Bio Exam 1

Ecology:

Biological science that studies the relationships between living organisms and their environment; study of the structure and function of nature

What would happen if one of the three scientific principles of sustainability, chemical cycling, was disrupted?

Living organisms would run out of chemicals that they need.

Under the Endangered Species Act, which agency is responsible for identifying and listing endangered and threatened ocean species?

National Marine Fisheries Service

_____ refers to the natural resources and services that keep humans and other species alive.

Natural capital

What are the primary components of biodiversity?

Species diversity, genetic diversity, ecological diversity, and functional diversity

What are the two measures of species diversity in an ecosystem?

Species richness and species evenness

Generalist species:

Species with a broad ecological niche

If you find a frog eating a grasshopper, you can classify the frog as _____.

a secondary consumer

In nitrogen fixation, _____combine gaseous N2 with hydrogen to make ammonia (NH3).

bacteria

As the earth's temperature increases, salamanders that require cool, moist temperatures and that cannot move to new locations will_____.

either adapt to the changing conditions or go extinct.

A species' habitat is _____.

the place where it lives

Ecological niche:

the role a species plays in its environment

Scientist have estimated the background extinction rate to be about

1 species per million per year

What is the definition of species evenness?

A measure of the relative abundance, or the comparative numbers of individuals of each species present in a geographical area

Which interaction is a good example of interspecific competition?

A species of bird consuming the same type of food as another species of bird

What would be the best first step for someone who wanted to live as sustainably as possible?

Avoiding waste while recycling and reusing as much as possible

Along with water vapor, a key contributor to the greenhouse effect is _____.

CO2

Which of the following would you be least likely to find in U.S. wildlife refuges?

Collecting animals without a permit

Water cycle

Collects, purifies, and distributes the earth's fixed supply of water

What is the difference between commensalism and mutualism?

Commensalism benefits one species but has little effect on the other, and mutualism benefits both species.

What problem would be addressed by including health-related expenses and environmental damage in gasoline pricing?

Consumers would no longer be unaware of hidden costs.

Someone who need to import wildlife species for scientific research would need to consult the ____ to determine the regulations on moving that species across international borders.

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species

Golden toads, like many other tropical amphibians, are a prime example of what type of species that is vulnerable to extinction?

Endemic

What could be one way to prevent the tragedy of the commons from leading to the degradation of a resource?

Enforce laws restricting the use of the resource.

If someone were trying to avoid degrading natural capital, what should they avoid?

Harvesting trees faster than nature can restore them

Understand the steps of the scientific process

Identify a problem, research, ask questions to be investigated, experiment, analyze data, propose a hypothesis, use hypothesis, perform an experiment

Environmental Science:

Interdisciplinary study that uses information and ideas from the physical sciences (such as biology, chemistry, and geology) with those from the social sciences and humanities (such as economics, politics, and ethics) to learn how nature works, how we interact with the environment, and how we can to help deal with environmental problems.

Which species became disruptive and destructive after being deliberately introduced to the southeastern United States?

Kudzu

Nitrogen cycle:

Movement of nitrogen in different chemical forms from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment

Phosphorus cycle:

Movement of phosphorus in different chemical forms from the environment to organisms and then back to the environment

When leaves fall from trees and first begin to break down, they are part of the _____ horizon of the soil.

O

What is predicted to happen as biodiversity decreases?

Organisms will be less able to adapt to a changing world.

What is an effect of lack of exposure to nature?

People may forget their dependence on the natural world and be less inclined to act to preserve it.

What is the best way to limit the harmful impacts of nonnative species?

Preventing them from being introduced into ecosystems

What is a way that we can reduce the risk of specialization?

Reproduce deforestation and habitat fragmentation

Environmentalism:

Social movement dedicated to protecting the earth's life-support systems for us and other species

All organisms in a group are most similar in which level of the taxonomic classification system?

Species

What would be a good way for someone to explain why it is important to live sustainably?

Sustainable living is necessary to provide a livable world for future generations.

Which type of environment is likely to experience primary succession?

The concrete foundation of an abandoned building

Chemical Cycling:

The earth receives a continuous supply of energy from the sun, but it receives no new supply of life-supporting chemicals. Through billions of years of interactions with their living and nonliving environment, organisms have developed ways to recycle the chemicals they need to survive. This means that the wastes and decayed bodies or organisms become nutrients or raw materials for other organisms. In nature, waste=useful resources

What will happen if humans do not develop more sustainable approaches to life on the earth?

The ecological deficit will continue to increase, and humans may not survive.

The wolf, leopard, lion, some shark species, and the American alligator are examples of which type of species?

Top predator keystone species

_____ have a very high Net Primary Productivity (NPP) because they have a large number and variety of producer trees and other plants.

Tropical rain forests

Carbon cycle:

Various compounds of carbon circulate through the biosphere, the atmosphere, and part of the hydrosphere

If you wanted to study a population, you might choose to study _____.

all of the American toads in a pond

Large regions with distinct biological communities, such as deserts, forests, and grasslands, are _____.

biomes

Using observations about the natural world to develop solutions that reflect what humans see in nature is called _____.

biomimicry

The exploration of tropical forests and other ecosystems to find plants and animals that scientists can use to make medicinal drugs is called

bioprospecting

The _____ includes all life on the earth.

biosphere

A food chain determines how _____ and nutrients move along pathways from one organism to another.

chemical energy

If the host plant for a butterfly species suddenly declines in numbers due to a new herbicide, then the butterfly will _____.

decline as well unless it can adapt to use a new host plant

If someone believes that all species are equally important and worthy of protection and access to resources, then that person has a(n) _____ environmental worldview.

earth-centered

The world's species provide critical ______ that help keep us alive and support our economies

ecosystem services

The water cycle is powered by _____.

energy from the sun

If people read the same magazine about an environmental issue and come to very different conclusions, then they probably have differing _____.

environmental worldviews

Looking at a sample of water under the microscope, you find an interesting cell. It has a large, clearly defined sphere near its center that stains darker than the rest, along with oblong, membrane-bound structures that are green prior to staining. This cell is a(n) _____ cell.

eukaryotic

If humans had not evolved strong opposable thumbs, then they would have _____.

failed to become so dominant on earth unless they had developed some other adaptation to allow them to be exceptionally skilled at tool use

If you wanted to study the movement patterns of deer at different times of year using radio transmitters, you would need to use _____research techniques.

fields

Pricing products to include all of the expenses involved in production and disposal, including environmental costs, is called _____.

full-cost pricing

If you found an unknown organism in the woods feeding on a living plant, you could identify it as _____.

heterotroph

Artificial insemination, embryo transfer, use of incubators, and cross fostering are all techniques used to

increase the populations of captive species

When introduced species do not face natural predators, competition, or other control factors and are able to out-compete native species, they are considered

invasive

If you can no longer keep an exotic pet, it is important not to release it into nature because

it could cause harm to native species

An ecological footprint refers to the amount of _____ needed to supply a person or an area with renewable resources and that is needed to absorb and recycle the wastes and pollution produced by such resource use.

land and water

A small amount of the earth's water ends up as _____.

liquid freshwater available to living organisms

The use of cameras mounted on aircraft and satellites to scan and collect data on the earth's surface is called _____.

remote sensing

The evolution of specialized beaks to take advantage of certain types of food is an example of _____.

resource partitioning

Changes in concentrations of gases in the troposphere, including water vapor, strongly affect how much _____.

solar energy is retained through the greenhouse effect

The need for bamboo makes the panda a(n) _____species.

specialist

If a new species of lizard is introduced into an area where another lizard occupies a very similar niche and becomes established and abundant, the two lizards will probably _____.

specialize differently to reduce competition

Specialist species:

species with a narrow ecological niche

The lower portion of the _____ holds enough ozone gas to filter out about 95% of the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation.

stratosphere

A close look at almost any terrestrial community or ecosystem reveals that it consists of an ever-changing mosaic of patches of vegetation in different stages of _____.

succession

All of the following are examples of relationships built through coevolution except _____.

succulent plants on opposite sides of the world that appear similar

To accurately develop projected extinction rates, we should ideally

take into account the potential for a speciation crisis and that extinction rates may dramatically increase

Secondary ecological succession is more common than primary ecological succession because _____.

there are many disturbed areas with soil, and it is less common to have bare rock or something similar on land or no bottom sediment in an aquatic system

If there are no fossils showing an animal that appears to be an intermediate between two other animals in the fossil record that otherwise appear to be evolutionarily related, then this probably means that _____.

there were intermediate forms, but we have not found fossils.

If a dam is taken away and a new river forms that fully separates one population of mice into two, considering that they can't swim, then _____.

they may eventually form two different species

A(n) _______ species has enough remaining individuals to survive in the short term, but it is likely to become endangered in the near future because of declining numbers.

threatened

Tapeworms may live within a host for many years and this is better than killing the host because that would cause them_____.

to lose their source of food and protection

To protect organisms that are high on the food chain, it is especially important to protect them from chemicals that ______, in which may be less damaging to organisms that are lower on the food chain.

undergo bioaccumilation