BIO 2011 - EXAM 3

The relationship of a disease-causing organism to an infected rabbit is one of

parasitism

The per capita growth rate of a population is best defined as

per capita birth rate minus per capita death rate

The seeds of many plant species are dispersed by a harmless temporary attachment to an animal's fur or feathers. This form of dispersal can be classified as

commensalism

A line transect would probably be the preferred method to quantify the population density of

Ponderosa Pines

Population growth typically slows down when populations reach carrying capacity because

resource limitation decreases birth rates

If the age-specific fertility rate is such that 100 females of age class x would produce 50

offspring, what is the contribution of age class x to the overall population growth rate?

WRONG

You find some rather strange plants in your backyard. They consist only of thin, pale yellow stems that are wrapped around other species of plants growing nearby. You experiment by unwrapping some of the strange yellow plants and planting half of them alone in pots of soil and half in pots with other plants from your yard. You water and fertilize both sets of pots, but after a few weeks you find that the yellow plants that were potted alone have died, while those potted with other plants are thriving. What term would you use to describe the strange yellow plants?

Parasites

The eastern indigo snake often makes its home in abandoned gopher tortoise burrows. How would you characterize this relationship and its effect on each member?

Commensalism: positive for snake, neutral for tortoise

Scientists have discovered that when they provide supplemental food for hares, their density tripled. The figure above shows cycles of lynx and hare populations over a century's time. What do you predict would happen to the lynx and hare populations in an area where hares were provided supplemental food for one year?

The lynx population would increase 1–2 years after the hares increased, then both would continue cycling down and up.

You find a notebook that has lots of equations, tables, and graphs in it. The tables have columns for the number of female offspring born over a year, the number of deaths over a year, and the number of individuals in various age classes. What subject do you think the owner of the notebook is studying? What type of tables are they most likely using?

Demography; life tables

A mark-recapture program marked 10 individuals in the first catch. The second catch has a total of 8 individuals, 4 of which were recaptures. What is the estimate of total population size?

20

You are studying the feeding habits of a group of four closely related bird species. You observe that all four species feed on insects. However, you notice that the species do not feed at the same time of day: one species feeds most actively at dawn, another during the middle of the day, another at dusk, and the last species feeds at night. What term would you use to describe this behavior?

Resource Partitioning

What allows two or more species with similar niches to coexist in a community?

resource partitioning

The Shannon diversity index would be most valuable to

a conservation biologist deciding where to locate a new nature preserve.

Community A and Community B both have 54 beetle species, but Community A has more total individuals than Community B. If you were to calculate the Shannon diversity index for both communities, what would be the result?

Cannot predict the result based on this information

You decide to volunteer at a community garden and are assigned to tend six equally sized vegetable beds. Three of the beds contain only tomato plants, while the other three contain tomatoes as well as snow peas, bell peppers, cucumbers, okra, and broccoli. You work hard all summer and fall, tending the plants through insect attacks, diseases, and severe summer storms. You harvest vegetables every three days and start to notice a pattern. The mixed vegetable plots consistently produce 4 pecks (a unit of dry goods measurement) each at every harvest, while the tomato only plots produce between 1-6 pecks each at every harvest. The garden director notices the pattern as well, and knowing you are a biology student, she asks you for an explanation. What concept or hypothesis do you cite in your response?

the diversity-stability hypothesis

Based on what you know about various species richness hypotheses, a large, tropical continent would likely have _________ species richness

high

Which of these ecosystems has the lowest productivity?

Open Ocean

Predict the rank order of the following locations from lowest species richness to highest species richness, using the latitudinal gradient of species richness to form your prediction.

Temperate Forest in North Carolina

Steppe in Patagonia (southern tip of South America)

Rainforest in Costa Rica

Boreal Forest in Ontario (east-central Canada)

Steppe in Patagonia, Boreal Forest in Ontario, Temperate Forest in North Carolina, Rainforest in Costa Rica

What are the most important transformers of energy in ecosystems?

Plants and algae

In subarctic saltmarshes, scientists have found that the addition of calcium has no effect on productivity, but additional iron does increase productivity. In this example, iron.

is a limiting factor

In 1992, mangrove forests along the southern Florida coast and the Florida Keys were severely damaged by Hurricane Andrew. Up to 94% mortality was recorded in some areas, with only the shortest individuals surviving. Scientists have monitored the region and by 2001, the forest canopy had closed and the main species were rapidly gaining biomass. This is an example of

secondary succession

Examine the figure above. In the continental U.S., the dark green patches show areas with the highest bird species richness. What best explains why these areas have such diversity?

These areas have mountainous terrain

How do primary producers provide energy for the food chain?

They make their own organic molecules via photosynthesis

You discover a narrow subterranean river in the outback of Australia and estimate that it is at least 50 million years old, traveling through caves undisturbed by humans. You gather a crew of scientists to perform species sampling of the river as well as metagenomics techniques to calculate microbial diversity. The results indicate that although short in length, the river is extremely diverse. You even get to name a new species of shrimp after yourself! During one of your many interviews, you are asked to explain the high diversity of the subterranean river. What hypothesis would you cite?

the species-time hypothesis

When we use the Shannon diversity index to calculate the effective number of species, we are determining how many species would provide that same diversity value

if the populations were all the same size.

Based on the three-cell model of global air circulation shown in the figure, where would you be most likely to find a plant species that is very drought tolerant, but not cold tolerant?

Between 20° and 30° latitude

Most of Europe is in the_________ biome.

temperate deciduous forest

The global patterns of atmospheric circulation and precipitation occur because of

rising masses of warm air and sinking masses of cool air.

The Earth is spherical, which causes differences in the intensity of solar radiation at different latitudes. The Earth is also tilted on its axis at a 23.5° angle. How do you think this tilt affects the intensity of solar radiation?

The sun's rays strike the Northern hemisphere more obliquely during its winter months and less obliquely during its summer months.

You awaken to find yourself lying on the bare ground, dirty and injured. In the dim light, you can make out wreckage around you and surmise that you have survived a plane crash. Over the next few days, you wander the hot, humid area and find an amazing number of different plant and insect species. You are able to trap and eat several rodent size mammals, but do not see any larger mammals. Into what biome did your plane crash?

Tropical Rain forest

How would you best explain the existence of a mountain range that has abundant conifer trees, ferns, and mosses on the east side, but only sparse shrubby plants on the west side?

Precipitation differences due to a rain shadow on the west side produce the differing plant communities.

What factor would you expect to show the largest difference between the lotic and intertidal biomes?

salinity

Which of the following is a characteristic of tundra?

dry climate

Temperature is perhaps the most important factor in the distribution of organisms because

WRONG

What is adiabatic cooling?

Cooling due to the decrease in air pressure at higher elevations

You discover a genus of lizards that contains two extinct species and five living species. The oldest fossils from the genus belong to the two extinct species, and are known only from the Ethiopian biogeographical region. Two of the living species are found only in the Neotropical biogeographic region and the other three are found only in the Australian biogeographic region. Fossil records confirm that all living species are native to the areas they currently inhabit. What is the most reasonable conclusion about the evolution of these lizard species

The Neotropical and Australian lineages share a common ancestor, who originated in the Ethiopian region.

Currents in the ocean basins of the Northern Hemisphere always run in what direction?

Clockwise

A nonprofit conservation organization receives a sizeable donation and decides to purchase several thousand acres of "high desert" in southern California. This particular type of desert has an intermediate level of species diversity and few unique species. However, much of the original areas of high desert have been converted to suburban housing and shopping. The decision by the nonprofit to preserve this area was most likely based upon what conservation strategy?

Conservation of representative habitats

Grizzly bears have large geographic ranges that consist of mosaics of forests and grasslands at varying altitudes. Grizzlies also require relatively pristine water sources in their range. Based on this, what species type best describes grizzly bears?

umbrella species

Which of these is the best example of an umbrella species?

Norther spotted owl

On a field study in Costa Rica, you discover a new species of frog! After careful work to determine the size and range of the population, you conclude sadly that the species has very few individuals in an ever-shrinking limited range. The entire species could be wiped out at any time. When you write up your report on the frog, how should you describe its status?

Endangered

The Florida panther, as an appealing symbol of Florida's conservation campaign, serves as a(n)

flagship species

You decide to go fishing at a lake near your home. After a successful day of catching catfish, bass, and lake trout, you notice a sign that states that the lake was once an open pit mine for bentonite clay. What strategy was used to create the lake?

ecosystem replacement

In a series of field experiments, David Tilman and colleagues investigated biodiversity and ecosystem function. They found a relationship between

species diversity and ecosystem function

In the context of biodiversity, genetic diversity consists of

the amount of genetic variation that occurs within and between populations.

You are conducting a long term study of ecosystem functioning in a freshwater lake. You and your field assistants gather data for many biotic and abiotic factors, including species diversity, water and benthic quality, and turbidity. Over the ten years of your study, you find that the abundance of water lilies is correlated with several other factors. When water toxicity and turbidity are high and water pH is abnormally low, water lilies quickly become scarce, followed by periods where fish, amphibians, and water birds are also scarce or absent. In years where water nutrient levels are very high, water lilies quickly become abundant, followed by years where wading birds are scarce. From these data, you conclude that water lilies are

an indicator species

The idiosyncratic hypothesis suggests that

ecosystem function changes unpredictably as the number of species increases or decreases.

According to the redundancy hypothesis, species are redundant if

they could be eliminated or replaced by others with no loss of ecosystem function.

The wild Tasmanian devil population has decreased 70% since 1996 due to a contagious form of cancer known as Devil Facial Tumor Disease. Researchers have found several individuals that show partial resistance to the cancer. Attempts to breed these individuals and preserve their DNA in the population would fall under what level of biological diversity?

genetic diversity