Environmental Science Ch.5

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When populations of two different species interact over long periods of time, changes in the gene pool of one species can lead to changes in the gene pool of the other. What is this called?

coevolution

What occurs when an interaction benefits one species but has little, if any, effect on the other?

commensalism

Kelp forests are composed of large concentrations of a(n) ____.

seaweed

What is not considered a form of nondestructive behavior?

using the energy or body of another organisms as a food source

The non-poisonous ____ butterfly gains protection by looking like the bad-tasting ____ butterfly, which is a protective device known as ____.

viceroy; monarch; mimicry

Kelp forests are a very important ecosystem in marine waters by supporting important biodiversity. These kelp forests are threatened by ____.

water pollution containing herbicides and fertilizers, sea urchins, and global warming

By 1900, white-tailed deer populations in the U.S. were reduced to about ____, but now, since laws have been passed to protect them and their natural predators have nearly been eliminated, their population is over ____ in the U.S.

50,000; 25 million

If the resilience of a damaged ecosystem is low enough, the degraded area may not be restored by secondary succession. When this happens, the damaged ecosystem has reached ____.

a tipping point

The situation in which one set of species makes an area suitable for species with different niche requirements and often, less suitable for itself, is called ____.

facilitation

Organisms with clumped distributions are fairly rare. T/F

false

The growth rate of a population increases as its size nears the carrying capacity of its environment. T/F

false

The most common interaction between species is commensalism. T/F

false

The capacity to withstand external stress and disturbance is called ____.

stability

Animal predators tend to kill the sick, weak, aged, and least fit members of a species because they are the easiest to catch. T/F

true

Grasslands have a high resilience and therefore can recover quickly following a fire. T/F

true

Humans compete with many other species for space, food, and other resources. T/F

true

Each population in an ecosystem has a ____ to variations in its physical and chemical environment.

range of tolerance

At the population level, parasites are always harmful to the host species. T/F

false

Humans are exempt from population overshoot and dieback. T/F

false

The relationship between bacteria that live in the digestive systems of animals, such as humans, is ____.

mutualism

What is succession that begins in an area where an ecosystem has been disturbed, removed, or destroyed, and that contains soil or bottom sediment?

secondary succession

Bats prey on certain species of moths by using high frequency echolocation to locate their prey. Certain moths have evolved ears that can hear these frequencies allowing them to escape. This is an example of ____.

coevolution

A population increases through birth and ____.

immigration

The ability of a living system to survive moderate disturbances is called ____.

inertia

What occurs when members of two or more species interact to gain access to the same limited resources?

interspecific competition

If multiple species find themselves competing for the same resource, the competition can be reduced by what?

resource partitioning

Species can, over a long period of time, develop adaptations that allow them to reduce or avoid competition by sharing resources. This is called ____.

resource partitioning

Late successional plants are largely unaffected by plants at earlier stages of succession because they are not in direct competition for resources, a factor called ____.

tolerance

In communities and ecosystems the types and numbers of species change in response to changing environmental conditions. T/F

true

In predator-prey relationships, the predator is seeking food for itself and its offspring, while the prey is seeking not to become food for the predator. As a result, predator and prey populations exert tremendous natural selection pressures on each other. T/F

true

Large mammals, such as elephants and rhinoceroses, are especially vulnerable to extinction because of their reproductive patterns. T/F

true

Primary and secondary ecological succession tend to increase biodiversity of communities and ecosystems by increasing species richness and interactions among species. T/F

true

Scientists have changed their view about a stable type of climax community as the end product of succession and are now suggesting we can not predict the course of succession. T/F

true

The carrying capacity of any given area is not fixed. T/F

true

The southern sea otter is a tool-using mammal. T/F

true

What would cause a population to overshoot its carrying capacity?

a reproductive time lag between birth and death rates

What exhibits primary succession?

a rock exposed by a retreating glacier

What exhibits secondary ecological succession?

recently flooded land

What refers to the ability of a living system to be restored after a period of moderate to severe disturbance?

resilience

Kelp forests help reduce ____ by blunting the force of incoming waves and trapping some of the outgoing sand.

shore erosion

What is the most common interaction between species?

competition

Emigration is the ____.

departure movement of individuals from a population to another area

What has caused the population of the southern sea otters to fluctuate?

parasites from house cats

What is it called when one organism feeds on another organism by living on or in the other organism?

parasitism

A group of interbreeding individuals of the same species in the same geographic region is called a(n) ____.

population

What is the number of individuals in a population found within a defined area or volume that can limit the size of some populations?

population density

What describes an organism that is too old to reproduce?

post-reproductive

Some species that tend to reproduce later in life and have a small number of offspring with long life spans ____.

are vulnerable to extinction

What was the primary reason the southern sea otter nearly went extinct by the early 1900s?

Because they have thick, luxurious fur.

What is a population's distribution of individuals among various age groups called?

age structure

There are ____ limits to population growth in nature.

always

The primary reason why southern sea otter recovery is important is because they ____.

are a keystone species

Most ecologists now recognize that mature, late-successional ecosystems ____.

are in a state of continual disturbance and change

The maximum population of a given species that a particular habitat can sustain indefinitely is the definition of ____.

carrying capacity

Some prey species discourage predators with chemicals that are poisonous, irritating, foul smelling, or bad tasting. What is this called?

chemical warfare

What is the most common distribution of populations?

clumped

Plants such as bromeliads share a commensalism interaction with large trees in tropical and subtropical forests by attaching to the trunks or branches of the trees. The bromeliads are an example of ____.

epiphytes

When plotting the number of individuals in a population against time, the data yield a J-shaped curve. What does this curve indicate?

exponential growth

From the ____ point of view, parasites are harmful, but from the ____ perspective, parasites can promote diversity.

host's; population's

Parasites rarely kill their ____.

hosts

Too much or too little of any physical or chemical factor can prevent the growth of a population, even if all other factors are at or near the optimum conditions. What is this ecological principle?

limiting factor

Exponential growth followed by a steady decrease in population growth until the population size stabilizes is typical of ____.

logistic growth

Grasslands have ____ and can burn easily.

low inertia

The relationship between clownfish and sea anemone is called ____.

mutualism

When two species behave in ways that benefit both by providing each with food, shelter, or some other resource, it is called ____.

mutualism


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