Biology final exam all practice questions
"Food chains are an accurate representation of energy flow through an ecosystem." This statement is
false; real ecosystems are much more complex than simplified food chains.
The contribution of a genotype or phenotype to the genetic composition of subsequent generations relative to other genotypes or phenotypes best describes which of the following concepts?
fitness
To demonstrate evolution by natural selection, all of the following conditions must be satisfied EXCEPT
low environmental variation.
Roughly how much energy in a trophic level is available to the next trophic level?
10%
If a food chain consisted of grass to rabbits to foxes, what weight of foxes could be expected in a meadow that has 10,000 pounds of grass?
100
The sex with the greater energetic investment in reproduction will be ___________________ when it comes to mating.
more discriminating
Which of the following is an example of commensalism?
A clown fish lives inside a sea anemone and is protected by it, while the anemone receives nothing from the clown fish.
Until the middle of the nineteenth century, all peppered moths (Biston betularia) observed around Manchester, England, were light in color. In 1845, a single black peppered moth was reported. As Manchester became more industrialized and dark soot began to cover the bark of the trees, the frequency of black moths increased greatly. The change in proportion of light and dark forms resulted from
Directional selection
All of the following statements are true about mutations EXCEPT
The mutation rate can be affected by genetic drift.
Which of the following is true about the sexual behavior of males and females?
The sex of any species with the greater energetic investment in reproduction will be more discriminating about mating.
Evolution is defined as
a change in the frequency of alleles in a population over time
Which of the following is an example of an abiotic factor?
annual rainfall in an ecosystem
Natural selection can only act on traits that
are heritable.
Omnivores
are never found in the first trophic level.
European starlings and eastern bluebirds both nest in naturally occurring cavities. In areas where both species occur, starlings often evict bluebirds from their nesting holes and raise their own young there. This is an example of
competition
When more than two members of the same species live in the same place at the same time, they constitute a(n)
population
The beak sizes and shapes of Darwin's finches are correlated with which environmental feature?
size of seeds eaten
The main source of energy that drives global climate is
solar energy
Which of the following organisms would occupy a high trophic level?
spider
Human birth weight is a classic example of the results of
stabilizing selection
Which of the following phrases describes a type of natural selection in which the mean characteristics of a population are preserved?
stabilizing selection
"Survival of the fittest" may be a misleading phrase to describe the process of evolution by natural selection because
survival matters less to natural selection than reproductive success does.
A gene pool consists of
the total of all alleles present in a population.
Population bottlenecks occur when a
- large portion of a population's genetic variation is lost within a single generation. -large portion of a population is suddenly killed off and only a few survive to recolonize the population. -population's size is significantly reduced for at least one generation.
Which of the following is an example of mutualism?
A remora fish removes algae and parasites from a shark's skin, and receives protection in return.
Which of the following statements about Charles Darwin is FALSE?
He was enthusiastic about unleashing his theory of natural selection on the world as soon as he thought of it.
When a sudden change in the environment, such as a flood or fire, reduces the size of a population, the survivors' collective gene pool will be only a limited representation of what was present before the disaster. This phenomenon is called the
bottleneck effect
An honest signal is a signal
given when both the signaler and responder have the same interests, which cannot be faked.
The Gulf Stream
travels north through the Caribbean, bringing warm water up the east coast of the United States.
Wind circulation patterns are driven by
uneven heating of the earth's surface