Biology 2e is designed to cover the scope and sequence requirements of a typical two-semester biology course for science majors. The text provides comprehensive coverage of foundational research and core biology concepts through an evolutionary lens. Biology includes rich features that engage students in scientific inquiry, highlight careers in the biological sciences, and offer everyday applications. The book also includes various types of practice and homework questions that help students understand—and apply—key concepts. The 2nd edition has been revised to incorporate clearer, more current, and more dynamic explanations, while maintaining the same organization as the first edition. Art and illustrations have been substantially improved, and the textbook features additional assessments and related resources.

By the end of this section, you will be able to do the following:

Define biogeography
List and describe abiotic factors that affect the global distribution of plant and animal species
Compare the impact of abiotic forces on aquatic and terrestrial environments
Summarize the effects of abiotic factors on net primary productivity

This course will look at the various mechanisms of evolution, how these mechanisms work, and how change is measured. The course will begin by reviewing the evolutionary concepts of selection and speciation. The student will then learn to measure evolutionary change and look at the history of life according to the fossil record and a discussion of the broad range of life forms as they are currently classified. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: define evolution and describe different types of selection; provide examples of microevolutionary forces and describe how they impact the genetics of populations; describe the Hardy-Weinberg principle and solve problems related to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium; provide examples of games used in evolutionary game theory; connect biological phenomena to game theory; develop simple phylogenies from molecular or morphological data; identify important evolutionary events that have occurred throughout geologic time; characterize and provide examples of major plant and animal phyla. (Biology 312)