Majors Bio II test 5

ecosystem, community, population, individual

Which of the following levels of ecological organization is arranged in the correct sequence from most to least inclusive?

the effect of sunlight intensity on species composition in a decaying rat carcass

Which of the following might be an investigation of microclimate?

primary consumer.

A cow's herbivorous diet indicates that it is a(n)

zooplankton-primary producer

Which of the following organisms is incorrectly paired with its trophic level?

heterotrophs

Which of the following terms encompasses all of the others?

benefit ... harmed

Of the choices below, which best describes the effect predation has on the predator/prey organisms involved in the relationship?

biosphere

Of the following, which is the most inclusive level of organization in nature?

flows through ... are recycled in

On a global scale, energy _____ ecosystems whereas chemical elements _____ ecosystems.

semelparous reproduction.

Pacific salmon and annual plants are excellent examples of

use light energy to synthesize organic compounds.

Photosynthetic organisms are unique to most ecosystems because they

facilitation

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?

1. determining the relative abundance of species 2. determining the kinds of interactions that occur among organisms of different species 3. determining how many species are present overall 4. determining which particular species are present

Which of the following would be most significant in understanding the structure of an ecological community?

desert

Which of these biomes is characterized by little rainfall?

open ocean

Which of these ecosystems accounts for the largest amount of Earth's net primary productivity?

Eutrophic lakes are richer in nutrients.

Which of the following is true with respect to oligotrophic lakes and eutrophic lakes?

the presence of algae

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

coniferous forrest

Which of these is the largest terrestrial biome on Earth?

algae

Which of these removes carbon from the atmosphere?

NO3 -

Which one of these is a nitrate?

iteroparity-elephant

Which pattern of reproduction is correctly paired with a species?

II

Which population(s) is (are) in the process of decreasing?

It is eliminated as feces or is dissipated into space as heat in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics.

Which statement best describes what ultimately happens to the chemical energy that is not converted to new biomass in the process of energy transfer between trophic levels in an ecosystem?

Survivorship can only decrease; therefore, this curve could not happen in nature.

Which statement best explains survivorship curve B?

Energy flows through ecosystems; matter cycles within and through ecosystems.

Which statement most accurately describes how matter and energy are used in ecosystems?

Most of the nutrients in the ecosystem are removed in the harvested timber.

Why do logged tropical rain forest soils typically have nutrient-poor soils?

Habitats are opened up for less competitive species.

Why do moderate levels of disturbance result in an increase in community diversity?

Density-dependent factors lead to fewer births and increased mortality.

Why do populations grow more slowly as they approach their carrying capacity?

Eating meat is an inefficient way of acquiring photosynthetic productivity.

Why does a vegetarian leave a smaller ecological footprint than an omnivore?

primary consumer

A cow eating grass is an example of a ____

growing rapidly

A broad-based pyramid-shaped age structure is characteristic of a population that is ____

tertiary consumer

A human who just ate a hamburger is eaten by a shark while swimming. The shark is acting as a ____

I. inhabiting the same general area II. belonging to the same species

A population is correctly defined as having which of the following characteristics?

Females undergo hormonal changes that delay sexual maturation and many individuals suffer depressed immune systems and die due to the stress of overpopulation.

A population of white-footed mice becomes severely overpopulated in a habitat that has been disturbed by human activity. Sometimes intrinsic factors cause the population to increase in mortality and lower reproduction rates to occur in reaction to the stress of overpopulation. Which of the following is an example of intrinsic population control?

ecological niche

According to the principle of competitive exclusion, two species cannot continue to occupy the same _____.

+/+

What interactions exist between mycorrhizae and evergreen tree roots?

Supported

According to this graph, algal beds and coral reefs have the highest net primary productivity.

cannot be determined from this graph

According to this graph, species that exhibit a type III curve usually produce large numbers of offspring

whose absence would cause major disruption in a community

Keystone species are those species _____.

120 years

About how long have wastewater treatment plants been in existence?

+/o

What interactions exist between the cattle egret and grazing cattle?

detritivore

An earthworm that feeds on the remains of plants and animals is acting as a _____

carbon

An ecosystem is unlikely to be limited by the supply of _____ because it is obtained from the air.

its food source

An organism's "trophic level" refers to _____.

10

Approximately how many kg of carnivore biomass can be supported by a field plot containing 1,000 kg of plant material?

1. A freshwater organism permanently attached to the substrate would be unlikely to survive and reproduce in an estuary. 2. Wetlands have slow water movement or no water movement and no turnover. 3. Estuaries are very productive and are used as breeding grounds by many species of fish. 4. Tropical coral reefs generally exist in relatively shallow areas of the ocean. 5. Temperature drives water movement in some lakes.

Aquatic biomes can be distinguished by chemical characteristics such as dissolved oxygen content and salinity and by physical characteristics such as water flow. Which five of the following statements about aquatic biomes are true?

A

Assimilation is indicated by the letter(s) _____.

Survivorship for a Type I curve is nearly 1,000 times as great as survivorship for a Type III curve.

At 50% maximum life span, how does survivorship for a type I curve compare to survivorship for a type III curve?

a major type of ecosystem

What is a biome?

moderate levels of disturbance.

Based on the intermediate disturbance hypothesis, a community's species diversity is increased by

nutrients and other life-sustaining molecules are in limited supply and must be continually recycled

Biogeochemical cycles are crucial to ecosystem function because _____.

mutualism

Cellulose-digesting microorganisms live in the guts of termites and ruminant mammals. The microorganisms have a home and food, and their hosts gain more nutrition from their meals. This relationship is an example of _____.

0.01%

Consider the food chain grass → grasshopper → mouse → snake → hawk. How much of the chemical energy fixed by photosynthesis of the grass (100%) is available to the hawk?

nitrates ... nitrogen gas

Denitrifying bacteria convert _____ to _____.

dead organic matter and excreted wastes

Detritus is composed of _____.

parasitism

Dwarf mistletoes are flowering plants that grow on certain forest trees. They obtain nutrients and water from the vascular tissues of the trees. The trees derive no known benefits from the dwarf mistletoes. Which of the following best describes the interactions between dwarf mistletoes and trees?

mutualism

Evidence shows that some grasses benefit from being grazed. Which of the following terms would best describe this plant-herbivore interaction?

A

Examine this food web for a particular terrestrial ecosystem. Which species is autotrophic?

E

Examine this food web for a particular terrestrial ecosystem. Which species is most likely a decomposer on this food web?

can change the species composition within biological communities.

Fire suppression by humans

10

For a species with a type II curve, less than ___ percent of individuals survive for 50% of the maximum life span.

not supported

For species with a type III curve, most individuals reach the maximum life span

rising, warm, moist air masses that cool and release precipitation as they rise and then, at high altitude, cool and sink back to the surface as dry air masses after moving north or south of the tropics.

Generalized global air circulation and precipitation patterns are caused by

rock weathering

How does phosphorus normally enter ecosystems?

deep-sea vent

If a meteor impact or volcanic eruption injected a lot of dust into the atmosphere and reduced the sunlight reaching Earth's surface by 70% for one year, which of the following marine communities most likely would be least affected?

temperate broadleaf forest and grassland

If global warming continues at its present rate, which biomes will likely take the place of the coniferous forest (taiga)?

an oligotrophic lake.

If you are interested in observing community structure in a clear water lake, you would do well to choose diving into

a rectangle tapering toward the top

Ignoring migration, the age structure diagram of a human population likely to maintain a relatively stable size will have what shape?

inverted pyramid

Ignoring migration, the age structure of a human population likely to decrease in size will have what shape?

pyramid

Ignoring migration, the age structure of a human population likely to increase in size will have what shape?

25W, 25X, 25Y, 25Z

Imagine five forest communities, each with 100 individuals distributed among four different tree species (W, X, Y, and Z). Which forest community would be most diverse?

keystone species.

In a tide pool, 15 species of invertebrates were reduced to eight after one species was removed. The species removed was likely a(n)

producers

In an ecosystem, phytoplankton are _____

removing harmful substances...uses organisms to add essential materials to

In contrast to bioremediation, which is a strategy for _____, biological augmentation _____ a degraded ecosystem.

water and temperature

In most cases, the two major climatic factors affecting the distribution of organisms in terrestrial ecosystems are _____.

support biological communities similar to those found at higher elevations on similar south-facing slopes

In mountainous areas of western North America, north-facing slopes would be expected to

supported

In species that exhibit a Type II survivorship curve, individuals are no more likely to die at one stage of the life cycle than another

autumn and spring.

In temperate lakes, the surface water is replenished with nutrients during turnovers that occur in the

desert

In which biome would you most likely find plants that exhibit C4 or CAM photosynthesis?

clumped

In wild populations, individuals most often show a _____ pattern of dispersion.

1. spread because they encounter none of their natural predators. 2. are successful in colonizing a novel area. 3. are usually considered pests by ecologists. 4. can outcompete and displace native species for biotic and abiotic resources.

Invasive species are introduced by humans to new geographic locations and

B

Nitrification is indicated by the letter(s) _____.

ammonium ... nitrites

Nitrifying bacteria convert _____ to _____.

D and E

Nitrogen-fixing bacteria is(are) indicated by the letter(s) _____.

negative feedback

Resource competition, territoriality, disease, and toxic wastes are some of the factors that provide _____ and help regulate population.

sympatric populations of species with similar ecological niches.

Resource partitioning would be most likely to occur between

as we travel southward from the North Pole to the equator.

Species richness increases

+/+

What interactions exist between a bee and a flower?

-/-

What interactions exist between a lion pride and a hyena pack?

marine

The _____ biome is the largest of Earth's biomes.

substrate at the bottom of the body of water

The benthic zone of aquatic environments is defined as the _____.

Cannot be determined from this graph.

The biomass of cultivated land approximately equals the biomass of temperate grassland.

the sun

The energy for nearly every organism in nearly every ecosystem ultimately comes from _____

trophic structure.

The feeding relationships among the species in a community determine the community's

recycle chemical nutrients to a form capable of being used by autotrophs.

The major role of detritivores in ecosystems is to

Supported

The net primary productivity of an estuary ecosystem is roughly 12 times the net primary productivity of the open ocean.

Temperate grassland

The net primary productivity of cultivated land is most similar to the net primary productivity of which ecosystem?

carrying capacity

The number of individuals that a particular habitat can support with no degradation of that habitat is called _____

+/-

What interactions exist between a tick on a dog and the dog?

two species that have exactly the same niche cannot coexist in a community.

The principle of competitive exclusion states that

primary productivity is the rate at which biomass is produced

The relationship between biomass and primary productivity is that _____.

Batesian mimicry

The term used to describe a harmless organism resembling a harmful one is _____.

age when reproduction begins, how often reproduction occurs, and how many offspring are produced per reproductive episode.

The three basic variables that make up the life history of an organism are

more intense annual solar radiation.

There are more species in tropical areas than in places more distant from the equator. This is probably a result of

+/+

What interactions exist between cellulose-digesting organisms in the gut of a termite and the termite?

a small population of rodents that has grown to reach a static carrying capacity?

This curve illustrates _____

the growth over several seasons of a population of snowshoe hares that were introduced to an appropriate habitat also inhabited by predators in northern Canada

This graph illustrates _____.

the population growth curve of single bacterium growing in a flask of ideal medium at optimum temperature over a 24-hour period

This graph illustrates _____.

keep track of the females in a cohort.

To construct a reproductive table for a sexual species, one needs to

the size of the area in which they live

To determine the density of a rabbit population, you would need to know the number of rabbits and _____

producers and decomposers.

To recycle nutrients, an ecosystem must have, at a minimum,

competitive interaction between individuals of the same population.

Uniform spacing patterns in plants such as the creosote bush are most often associated with

zooplankton

What are the most abundant animals found in the pelagic zone?

temperature and rainfall

What are the two major factors determining the distribution of terrestrial biomes?

The amount of solar energy converted to chemical energy in organic compounds for a given area per year.

What do the bars on this graph represent?

Developed countries have lower infant mortality rates and higher life expectancy than developing countries.

What is a logical conclusion that can be drawn from the graphs above?

This includes the individuals of one species in one place that presumably interact, use the same resources, and are influenced by the same environmental conditions.

What is a population?

500 g/m2/year

What is represented by the distance between two vertical white gridlines on this graph?

Individuals' life spans as a percentage of the maximum life span for the species

What is represented on the x axis of this graph?

to speed up the restoration of a degraded ecosystem

What is the goal of restoration ecology?

decomposition

What name is given to the process by which detritivores return carbon to the atmosphere?

secondary consumer

When a human eats a steak, the human is acting as a __

in biomes at different latitudes.

When climbing a mountain, we can observe transitions in biological communities that are analogous to the changes

clarifier

Where does settling of solids occur at a wastewater treatment facility?

tropical rain forrest

Which biome is characterized by an extensive canopy that allows little light to penetrate to the ground and by the presence of epiphytes?

tundra

Which biome is characterized by the presence of permafrost?

A

Which curve best describes survivorship in elephants?

aphotic zone

Which lake zone would be absent in a very shallow lake?

B

Which letter represents an organism that could be a primary producer?

B

Which letter represents an organism that could be a producer?

abyssal

Which marine zone has the lowest rates of primary productivity (photosynthesis)?

savanna, chaparral, temperate grassland, and coniferous forest

Which of the biomes—tundra, coniferous forest, temperate broadleaf forest, temperate grassland, savanna, chaparral, desert, tropical rainforest—require periodic fires to maintain their existence?

predation, competition

Which of the following are important biotic factors that can affect the structure and organization of biological communities?

landscape ecology

Which of the following areas of study focuses on the exchange of energy, organisms, and materials between ecosystems?

slight variations in a species' niche that allow similar species to coexist

Which of the following best describes resource partitioning?

Grass grows on a sand dune, is replaced by shrubs, and then by trees.

Which of the following best illustrates ecological succession?

tropical forests-nearly constant day length and temperature

Which of the following biomes is correctly paired with the description of its climate?

Earth's tilt on its axis

Which of the following causes Earth's seasons?

competition for resources

Which of the following causes populations to shift most quickly from an exponential to a logistic population growth?

low rates of offspring survival

Which of the following conditions favors "big-bang" reproduction?

earthquakes

Which of the following could be a density-independent factor limiting human population growth?

counting the number of moss plants in 1-m2 quadrats

Which of the following examples would most accurately measure the density of the population being studied?

investigating how the amount of annual precipitation affects the distribution of a tree species

Which of the following investigations is an example of the study of an abiotic factor?

Invasive species are not held in check by the predators and agents of disease that have always been in place for native species.

Which of the following is a likely explanation for why invasive species take over communities into which they have been introduced?

a nonvenomous snake that looks like a venomous snake

Which of the following is an example of Batesian mimicry?

two species of unpalatable butterfly that have the same color pattern

Which of the following is an example of Müllerian mimicry?

all of the redwood trees that live in a forest

Which of the following is an example of a population?

all of the organisms and their physical environment in a tropical rain forest

Which of the following is an example of an ecosystem?

the brightly colored patterns of poison dart frogs

Which of the following is an example of aposematic coloration?

a "walking stick" insect that resembles a twig

Which of the following is an example of cryptic coloration?

offspring with good chances of survival

Which of the following is characteristic of K-selected populations?

intraspecific competition for nutrients

Which of the following is most likely to contribute to density-dependent regulation of populations?

flooding

Which of the following is regarded as a density-independent factor in the growth of natural populations?

Most energy at each level is lost, leaving little for the next.

Why is a diagram of energy flow from trophic level to trophic level shaped like a pyramid?

Hosts in new environments have not had a chance to become resistant to the pathogen through natural selection.

Why is a pathogen generally more virulent in a new habitat?

This scale allows you to compare species with widely varying life spans on the same graph.

Why is a percentage scale used for the x axis rather than actual ages?

Pushed by the prevailing winds on the windward side, air is forced to rise, cool, condense, and drop its precipitation, leaving drier air to descend the leeward side.

Why is the climate drier on the leeward side of mountain ranges that are subjected to prevailing winds?

is caused by pathogens that are transferred from other animals to humans by direct contact or by means of a vector.

Zoonotic disease

Nitrogen fixation

_____ removes nitrogen from the atmosphere.

Energy transfer between trophic levels is almost always less than 20% efficient.

hich of the following is primarily responsible for limiting the number of trophic levels in most ecosystems?