Exam 1

Which list of terrestrial biomes is in the correct order of most to least precipitation?

. tropical forests, grassland, desert

In a famous test of the notion that evolution happens by the inheritance of acquired characteristics, August Weismann maintained a population of mice in his lab for 22 generations. Each generation he measured tail length, randomly chose individuals to be breeders, snipped off the breeders' tails, and then let breeders mate to produce the next generation. Average tail length did not change from the 1st generation to the 22nd. That is, the population failed to evolve. What's the most likely reason the population did not evolve?

Because tail length (that is, the length of tails mice were born with) had negligible influence on which individuals survived to reproduce.

____________________ refers to the sea floor where the community is strictly heterotrophic.

Benthic

T/F Oligotrophic lakes are characterized has having very high nitrogen content.

False

T/F Terrestrial environments experience overall less environmental variability than aquatic

False

T/F Condensation of water into clouds is the result of gradual warming of the air.

False

T/F Natural selection is the only process that leads to evolution

False

T/F Short-wave solar radiation is less energetic than long-wave solar radiation.

False

T/F Transpiration is the water loss through the roots of plants.

False

T/F Water is less dense than ice.

False

Which of the following elements is considered a plant micronutrient?

Iron

T/F All else being equal, alleles associated with higher reproductive success increase in frequency more so than other alleles.

True

T/F An animal cannot produce essential amino acids. They must be acquired via consumption.

True

T/F Cold water holds more oxygen than warm water

True

T/F Grasslands are more common than forests in areas prone to fire and drought.

True

T/F Inbreeding can lead to lower fitness

True

T/F Light compensation point is amount of light a plant receives where the rate of net photosynthesis is zero.

True

T/F Plants carry out respiration both during the day and at night.

True

Evolution is

a change in the composition of a population from one generation to the next

____________________ is the decline of temperature with altitude.

adiabatic cooling/lapse rate

____________________ is the tendency of water molecules to adhere to themselves.

cohesion

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

directional

A/an ____________________ is defined as an area in space and time that includes both abiotic and biotic components of the environment.

ecosystem

Photosynthesis by phytoplankton primarily occurs in the ____________________ zone of lakes.

epilimnion

The ____________________ is the sum of alleles of all individuals in a population and represents the total genetic variation of that population.

gene pool

_____________________ are organisms that consume other organisms.

heterotrophs

Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR)

includes only the solar energy with wavelengths of 400-700 nm

____________________ refers to the sea floor where the community is strictly heterotrophic.

mechanical

The ____________________ in the ocean are the swimming organisms that feed on zooplankton and pass energy to higher trophic levels.

nekton

____________________ is a macronutrient, and is positively correlated with the rate of photosynthesis.

nitrogen

It is the lack of ____________________ that is the distinctive characteristic of all deserts.

rainfall

When an organism begins to be challenged by a change in the environment, the first characteristic of their life history to suffer is:

reproduction

Adaptive radiation:

results in new specialized species

When plants experience a shortage of water, they tend to put energy into growing:

roots

The ultimate source of carbon from which all life is constructed is derived from:

the atomspheric carbon dioxide

In a lake, the ____________________ is the region of the vertical depth profile where water temperature declines most rapidly.

thermocline

Estuaries are physiogeographically classified based on:

topographic characteristics and the openness of the mouth of the estuary