AP Biology Scoring Guide
Unit 8 Progress Check: FRQ
1. Read each question carefully. Write your response in the space provided for each part of each
question. Answers must be written out in paragraph form. Outlines, bulleted lists, or diagrams
alone are not acceptable and will not be scored.
Scientists analyzed data collected over a period of years in a game reserve in South Africa to
test the hypothesis that competition with lions limits the abundance of leopards in the same
community. The game reserve encompasses a variety of habitats, from open grassland to
wooded areas around rivers and streams. It contains most of the indigenous mammal species
and an adequate availability of their prey. For the most part, the leopards and lions show
similar habitat preferences in the reserve.
The mass of the average lion is about three times that of the average leopard. The scientists
analyzed several factors that might influence the abundance of each population, including the
sizes of the animals preyed on by each species (Table 1).
Table 1. The dietary composition of leopards and lions according to the sizes of
their prey animals
Size of Prey Animal Percent of Leopards’ Prey ( ) Percent of Lions’ Prey ( )
Small 34 2 3 1
Medium 63 3 23 2
Large 3 1 36 4
Very large 0 38 3
Because competition with lions might affect the population size of the leopards, the scientists
also analyzed data on the lion and leopard population sizes in the game reserve (Figure 1).
Figure 1. The total number of individuals in the leopard and lion populations over a six-year
period
Copyright © 2017. The College Board. These materials are part of a College Board program. Use or distribution of these materials online or
in print beyond your school’s participation in the program is prohibited. Page 1 of 9
AP Biology Scoring Guide
Unit 8 Progress Check: FRQ
(a) Describe what scientists mean when they refer to an ecological community such as that
shared by the leopards and lions.
Please respond on separate paper, following directions from your teacher.
(b) Using the template, construct an appropriately labeled graph to represent the data in Table
1. Based on the data, determine the most common size of the leopards’ prey animals and the
most common size of the lions’ prey animals.
Copyright © 2017. The College Board. These materials are part of a College Board program. Use or distribution of these materials online or
in print beyond your school’s participation in the program is prohibited. Page 2 of 9
AP Biology Scoring Guide
Unit 8 Progress Check: FRQ
Please respond on separate paper, following directions from your teacher.
(c) Based on the data in Figure 1, describe whether or how the size of the leopard population
appears to have been affected by the lion population over the period for which data were
analyzed. The scientists also estimated the consumed biomass of the prey animals of the
leopards and lions. They estimated that the lions annually ate a total of approximately 175,000
of prey animals. This included approximately 110,000 of very large animals. Calculate, to
the nearest whole number, the percent of the total biomass eaten by the lions that is composed
of very large animals.
Please respond on separate paper, following directions from your teacher.
(d) Based on the data in Table 1 and the biomass of the very large animals eaten by the lions,
predict the likely effect on both the lions and leopards if the availability of the very large animals
Copyright © 2017. The College Board. These materials are part of a College Board program. Use or distribution of these materials online or
in print beyond your school’s participation in the program is prohibited. Page 3 of 9
AP Biology Scoring Guide
Unit 8 Progress Check: FRQ
becomes limiting in the reserve. After analyzing the data, the scientists claim that the leopards
and lions coexist in the reserve through the use of niche partitioning. Use evidence from the
data provided to support the scientists’ claim.
Please respond on separate paper, following directions from your teacher.
Part A
Select a point value to view scoring criteria, solutions, and/or examples and to score the response.
0 1
The response indicates that an ecological community refers to all of the interacting populations in a
defined habitat. (Additional information: Of particular interest in describing the structure of a community is
the species diversity, all of the different species present, and the species composition, the total number of
organisms of each species.)
Part B (i)
Select a point value to view scoring criteria, solutions, and/or examples and to score the response.
0 1 2 3
The sketched bars meet all of the criteria below.
Correct axis labeling
Correct scale and unit
Correctly plotted bar graph
Copyright © 2017. The College Board. These materials are part of a College Board program. Use or distribution of these materials online or
in print beyond your school’s participation in the program is prohibited. Page 4 of 9
AP Biology Scoring Guide
Unit 8 Progress Check: FRQ
The y-axis should be labeled “Percent of Prey.” The x-axis should be labeled “Size of Animal Prey.”
Part B (ii)
Select a point value to view scoring criteria, solutions, and/or examples and to score the response.
0 1
The response indicates that medium-sized animals are the leopards’ most common prey. It also indicates
that based on error bars, large and very large animals are equally likely to be the lions’ most common
prey.
Part C (i)
Select a point value to view scoring criteria, solutions, and/or examples and to score the response.
0 1
The response indicates that there are fluctuations, but overall the leopard population size appears to have
been unaffected by the lion population size. (Additional information: At different time points, only one of
the two populations increased or decreased in size, and at other time points, they both increased or
decreased in size. Therefore the best conclusion is that the two population sizes changed independently
of each other.)
Part C (ii)
Select a point value to view scoring criteria, solutions, and/or examples and to score the response.
Copyright © 2017. The College Board. These materials are part of a College Board program. Use or distribution of these materials online or
in print beyond your school’s participation in the program is prohibited. Page 5 of 9
AP Biology Scoring Guide
Unit 8 Progress Check: FRQ
0 1
The response indicates that the percent of the total biomass that is composed of very large animals is
63%.
Part D (i)
Select a point value to view scoring criteria, solutions, and/or examples and to score the response.
0 1
The response indicates that 38% of the prey animals of the lions make up 63% of the consumed biomass,
so if the availability of the very large animals becomes limiting, the leopards and lions will start to compete
for prey (and this will be especially true of the medium-sized prey).
Part D (ii)
Select a point value to view scoring criteria, solutions, and/or examples and to score the response.
0 1
The response indicates that for the most part, the leopards and lions rely on prey animals of different size
and so do not compete for food. (The population data suggest that their population sizes have remained
fairly constant over time, also suggesting that they are not in direct competition.)
Copyright © 2017. The College Board. These materials are part of a College Board program. Use or distribution of these materials online or
in print beyond your school’s participation in the program is prohibited. Page 6 of 9
AP Biology Scoring Guide
Unit 8 Progress Check: FRQ
2. Read each question carefully. Write your response in the space provided for each part of each
question. Answers must be written out in paragraph form. Outlines, bulleted lists, or diagrams
alone are not acceptable and will not be scored.
Glucose is the preferred carbon source for Escherichia coli bacteria. Researchers isolated E.
coli-M, a strain of E. coli with a single mutation that inactivates a key enzyme in one of the
three glycolytic pathways E. coli bacteria use to break down glucose. In an initial experiment to
study the effect of the mutation on glucose utilization and production by the bacteria, the
researchers add E. coli-M bacteria to 400 of a growth medium that contains
glucose. To measure the rate of bacterial growth, they monitor the optical density of the culture
as a measure of the bacterial concentration over time.
(a) Describe why monitoring the growth rate of the E. coli-M bacteria is a useful indicator of the
effect of the glycolytic enzyme mutation on the bacteria.
Please respond on separate paper, following directions from your teacher.
(b) Identify the most appropriate control the researchers should use when determining whether
the mutation affects the growth rate of the E. coli-M bacteria.
Please respond on separate paper, following directions from your teacher.
(c) Predict the growth rate pattern of the E. coli-M bacteria when they are initially added to the
growth medium if the mutation does not interfere with glucose utilization.
Please respond on separate paper, following directions from your teacher.
(d) Provide reasoning to justify your prediction.
Please respond on separate paper, following directions from your teacher.
Copyright © 2017. The College Board. These materials are part of a College Board program. Use or distribution of these materials online or
in print beyond your school’s participation in the program is prohibited. Page 7 of 9
AP Biology Scoring Guide
Unit 8 Progress Check: FRQ
Part A
Select a point value to view scoring criteria, solutions, and/or examples and to score the response.
0 1
The response indicates that if the mutation interferes with glucose breakdown, less will be available
to the cells. The change in availability will reduce the growth rate and population size of the
bacteria.
Part B
Select a point value to view scoring criteria, solutions, and/or examples and to score the response.
0 1
The response indicates that the researchers should set up and monitor the growth rate of an identical
culture of wild-type E. coli that lack the mutation.
Part C
Select a point value to view scoring criteria, solutions, and/or examples and to score the response.
0 1
The response indicates that the E. coli-M bacteria will (initially) exhibit exponential growth.
Copyright © 2017. The College Board. These materials are part of a College Board program. Use or distribution of these materials online or
in print beyond your school’s participation in the program is prohibited. Page 8 of 9
AP Biology Scoring Guide
Unit 8 Progress Check: FRQ
Part D
Select a point value to view scoring criteria, solutions, and/or examples and to score the response.
0 1
The response indicates that the growth medium should initially contain a concentration of nutrients
including glucose that far exceeds the requirements of the relatively small inoculum of bacteria.
Copyright © 2017. The College Board. These materials are part of a College Board program. Use or distribution of these materials online or in print beyond
your school’s participation in the program is prohibited. Page 9 of 9
