NRES 103 Final Exam

In nature, ecosystems are

?

Quagga mussels eventually outnumbered zebra mussels by a huge margin because the former

?

The round goby is considered a generalist species because

?

What prevented water-bound organisms from migrating from the ocean to the upper Great Lakes?

Niagara Falls

What is the process by which toxins reach higher levels in species that are higher up the food chain?

bioaccumulation

Most invasive species are introduced

by humans

The diet of the round goby includes

-eggs of other fish -young of larger fish -zooplankton -young zebra and quagga mussels

The EPA exempted the discharge of ballast water from the Clean Water Act

-even though they did not have Congressional approval to do so -because doing so would reduce administrative costs -because they thought it was relatively harmless

Native mussels in the Great Lakes helped to maintain water clarity by

-filtering organic material from the water column -eating algae

Ballast serves a key function on freighters because

-it provides stability to an empty ship -it is heavy, readily available, and basically free

The lamprey moved slowly through Lake Erie because

-it was relatively shallow -it was relatively warm -it lacked suitable spawning streams

The zebra mussel, quagga mussel, and round goby

-likely reached the Great Lakes in the ballast of a freighter -have their native range in the Black and/or Caspian Seas -first appeared in North America in or near Lake St. Clair

The alewife came to dominate native fish in the Great Lakes by

-preying on their young -outcompeting them for food

There were fewer alewives in Lake Erie because, compared to the other upper Lakes, it is

-shallower -warmer

A key problem with the St. Lawrence Seaway was

-the 9-month shipping season -that the locks and channels were too small

Features of zebra mussels that enabled them to be such successful invaders include

-their ability to reproduce at a relatively young age -the ability of females to produce so many eggs -a lack of native predators in the Great Lakes -their high filtration rate

Which of the following factors contributes to the uniqueness of the Great Lakes?

-they are geographically concentrated -connectivity -the location

One way that gobies can gain a numerical advantage on native fish is that

-they spawn up to three times per summer -they are voracious egg eaters -they drive other fish from their spawning beds

The St. Lawrence Seaway was constructed

-to allow ocean-going freighters access to the Great Lakes -because the U.S. President saw strategic value there during the cold war with the USSR

The last glacier withdrew from North America about

12,000 years ago

How much of the planet's available freshwater is found in the Great Lakes?

20%

What is the shallowest of the Great Lakes?

Erie

Compared to the Erie Canal, the Welland Canal

accommodated longer and wider ships

Another ballast hitch-hiker, the Eurasian ruffe, became a very successful invader in the Great Lakes, largely due to

an extremely high reproductive rate

Botulism-causing bacteria spread up the food chain after

being ingested by invasive mussels

In the scientific method, predictions are generated from hypotheses, then tested with

data

Which of the following is not a feature that the Great Lakes share with the oceans?

downdrafts (it does have currents, upwelling, & waves)

The west-to-east flow of the Great Lakes is due to differences in

elevation

The first European to explore the St. Lawrence River was Jacques Cartier, but after 1000 miles he had to turn back because his party

encountered impassible rapids

In recent decades, what is the primary factor that has led to an exponential increase in the movement of invasive species?

global connectivity

At this point in time, what is the biggest problem facing the Great Lakes?

human ignorance

Zebra mussels impact native mussels directly

inhibiting their ability to open their shells

A key difference between non-native (or exotic) species and invasive species is that

invasives tend to cause negative environmental consequences

Rather than a food chain, it's more accurate to think in terms of a food web because

it focuses on trophic relationships as a network

Who eats who in the Great Lakes is not necessarily linear, as exemplified by the lake sturgeon because

it is quite large yet eats small prey items

Compared to the Europeans, the Woodland Culture was

lacking in some ways but equal or superior in others

Even though zebra mussels can only move about 14" an hour using their 'foot,' they can rapidly reach new locations because

offspring are covered with hairs that help them to catch currents

Rain, snow, and surface runoff from streams and rivers add water to the Great Lakes, but this is offset by

outflow

The film clip "The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes" describes a number of geologic phenomena that have changed the lakes over time. One of these has to do with the transition from a northerly outflow of Great Lakes water to a southerly course. This transition was caused by

rising land surface after the glacier's retreat

An extreme form of wave action in the Great Lakes that is associated with rapid changes in wind and barometric pressure is known as a

seiche

On an annual basis, the Soo Locks handle more ships and more tonnage

than the Panama and Suez Canals combined

Detractors of the St. Lawrence Seaway believed

that it would ruin the business of U.S. ports on the eastern seaboard

At one point, the Great Lakes were connected to

the Atlantic Ocean

In a sense, it could be said that the Clean Water Act had its origins in

the Cuyahoga River

There have been a number of unintended environmental consequences that have adversely affected the Lakes once they were connected to the Atlantic Ocean and connections among the lakes were modified by human activity. A key reason that the consequences were so profound is that

the Lakes are relatively young

Which of the following is a Native American tribe that the French did not encounter in the Great Lakes region?

the Sioux (they did encounter the Iroquois, the Winnebagoes, and the Hurons)

Vernon Applegate was able to help reduce lamprey populations by focusing on

the creeks where lampreys nest

Which of the following does not serve as an example of the dynamic nature of the Great Lakes over geographic time?

the salt concentration of Lake Michigan has been steadily increasing over the last 1000 years (-Michigan (the state and the lake) was once covered by the Wisconsin Glacier -Sleeping Bear Dune is moving inland at the rate of 2 feet per year -Paleo-indians once hunted mastadons in Michigan are all examples of this)

According to the film "What's So Great About the Great Lakes", of the five lakes, Superior is not

the stormiest (it is the clearest, deepest, and coldest)

All energy is derived from

the sun

The zebra mussel could not have 'walked' across the Atlantic Ocean to reach the Great Lakes, even over many generations, because

they could not have survived the ocean's salinity or depth

There was a mistake made in naming Lakes Michigan and Huron. What was it?

they're actually one lake

It's thought that lampreys first entered Lake Ontario

through the Erie Canal

The primary mission of the early French explorers of the Great Lakes was

to find a passage to the Great South Sea and Cathay

In the film The St. Lawrence Seaway System, the proposed way to get around the fact that the locks and channels were too small for transoceanic ships was

to unload cargo and put it on smaller ships

A key commercial use of the Great Lakes ever since the days of La Salle involves

transportation

The concept of a food chain is all about what type of relationships?

trophic

Turnover of water, or mixing, in lakes is important in terms of maintaining

water quality

Fisheries managers were surprised to learn that chinook salmon

were reproducing in the wild in prodigious numbers

The scientific method is initiated

with observations