BIOL 153 Exam 1 Review

A population is growing exponentially and its instantaneous growth rate (r) is 0.02. Would the number of individuals added to the population (rN) be greatest at a population size (N) of 20, 500 or 1000?

1000

What would be a proximate cause for increased sex drive in human teens?

An increase in estrogen or testosterone

What is Hamilton's rule?

Br > C, meaning altruism occurs when its benefit to a relative times r, the coefficient of relatedness between the relative and the actor, outweighs the costs to the actor

How can human population size keep increasing in spite of decreased fertility rates?

Population size will continue to increase as long as the average fertility is above the replacement rate.

What is the most effective way to preserve species diversity?

Protect an entire area from exploitation or habitat degradation

Theoretically, which would be the most effective way to disrupt a Hadley cell?

Remove all equatorial moisture and convection

Scientists predict that global climate change will cause a greater increase in average temperature at higher latitudes than in the tropics. This seems like good news since most of the world's biodiversity occurs in the tropics. However, recent data suggest that a smaller temperature change in the tropics will cause a larger physiological response in organisms there than the larger temperature change will in organisms in temperate areas. Based on what you have learned about thermal niches, complete a hypothesis to explain this result.

Temperature is relatively constant in the tropics all year, whereas temperature fluctuates dramatically at higher latitudes. Organisms that are physiologically adapted to constant temperatures may not have as much genetic variation for traits that enable adaptation to higher temperatures, compared to organisms at higher latitudes, which are adapted to tolerate different temperatures at different times of the year.

If the Earth were to reorient such that the North Pole always received direct sunlight (always faced the Sun), how would that change Earth's climate?

The South Pole would get colder

Which of the following statements best describes the effect of climate on biome distribution?

The average climate and pattern of climate are important in determining biome distribution.

How does natural selection favor an individual that can detect deceitful communicators?

The detector will incur less cost and gain an advantage over others unable to detect the deceit

What best explains hare and lynx population cycles?

The interaction of food availability and predation intensity.

A land developer and several ecologists are discussing how a parcel of private land should be developed while saving 20 hectares as natural habitat. The land developer suggests that the 20 hectares be divided into twenty separate 1-hectare areas. The ecologists suggest that it would be better to have one intact parcel of 20 hectares. What is the significance of these different arrangements of the 20 hectares?

The isolated plots are more vulnerable to edge effects.

Why does the age structure of human populations differ in developed versus developing nations?

This is because in developing countries, survivorship and the fertility rate have been increasing.

Which of the following can be said about light in aquatic environments?

Water selectively reflects and absorbs certain wavelengths of light

Why can the construction of wildlife corridors help maintain genetic diversity in a fragmented landscape?

Wildlife corridors allow areas to be recolonized if a species is lost and enable the introduction of new alleles that can counteract genetic drift and inbreeding in small, isolated populations, which tend to reduce genetic diversity.

According to most conservation biologists, the single greatest threat to global biodiversity is _____.

alteration or destruction of the physical habitat

Ultimately, behaviors that influence the choice of mates are driven by ______.

attempts to maximize the fitness of the individual

Relatively small geographic areas with high concentrations of endemic species and a large number of endangered and threatened species are known as _____.

biodiversity hot spots

What is the main type of vegetation in a tropical wet forest?

broad-leaved evergreen trees

In species like sea turtles with high juvenile mortality, low adult mortality, and low fecundity, conservationists can most effectively help them by _____.

focusing on keeping adults alive

The main factor that leads to the loss of biodiversity is _____.

habitat destruction

Populations grow due to births and _____.

immigration

Fixed action patterns are examples of _____.

innate behaviors

Net primary productivity is important because ________.

it is the source of chemical energy used by a species throughout a food web

Name the five main levels of study in ecology from smallest to largest.

organismal, population, community, ecosystem, biosphere

Which of these is characteristic of the photic zone of a freshwater biome?

the presence of algae