GB2 Final Homework Questions

Which of the below statements is true regarding the movement of carbon between organisms in a food web and the transfer of energy between organisms in different trophic levels?

Carbon can be continuously cycled, but energy cannot

Most deserts occur at approximately 30° latitudes. Which of the following statements BEST reflects this finding

Cool dry air descends at 30° latitude

Which of these best describes the difference between early and more recently evolved land plants?

Early land plants have photosynthetic gametophyte

Coastal regions of the ocean have high primary productivity. What is the primary reason for this pattern?

Erosional runoff from continents supplies abundant nutrients. Sunlight is able to penetrate coastal waters, so photosynthetic rates are high among autotrophs. Upwelling of nutrient-rich deep waters commonly occurs along continental margins

truck driver is transporting a load of unripened bananas in an air-tight vehicle, and decides to stop and eat an apple after checking on his cargo. He opens the back of his truck and, while walking around the unripened bananas, he decides the apple is overripe and drops it. When the bananas are finally delivered days later, he is surprised to find that all of his bananas have ripened. Why? (Select all that apply.)

Exposure of the bananas to the apple (and its ethylene) instigated their ripening

When sea otters are present in a kelp forest community, there are more than 12 species in the community. If sea otters are removed, there are 5-7 species that remain in the community. These data suggest that sea otters are:

a keystone species

Temperature differences on Earth are caused primarily by the

amount of solar energy received per unit area at each latitude

Which of the following is a result of excess greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere by human activities?

an increase in Earth's surface temperature changes in the behavior of different plant/animal species an decrease in the pH of Earth's oceans changes in Earth's precipitation patterns

Recall that in many plants, if the shoot apical meristem is removed, axillary buds become active and new lateral branches form. What is this an example of?

apical dominance

Which of the following plant and/or pathogen proteins are involved in highly specific immune responses?

avirulence (AVR) proteins formed by pathogens resistance (R) proteins formed by plants

The transformation step in creating bacteria genetically engineered to produce human proteins involves:

bacteria taking up the recombinant DNA in the form of the vectors.

As oceans acidify, carbonate ions in the ocean

become less abundant and less available to organisms that build calcium carbonate skeletons.

On land, _____, which are broad, ecologically uniform areas, are recognized by their characteristic vegetation that reflects adaptation of form and physiology to climate.

biomes

When two species compete for resources, the fitness of:

both species will decline

Hormones play a role in which of the following plant processes?

branch development gravitropism fruit ripening root development

Autotrophs remove _____ from the air and fix this into tissues providing _____ for secondary consumers

carbon dioxide; energy

The greatest number of individuals of a species that an environment can support is its:

carrying capacity

Spanish moss is not a moss, but a flowering plant (Tillandsia usneoides) often seen draped from the branches of live oaks, cypress, and other large trees in the southeastern United States. The trees on which it grows provide support but no nutrients or moisture—the plant provides those things for itself, without apparently harming its support tree. This, then, is an example of a:

commensalism

Which of the following terms describes the phenomenon of one species preventing another from living in the same place due to competition for resources?

competitive exclusion

Humans have a nearly ubiquitous influence on physical environments throughout the world. Looking back through geologic history, which type of organism can claim a comparable impact on physical environments?

cynaobacteria

If we want to know only whether or not a population is getting larger or smaller, what variables do we need to know?

deaths immigration births emigration

Which group in a food web is responsible for returning inorganic compounds back to the environment?

decomposers

Resource competition, disease, and predation are _________ controls on population growth rates.

density dependent

A plant's siRNA response is triggered by the presence of

double-stranded RNA

Glacier Bay in Alaska is a fjord whose lowlands were covered by glacial ice until around 230 years ago. As the glacier retreated, it left behind sediment that was exposed to plant colonization; remarkably (and fortunately for generations of ecologists), the location of the tip of the retreating glacier has been frequently documented since the late 1700s. This means that scientists have been able to develop a detailed timeline of the changes in the plant community, or _____ in Glacier Bay over time.

ecological succession

transgenic organism?

fish that "glow in the dark" by expressing fluorescent jellyfish proteins

You smell a flower that is giving off a horrible smell of rotting meat. This flower is MOST likely pollinated by a

fly

The coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) occurs naturally in a strip of habitat about 450 miles long and 5-35 miles wide, from southwest Oregon along the coast to just south of Monterey, California. What aspect of the population ecology of the coast redwood does this statement describe?

geographical range

Seeds are composed of

haploid tissues of the gametophyte. diploid tissues of the embryo. diploid tissues of the ovule-bearing sporophyte

A plant that is unable to produce jasmonic acid would be deficient in its ability to respond to:

herbivores

A severe drought is an example of a density-_____ factor that can influence population size. The availability of nest sites is an example of a density-_____ factor.

independent, dependent

Tropical leafcutter ants collect leaf cuttings which they transport to special underground chambers. There, they chew the leaves to create nursery beds on which they grow a species of fungus they use for food. When ant queens disperse to establish new colonies, they carry the fungus with them, dispersing it as well (this benefits the fungus). In the ants' nest, the fungus is at risk of being destroyed by another fungal species that is able to grow in the same habitat, using the same limited resources. On their bodies, the ants carry and provide a home for bacteria that produce antibiotics the ants use to kill this second fungus and thereby protect their food supply. In this system, the relationship between the two fungal species is:

interspecific competition

A species whose removal from an ecosystem uncovers a major ecological role would be called a(n)

keystone species

The pollen grain is the

male gametophyte

The dense hairs that cover the leaves of milkweed plants are an example of what type of defense?

mechanical

Grass plants have evolved a growth form that protects _____ by keeping them close to ground level.

meristems

A large population made up of smaller populations linked by migration is a

metapopulation

The observation that agricultural pests are evolving resistance to the Bt toxins suggests that farmers should plant _____ of their fields with non-Bt- producing varieties.

more

In comparison to large seeds, small seeds are:

more likely to exhibit some form of dormancy. more likely to disperse long distances. more likely to persist in the soil.

a fruit is a mature

ovary

During exponential growth, the number of individuals added per unit time increases, while the _____ stays the same

per capita growth rate

The movement of auxin from the apical to basal sides of immature leaf cells and toward the xylem and phloem of the stem is an example of _____ transport.

polar

The type of genetic engineering that often involves isolating genes from one species and introducing them into another is called _____ technology.

recombinant DNA

If you observe more Pfr in lettuce seed cell membranes, has the seed most recently been exposed to which kind of light?

red

As air moves from the base up the side of a mountain, it cools. What is one consequence of this movement of air?

Moisture will drop as rain as the air moves up the side of the mountain.

Which of the following statements is NOT true of hormone actions in plants

Plant hormones act independently and do not affect one another's actions.

Which of the following is TRUE of protein-based plant chemical defenses

Plants and animals use the same 20 amino acids to construct proteins, but some plants have additional amino acids

Primary producers are present in every biome, including the deep sea. How can there be primary producers in the deep sea when sunlight does not penetrate to these depths?

Primary producers in the deep sea use energy from chemical reactions to drive the reduction of CO₂ to organic compounds.

Which color of light promotes seed germination?

RED

Banner-tailed kangaroo rats, Dipodomys spectabilis, are rodents that feed on seeds and are ende

seed-eating rodents that can tolerate the intense heat and dryness in the southwest deserts

In plants, _____ are defined as haploid (1n) cells that develop into gametophytes. Gametophytes, in turn, produce either haploid (1n) male or female _____ that can fuse to form diploid (2n) _____.

spores; gametes; zygotes

The complex mixture of polymers coating the spore that protects the spore from dessication and UV radiation is

sporopollenin.

The orientation of plant growth can respond to gravity because

starch grains within meristem cells are denser than the cytoplasm and move in response to gravity

Gibberellic acid

stimulates stem elongation.

As a population approaches its carrying capacity, how does its growth change

The growth rate slows until N is close to K.

A scientist is researching the germination rates of different Arabidopsis thaliana mutants. The seeds from one of her mutants always fails to germinate, even if she exposes them to red light. In these plants, what might the mutation affect?

The mutation inhibits the conversion of Pr to Pfr.

A researcher creates a mutant pea plant in which cytokinins are overexpressed and gibberellic acid is underexpressed. What is the MOST likely phenotype of this mutant pea plant?

The pea plant would be shorter with more branches compared to wild-type plants

Which of the following is a false statement about phototropism in oat seedlings?

The rate of cell elongation is increased on the lighted side of the seedling

Why is there more organic matter in northern soils compared to tropical soils?

The rate of decomposer activity is higher in tropical soils

If a plant stem is exposed to sunlight only on its right side, what happens and why

The stem will bend to the right, as auxin collects on the LEFT side of the plant, causing cells to elongate.

T/F A transgenic organism is synonymous with a genetically modified organism, as both can contain recombinant DNA

True

Giant clams synchronize their reproduction with the phases of the moon. During these reproductive bouts a single clam can release approximately 500 million eggs to be fertilized in the water column by sperm released from other clams. However, the population sizes of giant clams are very low because many of the fertilized eggs and larvae will be eaten by fish in the local area. What type of survivorship curve would you expect to see in giant clams?

Type 3 Curve

the way you would engineer bacterial cells to produce a human protein

Use restriction enzymes to cleave both the donor DNA and the vector DNA.

If you were to genetically engineer a bacterial cell to produce a human protein, you would use a bacterial plasmid as the _____, or carrier of the human DNA.

Vector

Which feature causes the Earth's polar regions to be cooler than equitorial regions?

the earths surface is curved

Which of the following organisms do NOT exhibit alternation of generations in their life cycles?

the green algae Chara and Choleochaete

Primary producers are the basis for all aquatic and terrestrial food webs. How does the amount of primary production affect community structure?

the more energy available from primary producers, the more individuals that could be supported at higher trophic levels in the community

A researcher knows the geographic range of a population of butterflies. Given only this information, what else can she deduce about this butterfly population

the parasites/predators that these butterflies may encounter

When looking at the carbon isotopes present in the atmosphere, scientists determined that 13C and 14C levels have decreased over time. What did researchers conclude from these observations

the use of fossil fuels is responsible for increased atmospheric CO2

If the Earth spun on an axis that was perfectly perpendicular to the equator

there would be no seasonality in climate.

Consider a species of fruit bat. Which of the following factors play a role in the distribution of these fruit bats

what organisms, if any, prey upon fruit bats what organisms compete with these fruit bats for particular food sources or nesting areas the dispersal capabilities of this species of fruit bat (i.e., could these bats fly to uncolonized islands

Using records taken by Henry David Thoreau in the 1840s, scientists have documented what pattern of change in flowering plants around Boston, Massachusetts?

As temperatures have warmed, flowering occurs earlier in many species

Which of the following statements about biomes is correct?

. The major factors affecting the distribution of terrestrial biomes are temperature and precipitation.

How many kilograms of biomass at the primary producer level would be required to support 20 kilograms of biomass at the tertiary consumer leve

20,000

How many "cells" of circulating air are found around the Earth

6

The direct result of meiosis in angiosperms is the production of

Haploid megaspores and microspores