Chapter 55 test – Flashcards

1) In the figure above, which individuals are displaying Batesian mimicry? A) the paper wasp, bumblebee, and honeybee B) the hornet moth, wasp beetle, and hoverfly C) All of the insects are displaying Batesian mimicry. D) None of the insects are displaying Batesian mimicry.

2) In the figure above, which of the following statements is true? A) All of the species of insects shown are in the order Hymenoptera. B) There are no true mimics in the insects shown. C) All of the insects are displaying Batesian mimicry. D) Half of the six insects shown are harmless.

3) Some birds follow moving swarms of army ants in the tropics. As the ants march along the forest floor hunting insects and small vertebrates, birds follow and pick off any insects or small vertebrates that fly or jump out of the way of the ants. This situation is an example of what kind of species interaction between the birds and the ants? A) cooperation B) consumption C) commensalism D) parasitism E) mutualism

4) Some birds follow moving swarms of army ants in the tropics. As the ants march along the forest floor hunting insects and small vertebrates, birds follow and pick off any insects or small vertebrates that fly or jump out of the way of the ants. What is the result of the association between birds and ants? A) Birds benefit from the association but have no impact on the ants. B) Birds benefit from the association and harm the ants. C) Birds and ants benefit from the association. D) Birds do not benefit from the association, but the ants do. E) Neither birds nor ants benefit from the association.

5) Which would be the best way to directly test the hypothesis that C. stellatus (a species of barnacle) is competitively excluded from the lower intertidal zone by B. balanoides (another species of barnacle)? A) Place individuals of each species in a jar and see which species survives. B) Remove all B. balanoides from the lower intertidal zone. C) Transplant B. balanoides to the upper intertidal zone. D) Clear rocks in an entire area and document recolonization events. E) Remove all C. stellatus from the upper tidal zone.

6) In the hypothesis that C. stellatus (a species of barnacle) is competitively excluded from the lower intertidal zone by B. balanoides (another species of barnacle), what could be concluded about the two species? A) The fundamental and realized niches of B. balanoides and C. stellatus are identical. B) The fundamental and realized niches of B. balanoides and C. stellatus are different. C) The fundamental and realized niches of B. balanoides are different, but the fundamental and realized niches of C. stellatus are identical. D) The fundamental and realized niches of B. balanoides are identical, but the fundamental and realized niches of C. stellatus are different.

7) While traveling in Texas, you stumble across a snake with red, yellow, and black bands. You somehow remember that this could be a poisonous coral snake or a harmless milk snake, but you forget how to differentiate them because they both have similar colors and banding patterns. You wisely decide not to pick up the snake. What defense of the snake was successful in preventing you from grabbing the snake? A) constitutive defense B) Müllerian mimicry C) Batesian mimicry D) inducible defenses

8) What conclusion can you draw from the figure above? A) Without direct contact, mussels can sense the presence of crabs. B) Mussels can sense the presence of crabs only visually. C) Mussels are increasing their shell thickness in response to water current. D) Shell thickness is a non-inducible defense. E) Crabs hunt for mussels by focusing on the chemicals they emit into the water.

9) People with at least one copy of the HLA-B53 gene are better able to beat back malarial infections before the infection progresses. If this is a coevolutionary arms race between Plasmodium and humans, what would the next step in this race be? A) to see humans with more than one copy of the HLA-B53 gene B) to see humans without the HLA-B53 gene C) to see Plasmodium populations that counter the HLA-B53 gene D) to see Plasmodium populations that have the HLA-B53 gene E) to see a mutation in the HLA-B53 gene that makes it more effective against malarial infections

10) As you study two closely related predatory insect species, the two-spot and the three-spot avenger beetles, you notice that each species seeks prey at dawn in areas without the other species. However, where their ranges overlap, the two-spot avenger beetle hunts at night and the three-spot hunts in the morning. When you bring them into the laboratory and isolate the two different species, you discover that the offspring of both species are found to be nocturnal. You have discovered an example of _____. A) mutualism B) character displacement C) Batesian mimicry D) facultative commensalism E) resource partitioning

11) Which of the following statements is a valid conclusion of this experiment? A) Balanus can survive only in the lower intertidal zone because it is unable to resist desiccation. B) Balanus is inferior to Chthamalus in competing for space on rocks lower in the intertidal zone. C) The two species of barnacles do not compete with each other because they feed at different times of day. D) The removal of Balanus shows that the realized niche of Chthamalus is smaller than its fundamental niche. E) These two species of barnacle do not show competitive exclusion. F) If Chthamalus were removed, Balanus's fundamental niche would become larger.

12) Connell conducted this experiment to learn more about _____. A) character displacement in the color of barnacles B) habitat preference in two different species of barnacles C) desiccation resistance and barnacle species D) how sea-level changes affect barnacle distribution E) competitive exclusion and distribution of barnacle speciesD

The symbols +, -, and o are to be used to show the results of interactions between individuals and groups of individuals in the examples that follow. The symbol + denotes a positive interaction, - denotes a negative interaction, and o denotes where individuals are not affected by interacting. The first symbol refers to the first organism mentioned. 13) What interactions exist between a lion pride and a hyena pack? A) +/+ B) +/o C) +/- D) o/o E) -/-

14) What interactions exist between a tick on a dog and the dog? A) +/+ B) +/o C) +/- D) o/o E) -/-

15) Which of the following statements is consistent with the principle of competitive exclusion? A) Bird species generally do not compete for nesting sites. B) The random distribution of one competing species will have a positive impact on the population growth of the other competing species. C) Two species with the same fundamental niche will exclude other competing species. D) Even a slight reproductive advantage will eventually lead to the elimination of the less well adapted of two competing species. E) Natural selection tends to increase competition between related species

16) which statement best describes the evolutionary significance of mutualism? A) Mutualism offers more biodiversity to a community. B) Individuals partaking in a mutualistic relationship are more resistant to parasites. C) Interaction increases the survival and/or population growth rate(s) of mutualistic species. D) Mutualistic interaction lessens competition in communities where it is present. E) Mutualistic relationships allow organisms to synthesize and use energy more efficiently

17) In biology, an arms race occurs when _____. A) predators become dominant over their prey species leading to the local extinction of the prey B) a new species evolves into two separate species C) a new niche is created because of interactions between species D) there is a repeating cycle of reciprocal adaptation E) a prey species adapts and is able to coexist with its predators

18) The competitive exclusion principle states that _____. A) it is not possible for two species with the same niche to coexist in the same region B) it is not possible for two species to compete for the same resources C) two species with different niches will not compete for the same resources D) two species with the same niche will constantly be competing for resources

19) What is the term used to describe the process shown in the panels in the figure above, assuming Time 2 follows Time 1? A) competition B) species interaction C) niche differentiation D) niche realization

20) In the figure above, which species is the stronger competitor? A) species 1 B) species 2 C) Both species compete equally. D) It is not possible to tell from this figure.

21) If two species are close competitors, and one species is experimentally removed from the community, the remaining species would be expected to _____. A) eventually become competitively superior to the other species B) change its fundamental niche C) decline in abundance D) become the target of specialized parasites E) expand its realized niche

22) Which of the following support(s) the observation that herbivores do not generally eat all of the available plants? I) top-down control hypothesis II) poor nutrition hypothesis III) plant-defense hypothesis A) only I B) only II C) only III D) only II and III E) I, II, and III

23) Which of the following is an example of a commensalism? A) fungi residing in plant roots, such as endomycorrhizae B) bacteria fixing nitrogen in plants C) rancher ants that protect aphids in exchange for sugar-rich honeydew D) cattle egrets eating insects stirred up by grazing bison

24) Treehoppers (a type of insect) produce honeydew, which ants use for food. Treehoppers have a major predator, the jumping spider. Researchers hypothesized that the ants would protect the treehoppers from the spiders. In an experiment, researchers followed study plots with ants removed from the system and compared them to a control plot. In the figure above, what can you conclude? A) Ants do somehow protect the treehoppers from spiders. B) Ants eat the honeydew produced by treehoppers C) Ants reduce the numbers of treehoppers. D) No specific conclusions can be drawn from this figure. E) Treehoppers do not produce honeydew in July and are not protected by the ants

25) During a one-year study, researchers found no difference in treehopper populations in any of their control and experimental groups. What could they measure during the second year to gain information about why this might have occurred? A) Measure the number of ant females. B) Measure the relative sizes of the treehoppers. C) Measure the relative abundance of jumping spiders. D) Measure the relative sizes of different ant species.

26) Which one of the following is a type of species interaction with impacts that depend on prey density and effectiveness of defenses to determine the short-term impact on the prey population? A) competition B) consumption C) mutualism D) commensalism

27) What does the graph in the figure above tell you about the definition of a keystone species? A) A keystone species has little interaction with other species in an environment. B) Removing a keystone species from the community drastically reduces diversity. C) Adding a keystone species to the community will make it more diverse. D) Removing a keystone species from the community will eventually allow for the invasion of a new species

28) Recall that Clements's view of biological communities is that of a highly predictable and interrelated structure, while Gleason's view of biological communities is that individual species operate independently. If we set up many identical sterilized ponds in the same area and allowed them to be colonized, what should we predict if we wished to test Gleason's hypothesis? A) Identical plankton communities will develop in all ponds. B) Similar plankton communities will develop in all ponds. C) Different plankton communities will develop in all ponds. D) Limited plankton communities will develop in all ponds. E) Initially the number of species in each pond will be greater than the number normally found in similar environments.

29) Looking at the results in the figure above, which hypothesis (by Clements or Gleason) is supported by the data? I) Clements II) Gleason A) only I B) only II C) both I and II D) neither I nor II

30) Which one of the following animals would most likely be defined as a keystone species? A) sea otter B) housefly C) fathead minnow D) nauplii (a species of zooplankton)

31) Which of the following would be most significant in understanding the structure of an ecological community? I) determining how many species are present overall II) determining which particular species are present III) determining the kinds of interactions that occur among organisms of different species IV) determining the relative abundance of species A) only I and III B) only II and IV C) only I, II, and III D) only II, III, and IV E) I, II, III, and IV

32) In a tide pool, fifteen species of invertebrates were reduced to eight after one species was removed. The species removed was likely a(n) _____. A) pathogen B) keystone species C) herbivore D) resource partitioner E) mutualistic organism

33) Elephants are not the most dominant species in African grasslands, yet they influence community structure. The grasslands contain scattered woody plants, but they are kept in check by the uprooting activities of the elephants. Take away the elephants, and the grasslands convert to forests or to shrublands. The newly growing forests support fewer species than the previous grasslands. Which of the following describes why elephants are the keystone species in this scenario? A) Elephants exhibit a disproportionate influence on the structure of the community relative to their abundance. B) Grazing animals depend upon the elephants to convert forests to grassland. C) Elephants prevent drought in African grasslands. D) Elephants are the biggest herbivore in this community. E) Elephants help other populations survive by keeping out many of the large African predators.

34) According to bottom-up and top-down control models of community organization, which of the following expressions would imply that an increase in the size of a carnivore (C) population would negatively impact its prey (P) population, but not vice versa? A) P ← C B) P → C C) C ↔ P D) P ← C → P E) C ← P →

35) Keystone predators can maintain species diversity in a community if they _____. A) competitively exclude other predators B) prey on the community's dominant species C) allow immigration of other predators D) reduce the number of disruptions in the community E) prey only on the least abundant species in the community

36) What is the main difference between a disturbance and a disturbance regime? A) A disturbance regime includes defining the predictable frequency and severity of the disturbance. B) A disturbance regime includes defining the length of the disturbance. C) A disturbance regime is a more specific type of disturbance. D) They are essentially the same thing.

37) What is the main advantage of controlled burnings of forested areas? Controlled burnings _____. A) eliminate the possibility of forest fires B) clear forested areas for farmland C) prevent the overgrowth of the underbrush D) allow new species to form

38) Which of the following terms is used by ecologists to describe the community interaction where one organism makes the environment more suitable for another organism? A) parasitism B) mutualism C) inhibition D) facilitation E) commensalism

39) Why do moderate levels of disturbance result in an increase in community diversity? A) Habitats are opened up for less competitive species. B) Competitively dominant species infrequently exclude less competitive species after a moderate disturbance. C) The environmental conditions become optimal. D) The resulting uniform habitat supports stability, which in turn supports diversity. E) Less-competitive species evolve strategies to compete with dominant species.

40) In a particular case of secondary succession, three species of wild grass all invaded a field. By the second season, a single species dominated the field. A possible factor in this secondary succession was _____. A) equilibrium B) facilitation C) immigration D) inhibition E) parasitism