question

Which of the following is an example of a population?

answer

all of the students in your classroom

question

Assume that there are five alligators per acre in a swamp in northern Florida. This is a measure of the alligator population's

answer

density

question

The pattern of distribution for a certain species of kelp is clumped. We would expect that the pattern of distribution of snails that live on the kelp would be

answer

clumped

question

The density of Douglas firs in an old-growth forest is estimated by counting the Douglas firs in four sample plots of 1 hectare each. The number of fir trees in the plots is 10, 12, 7, and 11, respectively. What is the estimated density of the firs in the forest?

answer

10 trees per hectar

question

A survivorship curve is a

answer

graph that plots an individual's likelihood of being alive as a fucntion of age.

question

A Type I survivorship curve is associated with which of the following life history traits?

answer

parents providing extended care for their young.

question

A survivorship curve that involves producing very few offspring, each of which has a high probability of surviving, is typical of

answer

elephants

question

The maximum number of individuals a habitat can support is called its

answer

carrying capacity

question

Consider a stable frog population living at carrying capacity in a pond. If an average female produces 6,000 eggs during her lifetime and an average of 300 tadpoles hatch from these eggs, how many of these tadpoles will, on average, survive to reproduce.

answer

2

question

A population of fungi in a yard produces 10 mushrooms in year 1, 20 in year 2, and 40 in year 3. If this trend continues, by year 5 there will be _______ mushrooms?

answer

160

question

A newly mated queen ant establishes an ant nest in an unoccupied patch of suitable habitat. The population of the nest grows quickly at first, then levels off at carrying capacity. Which of the following types of equation will best describe its population growth?

answer

logistic

question

A test tube is inoculated with 1x10^3 cells of a bacterial strain that has a generation time of 30 minutes. The carrying capacity of the test tube for this strain is 6x10^9 cells. What will the bacterial population be after 90 minutes of culturing?

answer

8x10^3

question

If a population has a birth rate of 40 individuals per 1,000 per year and a death rate of 30 individuals per 1,000 per year, how will the population change each year? (Assume that the population is below carrying capacity and that there is no immigration or emigration).

answer

It will increase by 1%

question

A human population will achieve zero population growth if

answer

couples have an average of about 2.25 children each (to account for some children who do not survive to reproduce)

question

The death by bubonic plague of about one-third of Europe's population during the fourteenth century is a good example of

answer

a density-dependent effect

question

A tidal wave wipes out the entire population of mice living on an island. This is an example of

answer

the effects of abiotic factors

question

In the logistic growth model, as population size increases, birth rates

answer

decline and/or death rates increase

question

Which of the following is most clearly a case of density-dependent population regulation?

answer

a dangerous new flu strain that is transmitted among humans by sneezing

question

In terms of population dynamic, what is "boom-and-bust" cycling?

answer

a situation in which a population moves back and forth between rapid growth and decline

question

An ecologist hypothesizes that predation by a particular owl species is the major factor controlling the population of a particular rabbit species. If this is the case, which of the following population effects could be expected in this rabbit-owl pair?

answer

An increase in the owl population should cause a fall in the rabbit population

question

An r-selected species typically

answer

has an advantage in habitats the experience unpredictable distubances

question

Which of the following organisms best illustrates K-selection?

answer

a polar bear producing one or two cubs every three years

question

Guppies from Trinidad form two distinct populations that differ in several life history traits that appear to relate to the local predator populations, pike-cichlids or killifish. Which of the following experiments would test the heritability of these traits?

answer

Raise both populations without predators to see if they maintain their life history traits

question

A demographic tool used to predict a population's future growth is

answer

age structures

question

Which of the following statements about human demographic trends is true?

answer

A human population in which women reproduce at a later age will experience slower population growth.

question

The human population on Earth is expected to reach 9.5 million people by

answer

2050

question

An ecological footprint

answer

is a means of understanding resource availability and usage

question

A community is composed of

answer

potentially interacting populations of different kinds of organisms

question

An owl and a hawk both eat mice. Which of these describes the relationship between a hawk and an owl?

answer

competition

question

When two different populations in a community benefit from their relationship with each other, the result is called

answer

mutualism

question

When a crocodile eats a fish, the interspecific interaction between the two could be expressed as _______for the crocodile and _____for the fish.

answer

+,

question

The sum total of a population's use of the biotic and abiotic resources of its habitat constitutes its

answer

niche

question

In an ecosystem, you would expect to find interspecific competition between

answer

populations of two species that occupy the same niche

question

If an overlap develops between the ranges of two closely related species, and if the species occupy the same niche in the zone of overlap, what will probably happen in the zone of overlap?

answer

One of the species will take over most or all of the zone of overlap

question

Dinoflagellates are important to coral and coral-dwelling animals because they

answer

produce energy that is used by coral animals through photosynthesis

question

Camouflage typically evolves as a result of

answer

predation

question

Some herbivore-plant interactions evolved through a series of reciprocal evolutionary adaptations in both species. The process is called

answer

coevolution

question

On Earth, most organic molecules are produced by

answer

photosynthesis

question

In a food chain consisting of phytoplankton----zooplankton---fish----fisherman, the fisherman are

answer

tertiary consumers

question

Organisms that digest molecules in organic material and convert them into inorganic forms are

answer

decomposers

question

In a certain ecosystem, field mice are preyed on by snakes and hawks. The entry of wild dogs into the system adds another predator of the mice. Of the following, the most likely short-term result of this addition is

answer

a reduction in numbers of mice

question

Which of the following statements regarding food webs is true?

answer

Several species of primary consumers may feed on the same species of producer

question

The number of species in a community is called the

answer

species richness

question

We expect that a keystone species that is a predator will

answer

maintain the species diversity in a community

question

During ecological succession, the species composition of a plant community generally

answer

changes gradually because each species responds differently to the changing environment

question

When a New England farm is abandoned, its formerly plowed fields first become weedy meadows, then shrubby areas, and finally forest.This sequence of plant communities is an example of

answer

secondary succession

question

Biological control is defined as

answer

the intentional release of a natural enemy of a pest population

question

The flow of ______into ecosystems occurs in one direction only, while _____ are recycled within the ecosystem itself.

answer

energy....chemicals

question

About how much of the energy in the producers of an ecosystem will be available to secondary consumers in the ecosystem?

answer

about 1%

question

You want to do all that you can to safeguard the environment by preserving energy. One simple thing that you can do is to eat a diet consisting only of organisms that are

answer

producers

question

Carbon mainly cycles between the biotic and abiotic worlds through the processes of

answer

cellular respiration and photosynthesis

question

Which of the following statements about the phosphorus cycle is true?

answer

Guano can be used by farmers to add phosphorus to the soil

question

Denitrifying bacteria convert_____to_______.

answer

nitrates...nitrogen gas

question

Eutrophication of a lake could occur if

answer

phosphate-rich detergents were dumped into the lake

question

The primary goal of conservation biology is to

answer

counter the loss of biodiversity

question

Biodiversity considers

answer

the genetic diversity within and between populations of a species

question

The three greatest current threats to biodiversity, in order starting with the greatest, are

answer

habitat loss, invasive species, and overharvesting

question

To decrease pollution from sulfur, your local power plant built very tall smokestacks. The ultimate consequence of this would most likely be

answer

to create an environmental problem at a distance from the power plant

question

Which of the following is a likely consequence of the thinning of the ozone layer?

answer

increases in skin cancer

question

You spray your lawn with a pesticide. The concentration of the pesticide in the tissues of the grass on your lawn is 10^-6 parts per million (ppm). Grasshoppers eat the grass and are in turn eaten by rats, which are then eaten by owls. At each successive trophic level, the concentration of pesticides increases. The term for this process is

answer

biological magnification

question

Greenhouse gases include

answer

carbon dioxide and methane

question

Average global temperature has risen____over the past 100 years.

answer

0.8 degrees C

question

CO2 in the atmosphere is absorbed by______and converted into biomass.

answer

photosynthetic organisms

question

Scientists worry that global warming will result in the oceans

answer

becoming more acidic

question

One way in which populations and species have been responding to climate change is by

answer

shifting their distribution

question

The ability to change phenotype in response to local environmental conditions is called

answer

phenotypic plasticity

question

Some populations, especially those with high genetic variability and short life spans, may avoid extinction as the climate changes through

answer

evolutionary adaption

question

Captive breeding

answer

has allowed for the re-introduction of many species to areas from which they had disappeared

question

Which of the following statements about movement corridors is true?

answer

Movement corridors can connect otherwise isolated habitat patches

question

Habitats with many edges

answer

often result from human activities

question

Small area that are home to a large number of threatened species and an exceptional concentration of species found nowhere else on Earth are called

answer

biodiversity hot spots

question

Species found in only one place on Earth are called______species.

answer

endemic

question

Most biodiversity hot spots are found in ______regions.

answer

tropical

question

About one-third of all animal and plant species are concentrated on ______of Earth's land.

answer

1.5%

question

One result of Costa Rica's commitment to conservation is that

answer

ecotourism generates many jobs and brings in a significant fraction of the country's revenue

question

The introduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park in 1991 resulted in

answer

ecological changes involving at least 25 species

question

The Yukon to Yellowstone Initiative is a plan to

answer

connect parks in the United States and Canada with protected corridors where wildlife can travel safely

question

If wolves were now removed from Yellowstone National Park, we would expect that

answer

elk populations would increase

question

The aspect of conservation ecology concerned with returning degraded ecosystems (as nearly as possible) to their natural state is

answer

restoration ecology

question

Using living organisms to clean up polluted ecosystems is known as

answer

bioremediation

question

The Kissimmee River Project is an

answer

attempt to restore the natural wetlands associated with the Kissimmee River

question

Sustainable development

answer

will require global, multinational cooperation

Bio Ch. 36 , 37, 38 – Flashcards

Unlock all answers in this set

Haven't found what you were looking for?

Search for samples, answers to your questions and flashcards