Ecology Practice Test – Flashcards

The branch of biology dealing with interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment is called

Which of the following descriptions about the organization of an ecosystem is correct?

The simplest grouping of more than one kind of organism in the biosphere is

The lowest level of environmental complexity that includes living and non-living factors is the

Which of the following is NOT a basic method used by ecologists to study the living world?

Which ecological inquiry method is a ecologist using when he or she enters an area periodically to count the population numbers of a certain species?

Plants are

The algae at the beginning of the food chain in Figure 3 -1 are

How do most primary producers make their own food?

Which of the following organisms does NOT require sunlight to live?

All the interconnected feeding relationships in an ecosystem make up a food

The total amount of living tissue within a given trophic level is called the

What animals eat both producers and consumers?

What is the term for each step in the transfer of energy and matter within a food web?

A bird stalks, kills, and then eats an insect. Based on its behavior, which pair of ecological terms describes the bird?

What goes in Box 5 of the food web in Figure in 3-2?

A word that means the same thing as consumer is

Matter can recycle through the biosphere because

The repeated movement of water between Earth's surface and the atmosphere is called

Carbon cycles through the biosphere in all of the following processes EXCEPT

Organisms need nutrients in order to

Animals that get energy by eating the carcasses of other animals that have been killed by predators or have died of natural causes are called

Which is an example of how biotic and abiotic factors interact?

What is at the base of all ecological pyramids?

Which of the following is a food chain in the food web shown in Figure 3-4?

How does an area's weather differ from the area's climate?

The tendency for warm air to rise and cool air to sink results in

Why is an organism's niche like a person's occupation?

Which of the following is a biological aspect of an organism's niche?

No two species can occupy the same niche in the same habitat at the same time

A wolf pack hunts, kills, and feeds on a moose. In this interaction, the wolves are

A symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit

A symbiotic relationship in which one organism is harmed and other benefits is

How is parasitism different from commensalism?

What is one difference between primary and secondary succession?

Which of the following occurs during the ecological succession of an ecosystem?

Which is a factor that could interrupt the progress of succession?

Figure 4-2 shows succession in an ecosystem. What organisms are found in the climax community for this ecosystem?

An example of a human-caused disturbance is

Which of the following tells you population density?

Which of the following describes a population as its size decreases?

If immigration and emigration numbers equal, which is the most important contributing factor to a slowed growth rate?

Which are two ways a population can decrease in size?

The graph in Figure 5-1 shows the growth of a bacterial population. Which of the following correctly describes the growth curve?

During some kinds of population growth, the size of each generation of offspring is larger than the generation before it. So, as the population gets larger, it grows more quickly. This situation is called

Which factor might NOT contribute to an exponential growth rate in a given population?

As resources in a population become less available, the population

Something that controls the growth or size of a population is a

Which will reduce competition within a species' population?

If a population grows larger than the carrying capacity of the environment, the

Water lilies do not grow in desert sand because water availability to these plants in a desert is

Using Figure 5-2, what is the most likely cause of the decrease in moose population immediately after 1995?

Each of the following is a density-dependent limiting factor EXCEPT

Which density-dependent factors other than the predator/prey relationship affected the populations of moose and wolves on Isle Royale?

Which of the following is a density-independent limiting factor?

After a natural disaster such as a hurricane or a drought, a population

It is difficult to observe examples of completely density-independent limiting factors because density-independent limiting factors

The anticipated human population by the year 2050 is about

In Rwanda, there are more young children than teenagers, and more teenagers than adults. This age structure indicates a population that

In countries like India, the human population is growing