the research field that views behavior as an evolutionary adaptation to the natural ecological conditions of animals.

• We expect animals to behave in ways that maximize their fitness (this idea is valid only if genes influence behavior).

6. Behavioral ecology emphasizes evolutionary hypotheses

• Songbird repertoiresprovide us withexamples.

• Why has naturalselection favoreda multi-songbehavior?

Fig. 51.5

• It may be advantageous for males attracting females.

Fig. 51.6

CHAPTER 51.3

BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY

Section B: Learning

1. Learning is experienced-based modification of behavior

2. Imprinting is learning limited to a sensitive period

3. Bird song provides a model system for understanding the development of behavior

4. Many animals can learn to associate one stimulus with another

5. Practice and exercise may explain the ultimate bases of play

• Learning is the modificationof behavior resulting fromspecific experiences. – The alarm calls of vervet

monkeys provide an example of how animals improve their performance of behavior.

– Vervet monkeys have at least three distinct alarm calls for three different predators: leopards, eagles and snakes. The alarm signals lead to distinct behavioral responses.

– When Seyfarth and colleagues (1980) played tape recordings of alarm calls to a group of free-ranging (non-captive) vervets, the leopard-type alarm call made the monkeys run into trees. The eagle-type alarm call made them look up at the sky. The snake-type alarm call made them look down to the ground. Video: animal planet

1. Learning is experience-based modification of behavior

Learning versus maturation.• Maturation is the situation in which a

behavior may improve because of ongoing developmental changes in neuromuscular systems, for example, flight in birds.– As a bird continues to develop its muscles and

nervous system, it is able to fly.– It is not true learning.

• Habituation.–This involves a loss of responsiveness to

unimportant stimuli or stimuli that do not provide appropriate feedback.• For example, some animals stop responding

to warning signals if signals are not followed by a predator attack (the “cry-wolf” effect).

Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

• Imprinting is the recognition, response, and attachment of young to a particular adult or object.

• Konrad Lorenz experimented with geese that spent the first hours of their life with him and after time responded to him as their “parent.”–Lorenz isolated geese after hatching and

found that they could no longer imprint on anything.

2. Imprinting is learning limited to a sensitive period

• What is innatein these birds is theability to respondto a parent figure;while the outsideworld providesthe imprintingstimulus.

• The sensitive period is a limited phase in an individual animal’s development when learning particular behaviors can take place

Fig. 51.9

• Some songbirds have a sensitive period for developing their songs.– Individuals reared in silence performed abnormal

songs, but if recordings of the proper songs were played early in the life of the bird, normal songs developed.

3. Bird song provides a model system for understanding the development of behavior

Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin CummingsFig. 51.10a

• Canaries exhibit open-ended learning where they add new syllables to their song as the get older.

• What large mammal does this?

Fig. 51.10b

Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

• Associative learning is the ability of many animals to learn to associate one stimulus with another.– Classical conditioning is a type of associative

learning.

4. Many animals can learn to associate one stimulus with another

–Pavlov’s dog is a good example.• Ivan Pavlov exposed dogs to a bell ringing and at

the same time sprayed their mouths with powdered meat, causing them to salivate.

• Soon, the dogs would salivate after hearing the bell but not getting any powdered meat.

• Pavlov’s dog game

• Operant conditioning.–This is called trial-and-error learning - an

animal learns to associate one of its own behaviors with a reward or a punishment.

Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

Fig. 51.11

• Play as a behavior has no apparent external goal, but may facilitate social development or practice of certain behaviors and provide exercise.

5. Practice and exercise may explain the ultimate bases of play

Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin CummingsFig. 51.12

CHAPTER 51

BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGYSection C: Animal Cognition

1. The study of cognition connects nervous system functioning with behavior

2. Animals use various cognitive mechanisms during movement through space

3. The study of consciousness poses a unique challenge for scientists

• Animal cognition is an animal’s ability to be aware of and make judgments about its environment.

Introduction

• Cognition is the ability of ananimal’s nervous system toperceive, store, process, and use information gathered by sensory receptors.

• National Geographic Clip

1. The study of cognition connects nervous system function with behavior

Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

Fig. 51.13

• Kinesis and taxis.• These are the simplest mechanisms of

movement.• Kinesis is a change in activity rate in response to a

stimulus.

• Taxis is an automatic, oriented movement to or away from a stimulus.– For example, phototaxis, chemotaxis, and geotaxis.

2. Animals use various cognitive mechanisms during movement through space

• Many stream fish exhibit positive rheotaxis– Where they automatically swim in an

upstream direction

Figure 51.7b

Direction

of river

current

(b) Positive rheotaxis keeps trout facing into the current, the direction from which most food comes.

Kinesis or taxis?

Figure 51.7a

Dry open area

Moist site under leaf

Kinesis or taxis?

Kinesis or taxis?

• Use of landmarks within a familiar area.–Some organisms move in response to a

recognized object or environmental cue, the object is the landmark.

• Cognitive maps.–Some animals form cognitive maps

(internal codes of spatial relationships of objects in the environment).

• Further study

CONCLUSION

A female digger wasp excavates and cares for four or five separate underground nests, flying to each nest daily with food for the single larva in the nest. To test his hypothesis that the wasp uses visual landmarks to locate the nests, Niko Tinbergen marked one nest with a ring of pinecones.

EXPERIMENT

Nest

When the wasp returned, she flew to the center of the pinecone circle instead of to the nearby nest. Repeating the experiment with many wasps, Tinbergen obtained the same results.

RESULTS

The experiment supported the hypothesis that digger wasps use landmarks to keep track of their nests.

NestNo Nest

• Migration Behavior.–Migration is the

regular movementof animals overrelatively longdistances.

–Which animal migrates the furthest?

–Piloting: an animalmoves from onefamiliar landmarkto another until itreaches its destination.

Fig. 51.15

• Orientation: animals can detect directions and travel in particular paths until reaching destination.– Navigation is the most complex, and involves

determining one’s present location relative to other locations in addition to detecting compass directions.

– Cues for thesebehaviors includethe earth’s magnetic field, the sun, and the stars.

Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin CummingsFig. 51.15

Leatherback sea turtle migration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssIY1HDkH0o

• Besides humans, are animals aware of themselves?

• Some wouldargue thatcertain behaviorsare a result ofconsciousprocessing.

• In an experiment, an Asian elephant named Happy repeatedly touched her trunk to a white X painted on her forehead while looking in a mirror. This suggests that the animal recognized herself in the reflection, scientists say, making the elephant one of the few animals known to be capable of self-recognition.

3. The study of consciousness poses a unique challenge for scientists

CHAPTER 51

BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY

Section D: Social Behavior and Sociobiology

1. Sociobiology places social behavior in an evolutionary context

2. Competitive social behaviors often represent contests for resources

3. Natural selection favors mating behavior that maximizes the quantity or quality of mating partners

• Social behavior is any kind of interaction between two or more animals, usually of the same species.

1. Sociobiology places social behavior in an evolutionary context

By the way, what is the most social of all species on planet

Earth?

High School Students

• Sometimescooperation occurs.

2. Competitive social behaviors often represent contests for resources

Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

Fig. 51.18

• Agonistic behavior is a contest involving threats.– Submissive behavior.– Ritual: the use of symbolic activity.– Generally, no harm is done.– (wolf video clip)

Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

Fig. 51.19

• Reconciliation behavior often happens between conflicting individuals.

Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

Fig. 51.20

• Dominance hierarchies involve a ranking of individuals in a group (a “pecking order”).–Alpha, beta rankings exist.

• The alpha organisms control the behavior of others.

• Pecking order video-

Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

• Territoriality is behavior where an individual defends a particular area, called the territory.–Territories are typically used for feeding,

mating, and rearing young and are fixed in location.

Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

Fig. 51.21

–Drawbacks are that territoriality uses a great deal of an individual’s energy.• In addition, an individual might be defending a

territory and die or miss a reproductive opportunity.

–Spraying behavior is where an individual marks its territory.

Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin CummingsFig. 51.22

• Courtship behavior consists of patterns that lead to mating and consists of a series of displays and movements by the male or female.

• (Planet Earth Clip)• David Attenborough: bowerbird

3. Natural selection favors mating behavior that maximizes the quantity

or quality of mating partners

Parental investment refers to the time and resources expended for raising of offspring.

• It is generally lower in males because they are capable of producing more gametes (which are also smaller), therefore making each one less valuable.

• Females usually invest more time into parenting because they make fewer, larger gametes, a process which is energetically more expensive, thus making each gamete more valuable.

• In terms of mate choice, females are usually more discriminating in terms of the males with whom they choose to mate.– Females look for more fit males (i.e., better genes), the ultimate cause of

the choice.

• Mating systems differ among species.– Promiscuous: no strong bond pairs

between males and females.– Monogamous: one male mating with one

female.– Polygamous: an individual of one sex

mating with several of the other sex.• Polygyny is a specific example of polygamy,

where a single male mates with many females.• Polyandry occurs in some species where one

female mates with several males.

Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings

No other speciescomes close to matching the social learning and cultural

transmission that occurs among humans.

Sociobiology connects evolutionary theory to human culture•   E.O. Wilson's most notable field of research, however, was in

sociobiology.  In his 1975 book entitled Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Wilson observed behavior in insects which suggested that one individual insect is inclined to help its colony, even at possible cost to itself; that is to say the welfare of the entire colony was far more important than that of the individual.  This research represented great strides in the field of biology as no one had ever been able to substantiate that acts of altruism, kindness and labor specialization were fundamental among various species.

Examples: • A great deal of controversy arose when, near the end of

Sociobiology, Wilson hypothesized that his research with insects could be linked to animal and human behavior.  He proposed that certain specific behaviors are, in fact, genetically determined.  This prompted a huge revolt, people did not want to believe that their actions were controlled by anything but destiny or free will; genetics could not enter the picture.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sociobiology/

Extra credit-

• 1 page summary of this NOVA production on E.O. Wilson

• http://www.tv.com/video/10400901/nova--lord-of-the-ants