AP Environmental Science Unit 1

Which of the following best explains why terrestrial trophic pyramids usually do not have levels higher than tertiary consumers?

A large proportion of energy is lost as heat as it is transferred up the pyramid, so there is not enough energy available to support another level.

Which box represents a carbon sink that holds carbon compounds for the shortest period of time?

A. Vegetation

This rate of reaction can be measured in the dark by determining the amount of oxygen gas consumed in a period of time.

Cellular respiration

Which of the boxes represents a carbon source?

D: burning of fossil fuels

This biome contains plants that are adapted to prevent water loss due to the low average rainfall and high temperatures year-round.

Desert

The table above shows the balanced chemical equations that represent three processes that are part of the nitrogen cycle. Which of the following is exemplified by the equations above?

Each biogeochemical cycle demonstrates the conservation of matter.

Which of the following best describes the movement of energy in an ecosystem?

Energy is harnessed by producers, and available energy decreases with each trophic level transfer.

Scientists calculated the net primary productivity at two different forest sites. Both forests have the same gross primary productivity. Forest A has a net primary productivity of 1,650kcal/m2/year, and forest B has a net primary productivity of 1,110kcal/m2/year.

Forest AA producers have lower rates of cellular respiration than forest BB producers.

Which of the following smaller reservoirs of freshwater are missing from the diagram?

Ice caps

Where is the majority of fresh water found on Earth?

Ice caps and glaciers

Energy is transferred along food chains from one stage to the next. Which statement best explains how the energy is transferred?

If a primary producer stores 10,000kcal10,000kcal of energy, then a tertiary consumer will have 10kcal10kcal of energy available.

Which trophic level has the least available energy in kilojoules in this food web?

Killer whale

In reef ecosystems, corals often have microalgae living inside them. The algae supply the corals with nutrients, and the coral give shelter to the algae. Which of the following interactions best describes the relationship between the corals and the algae?

Mutualism

The energy available to consumers determined by subtracting the energy used by plants from the total energy transformed by the process of photosynthesis.

Net primary productivity

Which of the following best describes the net primary productivity of an ecosystem?

Net primary productivity is the amount of energy lost through respiration by producers subtracted from the gross primary productivity of an ecosystem.

Which of the following processes is illustrated by the downward arrows from the atmosphere that show the conversion of nitrogen gas into usable forms available to producers?

Nitrogen fixation

(d) Besides banning all harvest of crabs, describe one potential realistic strategy to increase the population of crabs.

Passing laws to cap the number of boats that can enter fisheries Passing laws to cap the number of crabs that can be harvested by each boat Improving existing habitat for crabs Creating habitat (sea grasses) for young crabs to escape predators Reducing pollution that can create dead zones, which kill the organisms crabs can eat

Which of the following best describes a terrestrial ecosystem that will have the highest net primary productivity?

Warm temperatures, high rainfall, and consistent sunlight

Based on the diagram, which of the following statements about the hydrologic cycle is true?

Water from the ocean evaporates and condenses in the atmosphere.

Which of the following biomes is best characterized as an area that forms the narrow band along the coast that experiences a range of environmental conditions (including daily changes in sunlight, temperature, and water) ?

Intertidal zones

Which of the following best describes a symbiotic relationship?

Intestinal bacteria inhabit the gut of humans.

Based on the diagram, which of the following reservoirs contains the most phosphorus?

Sediments

Which of the following terrestrial biomes has the highest net primary productivity?

Tropical rain forest

(b) Describe the process of primary productivity.

The rate at which solar energy (sunlight) is converted into organic compounds (such as sugars) over time

The total rate of photosynthesis in a given area.

Gross primary productivity

The majority of the nitrogen on Earth can be found in which of the following reservoirs?

The atmosphere

In a fish species, the number of eggs that hatch and survive for one year varies depending on the number of eggs that were produced. As the number of eggs produced increases past a threshold number, the survival rate of the offspring decreases. Which of the following statements best explains why only a limited number of offspring can survive in a fish population?

(C) The chance of survival decreases when there is intraspecific competition for resources among surviving yearlings.

Based on the second law of thermodynamics, how much biomass of phytoplankton would be needed to produce 1 kilogram (kg) of large fish in this food web?

1,000 kg

A temperate grassland biome has a gross primary productivity of 3,480 kilocalories/meter2/year and a net primary productivity of 2,000kilocalories/meter2/year. Which of the following is the approximate number of kilocalories/meter2/year available to herbivores in that biome?

200kilocalories/meter2/year

Which of the following types of organisms are required to complete the nitrogen cycle, including the process of denitrification?

Bacteria

Based on the food web shown above, which of the following correctly describes the flow of energy through the trophic levels from producers to quaternary consumers?

Brittlebrush, grasshopper, grasshopper mouse, rattlesnake, red-tailed hawk

This biome is found in shallow waters off the coastline and is Earth's most biologically diverse marine biome.

Coral reefs

Which of the following statements is true of aquatic biomes?

Freshwater biomes are a vital source of drinking water.

This biome contains a nutrient-rich environment created by falling leaves and trapped organic materials from the large trees, and it provides the ecosystem service of filtering pollutants from water.

Freshwater wetlands

Which of the following best describes gross primary productivity in an ecosystem?

Gross primary productivity is the total amount of solar energy captured by producers through photosynthesis over time.

Which of the following trophic levels represents a primary producer in an aquatic food chain?

Phytoplankton

Which of the following best describes the flow of energy in most terrestrial and near-surface marine ecosystems?

Producers use energy from the sun to make organic matter, such as sugars, from carbon dioxide and water and are then consumed by organisms higher in the food chain.

According to the diagram, the movement of phosphorus between biological organisms and soil is in a steady state in an undisturbed system. Which of the following best explains the reason for this steady movement?

Readily available organic phosphorus in the soil is assimilated by plants.

Five different species of warblers, seed-eating birds, live in the same species of conifer trees. All of the birds migrate to coniferous forests during the summer, and different species reside in different areas in the same tree. They feed on the seeds of the conifer trees, but the different species do not mate with each other. Which of the following best explains why the different warbler species can all have habitats in the same conifer trees?

Resource partitioning of the seeds reduces competition, and the five different species can live in the same tree.

This freshwater biome is characterized by fast-flowing water that can originate from underground springs or runoff, which carries sediment and organic material.

Rivers

This biome is characterized by long dry seasons and is dominated by grasses, shrubs, and grazing animals.

Savanna

Which of the following best identifies a key component of the hydrologic cycle that powers the movement of water and is missing from the diagram?

The Sun

Which of the following biogeochemical cycles includes the processes of buffering ocean pH and photosynthesis, as shown in the diagram?

The carbon cycle

Which of the following best describes what is represented by the arrows in the food web?

The flow of energy

Which of the following describes the most likely change to terrestrial biomes resulting from warmer average global temperatures?

The global distribution of midlatitude biomes, such as grasslands and temperate rain forests, would increase.

(c) Describe one short-term, direct effect that overharvesting crabs would have on the food web shown above.

The number of sea snails would increase.

Which of the following statements is best supported by the diagram of the phosphorus cycle?

The phosphates absorbed by animal tissue through consumption eventually return to the soil.

The diagram above best illustrates major processes in which of the following biogeochemical cycles?

The phosphorus cycle

Six white-tailed deer and six sika deer were enclosed in a pasture for observation during an eight-year study in central Texas. White-tailed deer are a native species to central Texas, while sika deer are a nonnative species to central Texas. White-tailed deer feed on flowering plants and the tips of trees and shrubs but do not eat grass. Sika deer feed on flowering plants, the tips of trees and shrubs, and grass. All other grazing animals were kept out of the pasture during the study. The number of sika deer more than doubled after the eight years, while the population of white-tailed deer decreased by 50 percent. Which of the following statements best supports the results from the study?

The sika deer out competed the white-tailed deer in consuming flowering plants and shrubs.

Which of the following is the best explanation for why there is such a small amount of phosphorus that moves into aquatic systems?

There is not a gaseous phase of the phosphorus cycle, and therefore the movement of phosphorus into oceanic reservoirs is very slow.

Farmers in a suburban coastal town started using no-till agriculture, a practice that reduces soil erosion from their farmland. Use the image above to determine which of the following long-term effects no-till agriculture will have on the ecosystem surrounding the farmland.

There will be less algal growth in the nearby ocean.

This biome is warm and wet, with little seasonal variation in temperature and frequent precipitation.

Tropical rain forest

Which of the following terrestrial biomes has the highest primary productivity per unit area?

Tropical rain forest

Which of the following best describes an example of resource partitioning in an ecosystem?

Two different bird species feed from the same oak tree; one eats acorns, and the other eats insects in the bark.