Chapter 50
1) Important abiotic factors in ecosystems include which of the following?
I. temperature
II. water
III. wind
A) I only B) II only C) III only D) I and II only E) I, II, and III
2) All of the following statements about ecology are correct except:
A) Ecology is the study of the interactions between biotic and abiotic aspects of the environment.
B) Ecology is a discipline that is independent from natural selection and evolutionary history.
C) Ecologists may study populations and communities of organisms.
D) Ecology spans increasingly comprehensive levels of organization, from individuals to ecosystems.
E) Ecological studies may involve the use of models and computers.
3) Which of the following levels of organization is arranged in the correct sequence from most to least inclusive?
A) ecosystem, community, population, individual
B) community, ecosystem, individual, population
C) individual, population, community, ecosystem
D) population, ecosystem, individual, community
E) individual, community, population, ecosystem
4) Which of the following are important biotic factors that can affect the structure and organization of biological communities?
A) nutrient availability, soil pH, light intensity
B) precipitation, wind, temperature
C) predation, competition, disease
D) A and B only
E) A, B, and C
5) Landscape ecology is best described as the study of
A) the array of interacting species within a community.
B) abiotic factors and the community of species that exist in a particular area.
C) the factors affecting the abundance of single species.
D) physiological and behavioral ways in which organisms meet the challenges of their environment.
E) related arrays of ecosystems – just two examples are a corridor of trees lining a river flowing through a sparsely vegetated plain, or patches of coral reef surrounded by turtle grass—and how they are arranged in a geographic region.
6) Ecology as a discipline directly deals with all of the following levels of biological organization except
A) community. B) population. C) organismal. D) cellular. E) ecosystem.
7) "How does the foraging of animals on tree seeds affect the distribution and abundance of the trees?" This question
A) is difficult to answer because a long-term experiment would be required.
B) is a valid ecological question.
C) is difficult to answer because a large experimental area would be required.
D) Both A and B are correct.
E) A, B, and C are correct.
8) You are working for the Environmental Protection Agency considering the effect of a potentially toxic chemical in drinking water. There is as yet no documented scientific evidence against the chemical, but many suspect it to be a health hazard. Using the Precautionary Principle, what would be a reasonable environmental policy?
A) Establish a contingency fund to handle insurance claims in the event that the chemical turns out to produce negative health effects.
B) Caution individuals to use their own judgment in deciding whether to drink water from a potentially contaminated area.
C) Set the acceptable levels conservatively low, and keep them there unless future studies show that they can be safely raised.
D) Set the acceptable levels at the highest levels encountered, and keep them there unless future studies demonstrate negative health effects.
E) Establish no regulations until there are conclusive scientific studies.
9) All of the following would have a direct effect on the amount of precipitation in an area except
A) mountain ranges.
B) air circulation cells.
C) continental drift.
D) ocean currents.
E) evaporation from vegetation.
10) The biogeographic realms described by Darwin, Wallace, and others are associated with patterns of (recall how scientists believe continents became separate continents)
A) light intensity.
B) precipitation and temperature.
C) continental drift.
D) climate.
E) rocks and soil.
11) Species transplants are one way of
A) determining the distribution of a species in a specified area.
B) consolidating a landscape into a single ecosystem.
C) developing mathematical models for distribution and abundance.
D) determining if dispersal is a key factor in limiting distribution.
E) determining the abundance of a species in a specified area.
12) Zebra mussel populations are growing explosively in the river systems of the central United States. The best explanation for this unchecked population growth is that
A) they muddy the water around them, making it difficult for their natural enemies to see them.
B) predators are too few to slow down population growth of the mussels.
C) a mutation caused by pollution has increased their reproductive rate.
D) they are better adapted to the environment than competing species.
E) they are feeding on a source of food that had previously been underutilized.
13) Introduced species
A) can disrupt the balance of the natural species with which they become associated.
B) often fail to colonize the new area.
C) may become common enough to become pests.
D) Both B and C are correct.
E) A, B, and C are all correct.
14) Which ecological unit or relationship is least related to abiotic factors?
A) community B) symbiosis C) population D) species E) ecosystem
15) Which of the following are correct statements about light in aquatic environments?
I. Water selectively reflects and absorbs certain wavelengths of light.
II. Photosynthetic organisms that live in deep water probably utilize red
light.
III. Light intensity is an important abiotic factor in limiting the
distribution of photosynthetic organisms.
A) I only B) II only C) I and III only D) II and III only E) I, II, and III
Chapter 51
1) When, during a field trip, the instructor touched the body of a moth that was sitting on a tree trunk, the moth raised its forewings to reveal large eye-spots on its hind wings. The instructor asked the class why the moth lifted its wings. One student said that certain sensory receptors had fired and triggered a neuronal reflex culminating in the contraction of certain muscles. A second student responded that the behavior might frighten would-be predators. What can you say about the explanations of these two students?
A) The first response is correct, while the second is incorrect.
B) Both explanations are reasonable and simply represent a difference of opinion.
C) The first response answers a proximate question (How the movement occurs [biologically, physically]), while the second answers an ultimate question. (Why the movement occurred, the stimulus (if there is one))
D) The first response is biological, while the second is philosophical.
E) The first explanation is testable as a scientific hypothesis, while the second is not. Use the following information to answer the questions below. When a female cat comes into heat, she urinates more frequently and in a large number of places. Male cats from the neighborhood congregate near urine deposits and fight with each other.
2) Which of the following is a proximate cause of this behavior of increased urination?
A) It is a result of hormonal changes associated with her reproductive cycle. (How the movement occurs [biologically, physically, genetically, physiologically, sign stimuli – environmental stimuli])
B) In the past, when she did it, more males were attracted.
C) The female cat saw other cats doing it, and it worked for them.
D) Female cats that did this in the past attracted more males.
E) It announces to the males that she is in heat.
3) Which of the following would be an ultimate cause of the male cats' response to the female's urinating behavior? (In other words, why did the female cat urinate near the male?)
A) Male cats' hormones are triggered by the odor released by the female.
B) By smelling the odor, various neurons in the males' brains are stimulated.
C) The males have learned to recognize the specific odor of the urine of a female in heat.
D) The odor serves as a releaser for the instinctive behavior of the males.
E) Male cats respond to the odor because it is a means of locating females in heat. Evolutionary significance. Why answer, in other words, it is a WAY. Like if someone were to ask you, why is this happening? You would answer, “Well, it’s a way of coping with…”
4) Which of the following is a behavioral pattern that results from a proximate cause?
A) A male sheep fights with another male because it helps it to improve its social position and find a mate.
B) A goose squats and freezes motionless because that helps it to escape a predator.
C) A female bird lays its eggs (a proximate cause would be how this is done, but the actual laying of the eggs is a result) because the amount of daylight (stimulus) is decreasing slightly each day. (Laying eggs is a behavioral pattern)
D) A cat kills a mouse to obtain food.
E) A cockroach runs into a crack in the wall and avoids being stepped on.
5) Which of the following is a behavioral pattern resulting from an ultimate cause?
A) A male robin attacks a red tennis ball because a part of its brain is stimulated by objects that are red.
B) A male robin attacks a red tennis ball because several times in the past, red tennis balls have been thrown at it, and it has learned that they are dangerous.
C) A male robin attacks a red tennis ball because it is spring and hormonal changes increase its aggression.
D) A male robin attacks a red tennis ball because it confuses it with an encroaching male, and if it does not attack rival males it will lose its territory (Evolutionary status.)
E) A male robin attacks a red tennis ball because it is much like the breast of another male.
6) After eating a monarch butterfly and regurgitating, a bird will subsequently avoid orange and black butterflies. This is not an example of
A) trial-and-error learning.
B) associative learning.
C) innate behavior.
D) adaptive behavior.
E) operant conditioning. (trial and error)
7) In the territorial behavior of the stickleback fish, the red belly of one male elicits attack from another male by functioning as
A) a search image.
B) a fixed action pattern.
C) a sign stimulus. [This is a result of a fixed action pattern]
D) a pheromone.
E) an imprint stimulus.
8) A cage with male mosquitoes in it has a small earphone placed on top, through which the sound of a female mosquito is played. All the males immediately fly to the earphone and thrust their abdomens through the fabric of the cage. Which of the following best describes this?
A) Copulation is a fixed action pattern, and the female flight sound is a sign stimulus that initiates it. (To engage in sexual intercourse is a FAP)
B) Through classical conditioning, the male mosquitoes have associated the inappropriate stimulus from the earphone with the normal response of copulation.
C) The reproductive drive is so strong that when males are deprived of females, they will attempt to mate with anything that has even the slightest female characteristic.
D) The males learn to associate the sound with a female and are thus attracted to it.
E) The sound from the earphone irritated the male mosquitoes, causing them to attempt to sting it.
9) Mayflies laying eggs on roads instead of in water involves which of the following?
A) insecticide poisoning [no]
B) a defective behavioral gene [no]
C) trial-and-error learning [no]
D) natural behavioral variation in the mayfly population [this is, in fact, anything but natural]
E) misdirected response to a sign stimulus
10) Which of the following statements is (are) true of fixed action patterns?
A) They are triggered by sign stimuli in the environment and, once begun, are continued to completion.
B) They are highly stereotyped, instinctive behaviors.
C) An inappropriate stimulus can sometimes trigger them.
D) Only A and B are correct.
E) A, B, and C are correct.
11) The proximate causes of behavior are interactions with the environment, but behavior is ultimately shaped by
A) evolution.
B) the nervous system.
C) sexuality.
D) pheromones.
E) hormones.
12) Which of the following is least related to the others?
A) pheromones
B) sign stimulus
C) fixed action pattern
D) optimal foraging (Optimal foraging theory views foraging behavior as a compromise between the benefits of nutrition and the costs of obtaining food, such as the energy expenditure or the risk of being eaten by a predator while foraging. According to this theory, natural selection should favor foraging behavior that minimizes the costs of foraging and maximizes the benefits.)
E) hormones
13) During a trip to the north woods, you discover a patch of blueberries. There are not very many of them, as it is a dry year, so you pick every one you find in order to have enough for pancakes the next morning. The next year you return to the same spot and find berries everywhere. Now you pick only the largest berries and only from the tops of the plants where they are easier to see. This is a good example of
A) trial-and-error learning.
B) associative learning.
C) operant conditioning.
D) cognitive thinking.
E) optimal foraging.
14) In the evolution of whelk-eating behavior in the crows studied by Zack, which of the following was being minimized by natural selection?
A) the average number of drops required to break the shell
B) the average height a bird flew to drop a shell
C) the average thickness of the shells dropped by the birds
D) the average size of the shells dropped by the birds
E) the average total energy used to break shells – Zach predicted that crows would, on average, fly to a height that would provide the most food relative to the amount of total energy required to break the whelk shells.
15) Animals tend to maximize their energy intake-to-expenditure ratio. What is this behavior called?
A) dominance hierarchies
B) animal cognition
C) optimal foraging
D) territoriality
E) agonistic behaviour
Chapter 52
1) A population is correctly defined as having which of the following characteristics?
I. inhabiting the same general area
II. individuals belonging to the same species
III. possessing a constant and uniform density and dispersion
A) I only B) III only C) I and II only D) II and III only E) I, II, and III
2) A biologist reported that a sample of ocean water had 5 million diatoms of the species Coscinodiscus centralis per cubic meter. What was the biologist measuring?
A) range
B) dispersion
C) density
D) carrying capacity
E) quadrats
3) All of the following phrases could characterize a population except
A) dispersion.
B) interacting individuals.
C) density.
D) boundaries.
E) several species.
4) To measure the population density of monarch butterflies occupying a particular park, 100 butterflies are captured, marked with a small dot on a wing, and then released. The next day, another 100 butterflies are captured, including the recapture of 20 marked butterflies. One would correctly estimate the population to be
A) 500. B) 200. C) 1,000. D) 900,000. E) 10,000.
100 captured (1) X 100 captured (2) / 20 (Amount from 1)
5) The most common kind of dispersion in nature is
A) uniform. B) clumped. C) dispersive. D) random. E) indeterminate.
6) How would the dispersion of humans in the United States best be described?
A) clumped B) random C) uniform D) dense E) intrinsic
7) The pattern of dispersion for a certain species of kelp is clumped. The pattern of dispersion for a certain species of snail that lives only on this kelp would likely be
A) clumped. B) demographic. C) random. D) absolute. E) uniform.
8) Uniform spacing patterns in plants such as the creosote bush (this is actually a fungi) are most often associated with which of the following?
A) the random distribution of seeds
B) the concentration of resources within the population's range
C) antagonistic interactions among individuals in the population
D) patterns of high humidity
E) chance
9) Which of the following would be most likely to exhibit uniform dispersion? [Uniform occurs with territorial animals – usually]
A) cattails, which grow primarily at edges of lakes and streams
B) dwarf mistletoes, which parasitize particular species of forest trees
C) lake trout, which seek out deep water
D) tassel-eared squirrels, which are nonterritorial
E) red squirrels, which hide food and actively defend territories
10) A table listing such items as age, observed number of organisms alive each year, and life expectancy is known as a(an)
A) insurance table.
B) life table.
C) survivorship table.
D) rate table.
E) mortality table.
11) Life tables are useful in determining which of the following?
I. carrying capacity (Has nothing to do with carrying capacity)
II. mortality rates
III. the fate of a cohort of newborn organisms throughout their lives
A) I only B) II only C) III only D) I and III only E) II and III only