EXAM 2 Ecology questions

Plants grown under a medium light condition would exhibit how much biomass?

20g

You are an international policy maker reviewing biotech crop regulations. Which of the following information sources would provide a reliable scientific assessment of the impacts of biotech crops?

A national scientific panel review of all the biotech crop research published over the past 15 years

The trend for advancing tree lines seems to show

A positive correlation (slope) between mean winter temperature over the last few decades.

Anthropologists hypothesize that features of the Christmas myth derive from the ___________ mushroom genus.

Amanita

A corresponding extinction did not occur on the African savanna, also a temperate grassland, and today it still has diverse herds of large mammals. What possible, but controversial, explanation is thought by some people to explain the North American extinction?

Arrival of humans in North America

Tillandsia landbeckii is a plant related to commercial air-plants found in the _____________ desert, who's flowers are most likely ________ pollinated.

Atacama, wind

The soil horizon in which leached mineral particles such as clay and salts tend to accumulate is the

B horizon

You are designing an experiment to test methods to prevent soil erosion in agricultural production. Which of the following are NOT good experiment ideas?

Compare tillage of a wheat field with tillage of a corn field.

Put the following plants in order based on root length with 1 being the longest rooted plant and 8 being the shortest rooted.

Compass Plant 1,Lead Plant 2, Blazing Star 3, Indian Grass 4, Switchgrass 5, Prarie Clover 6, June Grass 7, Kentucky Blue Grass 8

You are examining crabgrass, a C4 plant, and design an experiment to better understand the relationship between water use and elevated atmospheric CO2. Which of the following is a plausible hypothesis for your study?

Crabgrass will have an increase in net photosynthetic rate and a decrease in water use.

You want to investigate the difference in available water capacity of local farms. Which of the following would be an appropriate hypothesis?

Farms with intermediate particle size will have the highest available water capacity.

Which of the following features is a key characteristic of subtropical deserts?

Form due to persistent high atmospheric pressure

Remember that color is an inherited trait in beetles. Which of the following is an example of natural selection?

Green beetles leave more offspring than brown beetles because they are better at finding food.

Which of the following statements about the habitats of temperate climates is FALSE?

Herbaceous species of the temperate forests tend to flower just after the canopy regrows in the spring.

A hypothetical population of 200 cats has two alleles, TL and TS, for a locus that codes for tail length. The table below describes the phenotypes of cats with each possible genotype, as well as the number of individuals in the population with each genotype. Which statement about the population IS NOT true?

In the entire cat population, the frequency of the TS allele is 0.5.

This process involves the heavy weathering of parent rock from the rotation of wet and hot dry periods (deforestation can have the same effect) and creates the acidic red clay soils we see in Mecklenburg county:

Laterization

Which of the following represents acclimation?

Marine lionfish are able to tolerate freshwater in estuaries.

You find yourself in a warm area dominated by evergreen shrubs that seem to grow more in the wetter winter months than in the summer. You also notice evidence of fires in the area. The title of your presentation could be __________.

My Time in the Mediterranean Climate: Enjoying a Temperate Shrubland

To overcome constraints imposed by the physical environment, plants often have to make trade-offs involving the acquisition of above- and below-ground resources. Which of the following is FALSE?

Plants adapted to dry, sunny environments tend to have characteristics such as larger leaves and increased production of roots to both take advantage of the high light levels and withdraw sufficient water from the parched soil.

You are a U.S. senator who plans to introduce an updated version of the Organic Administration Act of 1897. What scientific information would be useful for rewriting the original law?

Research on the effects of logging on ecosystem services provided by forests

Which of the following statements about forest management is FALSE?

Sustained yield in a forest management system allows for rapid rotation and turnover rates of 10 years or less.

Tree ferns as a distinguishing feature of of these biomes found in New Zealand (though they are also found elsewhere).

Temperate evergreen forest

Based on the figure, how does the climate change as one moves from the alpine to the subalpine to the montane zone of a mountain?

Temperature increases and precipitation decreases.

Which of the following statements about temperate grasslands is true?

The vegetation of temperate grasslands depends on the predictability and amount of rainfall.

Some arctic tundra ecosystems receive as little precipitation as deserts but have much more dense vegetation. What climatic factor might explain this difference?

Tundra is much cooler than deserts, so less water evaporates during the growing season and the tundra stays more moist.

What takes place during the first step of photosynthesis, referred to as the "light-driven reactions"?

Water is split to provide electrons to synthesize ATP and NADPH.

In contrast to C3 plants, C4 plants have which structure that keeps the CO2 concentration high where the Calvin cycle operates?

Well-differentiated mesophyll cells and bundle sheath tissue with a waxy coating

The different finch species found on the Galápagos Islands probably arose as a result of _____.

adaptive radiation

Boreal forests most likely consist of conifers because conifers

are better equipped than angiosperms to withstand cold climates.

Which of the following conditions is required for the continued movement of water from the soil into and through a plant via transpiration?

atm < leaf < root < soil

Rubisco is important in both photosynthesis and respiration because it

catalyzes the uptake of CO2 and the synthesis of PGA.

Which of these ions is most likely to be leached from the soil?

chlorine ions

Dry seasons in the tropics are analogous to temperate winters because __________.

deciduous trees in both locations lose their leaves and cease photosynthetic activity

As CO2 concentrations continue to increase in our atmosphere, photorespiration rates are likely to _______, a change that should _______ the advantage C4 plants have over C3 plants.

decrease; decrease

If birds with larger beaks are favored by the environment, it is likely that ________ selection will occur.

directional

The binding of H+ ions to soil particles _____.

displaces mineral cations

Based on these experimental results for reciprocal transplants of Poorjoe, the ecotypes showed

higher fitness in their native habitat.

The release of CO2 into the soil results in the formation of _____.

hydrogen ions and carbonate ions

The Dust Bowl occurred

in the Great Plains.

A soil that is 10% silt, 80% sand, and 10% clay would be considered

loamy sand.

An Acacia seedling grown in shade (50% full sun) is expected to have a ________ net assimilation rate (NAR) and a ________ leaf area ratio (LAR) than an Acacia seedling grown in

lower; higher

In C3 plants the conservation of water promotes _____.

photorespiration

As light levels increase, plants will usually __________.

produce smaller leaves

This bloom comes from the ___________ __________ __________ and is found in _________ ________.

purple pitcher plant; peat bogs

No till farming is advantageous because it

reduces soil erosion.

If climate change causes a tropical rainforest to receive somewhat less rainfall, it will most likely become

savanna.

Trophy hunting in bighorn sheep has had an inadvertent evolutionary consequence: the sheep have become _______ and their horns have become _______.

smaller; smaller

The larvae within the galls are parasitized by tiny wasps, which tend to parasitize the smallest galls, and are also fed on by Downy woodpeckers, which tend to feed on the largest galls. The figure shows the size distribution of galls before and after both wasps and woodpeckers have impacted their survival. This is an example of

stabilizing selection

Which biome is represented by the map and climate diagrams?

temperate grassland

Based on the climate diagram, this location is most likely in a

temperate grassland.

Caulescent (thick stemmed) plants that have rosette leaf arrangements filled with antifreeze and look like trees from a Dr. Suess book are indicative of the

tropical alpine biome.

A tall, purple-flowered pea plant (TtPp) is allowed to self-pollinate. (The recessive alleles code for short plants and white flowers.) The phenotypic ratio of the resulting offspring is 9:3:3:1. What is the genotype of the plant whose phenotype appeared once out of every 16 offspring (the "1" in the 9:3:3:1 ratio)?

ttpp

Under which conditions are the processes of weathering, leaching, and input of organic material from plants into soil maximized?

warm temperatures and abundant water

A plant living through a drought keeps most of its stomates closed. This results in a trade-off of physiological processes in which

water is conserved and energy accumulates in the leaf.