Environmental Biology

What expression is used to determine the overall growth rate of a population?

(crude birth rate - crude death rate) + (immigration rate - emigration rate)

Assuming a population grows by a fixed percentage each year, which of the following starting populations would experience the biggest increase in its population from one year to the next?

2,000 individuals

Based on our general understanding of resource use in wealthy versus poor nations, if the people of a poor country deplete renewable resources at a rate 10% faster than the earth can replenish them, which percentage of overshoot might represent the United States?

40%

Which statement is an accurate description of a keystone species?

A keystone species that is a predator controls the herbivore populations, which in turn maintains the plant populations and keeps balance.

Which statement below most accurately describes a phylogenetic tree?

A phylogenetic tree is a branching diagram used to illustrate a scientist's hypothesis about how divergence took place among evolutionary lines.

Which biome is correctly matched with its description?

A temperate grassland biome has a hot, dry summer and fall, has few to no trees, and contains large grazing animals like bison.

Which statement is correct concerning the process of ecological succession?

After a disturbance, the community goes through a somewhat predictable set of changes until reaching a final state.

Which of the following would protect Earth's biodiversity?

All of the listed responses are correct

Which statement describes or follows from the concept of sustainability?

An example of sustainable use is that water extracted from underground resources must be equal to or less than the water that recharges the underground resources.

If you are registered to take a course called "The Ethics of Human Population Growth," which department at your school will likely be offering the course?

Environmental Studiies

What was the paradigm shift in how we view Easter Island?

Evidence suggests that Easter Islanders did not devastate their environment, but instead suffered after foreigners arrived on the island.

Many plants devolved complicated defenses to protect themselves against ________.

Herbivory

Which statement most accurately represents the process that produced such dog breeds from the wild-type (feral) dog?

Humans noticed dogs with large, floppy ears and a great sense of smell and wanted more like them. They then bred them with similar dogs over many generations.

Why are island species particularly vulnerable to introduced species?

Island species evolved in isolation and lack defenses against introduced species.

What is Earth's natural capital?

It is the accumulation of Earth's wealth of resources.

What would be an outcome of a paradigm shift in science?

Many fields of science would have to rethink their understanding of the world.

How does predation differ from parasitism?

Parasites rarely kill their host while predators kill their prey

When a species is moved from its native area to a new area, it can become an invasive species and damage its new ecosystem. What is one reason these species are able to do damage to an ecosystem?

When a species is transported, it leaves behind its predators and the diseases that previously kept its population in check. Therefore the species is able to grow to large and damaging numbers.

The only process that can change a gene's DNA and therefore give rise to new genetic variations in a species is __________.

a mutation

If you wanted to represent the relative importance of the trophic levels in a food chain, the most accurate way to do so would be a graph in the form of __________.

a pyramid of energy

Which of the following populations would be most vulnerable to extinction?

a small, endemic population

While driving through an area in October you notice that most of the trees are full of beautiful autumn-colored leaves. When you return to the area again in December you notice that the trees have lost their leaves and are bare. Which of the following ecosystems might this be?

a temperature deciduous forest

Which of the following biomes has soil with the fewest nutrients and least organic matter?

a tropical rain forest

Which of the following best describes the elements of our environment?

all the living things and nonliving things in the environment around us

Which of the following would be most likely to be believed by the scientific community?

an experiment that has been replicated 10 times with the same results

Which of these best matches with a type III survivorship curve?

an organism that produces huge numbers of offspring, most of which die quickly, with the few survivors not dying until old age

Which of the following best describes the industrial revolution?

an urban society with increased access to goods and fossil fuel use

The main advantage of observational studies and natural experiments over manipulative studies is that natural experiments ___________.

are able to test hypotheses in the field and with large study areas.

Which of the following would have the largest biomass in a terrestrial ecosystem?

autotrophs

The innate reproductive capacity of a species is its _____.

biotic potential

Which of the following is NOT something a proponent of campus sustainability would support?

constructing a conventional science building that houses large laboratories and offices

Bats and birds are unrelated animals, yet they both evolved wings. By acquiring similar traits (i.e., wings) as they adapted to similar environments, these species exhibit __________?

convergent evolution

If a scientist travels to the rain forest to observe and catalog new species, he or she would be conducting ___________.

descriptive science

Consider a population of fish in the ocean. Which of the following would be a limiting factor for such a population?

dissolved oxygen levels

If a scientist spends his time studying communities and the nonliving materials that they interact with, he or she would be called a(n) _______.

ecosystem ecologist

When a parasite lives inside the human gastrointestinal tract, absorbing some of the human's nutrients at the human's expense, it is considered a(n) _____ interaction.

exploitative

Which of the following is a nonrenewable resource?

fossil fuels

Which of the following is an example of a "wicked problem"?

global warming

Density-dependent factors _______.

have a greater impact at higher population densities.

The sixth mass extinction event is likely being caused by __________.

human-induced events

If a scientist makes an observation and eventually carries out an experiment to explain that observation, he or she is conducting ___________.

hypothesis-driven science

When looking at the distribution of a population, we might find a uniform distribution when _______.

individuals are competing for an evenly distributed resource such as space

What kind of interaction occurs when two cardinals (birds of the same species) are trying to build a nest in the same tree?

intraspecific competition

If you wanted to predict which biome you would find in an area, what two things would you would need to know about that area?

its annual rainfall and temperature

When wolves were eliminated from Yellowstone National Park in 1926, the elk population exploded and biodiversity along streams declined dramatically as the elks consumed all of the riverside vegetation. When wolves were reintroduced the biodiversity of these riverside, communities increased dramatically. What kind of species is the wolf in the Yellowstone community?

keystone

Which of the following would explain the extinction of upwards of 90% of species in existence over a short period of time?

mass extinction events

Many wild orchids cannot be successfully dug up and transplanted because they need the native mychorrhizae (a fungus) in the soil to survive. What kind of interaction is this?

mutualism

If we are not concerned about the effect of migration on population growth, the measure we would calculate is the _______.

natural rate of population growth

The following statement is an example of a(n) __________: "People in Japan eat more fish on average than people of other countries."

observation

If a human consumes both plant and animal products then he or she is considered a(n) _____.

omnivore

Along with population growth, which of the following is a major root of the environmental problems caused by humans?

our exploitation and consumption of resources

When scientists determined that the earth was round rather than flat, this was a ___________.

paradigm shift

Which of the following is a typical K-selected species' adaptation?

parental care of the young

Starting with the smallest level of ecological organization and moving towards the highest, the order should go organism, _________.

population, community, ecosystem, biosphere

Ecological restoration tries to _____.

return ecosystems to a more "natural" state, often what they were like before industrial civilization altered them

Which of the following is considered a community?

several interacting species living in the same

When looking at the distribution of the world's biomes, there is a predictable pattern that results when starting at the equator and moving north or south (a longitudinal change). Where else do we see the same sort of predictable pattern?

starting at the base of a mountain and climbing up to the top

The type of biome that has been converted most frequently by humans for agricultural use is the _____.

temperate grassland

A marine ecosystem is exposed to a potentially devastating invasive species and responds by remaining stable throughout the invasion. It could be said that _____. disturbance

the ecosystem demonstrated resistance to the disturbance

In a controlled experiment, if a researcher wants to examine the effect of feeding a high-calorie diet on an animal's weight, which one would be the independent variable?

the high-calorie diet

The carrying capacity is _______.

the maximum population size that a given environment can sustain

A __________ is widely accepted, and has been extensively validated by a great amount of research.

theory

Using "+" for those that benefit, "−" for those that are harmed, and "0" for no effect, which of the following expressions best represents competition between species?

− / −

An insect species is an agricultural pest. It is small, extremely mobile, and reproduces rapidly. Which of the following statements is true about such a species?

The insect species is r-selected.

How did the agricultural revolution lead to an increase in human population numbers?

The shift from a nomadic lifestyle to settling down on farms with domesticated animals allowed for nutritional needs to be met more easily.

Two organisms live in the same geographical area, are very similar genetically, and can breed with each other successfully. Which of the following statements is correct?

These organisms are members of the same species

Pick the answer that best evaluates the following statement: "It has been said that land animals can't exist without plants but that plants could exist without animals."

This statement is true because plants are able to convert sun energy into food energy and animals must get their energy from plants or other organisms that eat plants.

Which of the following statements best describes competition for a niche?..

Two species could divide a niche through "resource partitioning."

Of the following, which can be depleted if overused?

Water

Which of the following is a scientific theory?

"All organisms are composed of similar units of organization called cells."

Which list includes biomes in the correct order based on those that have the lowest annual rainfall to those that have the highest?

A) desert, grassland, temperate deciduous forest, tropical rain forest

Which statement is an INCORRECT description of peer review?

Peer review is used rarely and only when researchers are at the beginning of their careers.

Which of the following is a major reason that Hawaii has been able to prevent some species from going extinct?

People are protecting public and private land.

Which of the following is the best strategy for protecting natural systems from degradation?

Protect all natural ecosystems to the best of our ability before damage starts to occur and by acting in a sustainable way.

Are U.S. students who graduated in 2008 more environmentally literate compared to students who graduated in 2001?

Students who graduated in 2008 are less environmentally literate