Which of these species typically has a mortality rate that remains fairly constant over an individual's life span?
oysters
robins
elephants
humans
grasses
Robins
Oyster populations are primarily, if not exclusively, composed of _____.
adults
Which of these organisms has a survivorship curve similar to that of oysters?
humans
cats
grasses
elephants
deer
robins
grasses
Which of these organisms has a survivorship curve similar to that of humans?
elephants
robins
oysters
deer
grasses
elephants
Which of these was the first of the major events that stimulated an increase in the size of the human population?
the advent of agriculture
the Industrial Revolution
the bubonic plague
the discovery of vaccines
the discovery of antibiotics
the advent of agriculture
Which of these was the second of the major events that stimulated an increase in the size of the human population?
the discovery of antibiotics
the Industrial Revolution
the discovery of vaccines
the bubonic plague
the advent of agriculture
the Industrial Revoloution
Which of these was the third of the major events that stimulated an increase in the size of the human population?
the discovery of antibiotics
the advent of agriculture
the discovery of vaccines and the discovery of antibiotics
the Industrial Revolution
the discovery of vaccines and the discovery of antibiotics
Ignoring migration, the age structure of a human population likely to increase in size will have what shape?
triangle
Ignoring migration, the age structure of a human population likely to decrease in size will have what shape?
inverted pryamid
Ignoring migration, the age structure diagram of a human population likely to maintain a relatively stable size will have what shape?
rectangle tapering toward top
Groupings of mosquito eggs are called what?
rafts
t fish is often used to eat mosquito larvae in the pools of foreclosed homes?
gambusia
What mosquito arrived in the U.S. in 1985 and is wreaking havoc in parts of the Northeast?
asian tiger mosquito
A human eats a deer. Which of these terms applies to the relationship between the human and the deer?
prediation
Humans and sharks both eat fish. Which of these terms applies to the relationship between the human and the shark?
competition
Humans who have pets tend to be healthier than humans who do not have pets. Which of these terms applies to the relationship between a human and a pet?
mutalism
Which of these terms applies to the relationship between a dog and a blood-sucking tick?
parasitism
An egret eats insects stirred up by grazing animals. Which of these terms applies to the relationship between the egret and the grazing animal?
commensalism
In an ecosystem, phytoplankton are _____.
producers
An earthworm that feeds on the remains of plants and animals is acting as a _____.
detritivore
When a human eats a steak, the human is acting as a _____.
secondary consumer
A cow eating grass is an example of a _____.
primary consumer
A human who just ate a hamburger is eaten by a shark while swimming. The shark is acting as a _____.
tertiary consumer
Which of these is a starting point for primary succession?
surface exposed by retreating glacier
Which of these provides your body with energy?minerals
fats
ozygen
fats
Plants use _____ as a source of energy.
light
What element is found in all organic compounds?
carbon
Plants obtain carbon from _____.
carbon dioxide
What name is given to organisms that convert the carbon in organic compounds into carbon in carbon dioxide?
decomposers
Where do plants get the energy to make organic molecules?
light
What name is given to the process by which detritivores return carbon to the atmosphere?
decomposition
removes carbon from the atmosphere?
algea
Detritus is composed of _____.
dead organic matter and excretory wastes
Nitrifying bacteria convert _____ to _____.
ammoinium __ nitrates
_____ removes nitrogen from the atmosphere.
Nitrogen fixation
Denitrifying bacteria convert _____ to _____.
nitrates __ nitrogen gas
Nitrifying bacteria convert _____ to _____.
ammonium _ nitrates
_____ removes nitrogen from the atmosphere.
nitrogen fixation
The study of the interaction of organisms with each other and their environment involves non-living factors, also called _________________, and living factors, which are referred to as __________________.
abiotic components; biotic components
Which of the following options lists the ecological hierarchy in the correct order, from largest to smallest?
biosphere; ecosystem; community; population; organism
ecosystem; biosphere; community; population; organism
organism; population; community; ecosystem; biosphere
biosphere; ecosystem; population; community; organism
A scientist is studying how sea slugs respond to predators. Which hierarchical level of ecology does this represent?
community
Which hierarchical level is represented by a survey of students and their habits?
community
organism
biosphere
population
population
Desert owls are inactive during the day and active at night. They also have small bodies. This describes _____ adaptation to the hot and dry desert.
anatomical and behavioral
Horned lizards are desert animals that are active during the day. Their skin and kidneys are efficient at conserving water; when they get hot, they move to the shade so they can cool off. This describes _____ adaptation to the hot and dry desert.
anatomical, behavioral, and physiological
Cacti are desert plants with C4 metabolism. In addition, cacti bloom at night. This describes _____ adaptation to the hot and dry desert.
behavioral and physiological
Which of these is characteristic of the photic zone of a freshwater biome?
the presence of algae
relatively cool water
relatively stable water temperature
dead organic matter
low oxygen level
the presence of algae
The benthic zone of aquatic environments is defined as the _____.
substrate at the bottom of the body of water
The _____ biome is the largest of Earth's biomes.
marine
A(n) _____ is a region where fresh water and salt water mix.
estuary
What are the two major factors determining the distribution of terrestrial biomes?
temperature and light
Which of these biomes is characterized by little rainfall?
desert
Which of these is the largest terrestrial biome on Earth?
confierous forest
Which biome is characterized by an extensive canopy that allows little light to penetrate to the ground and by the presence of epiphytes?
tropical rain forest
Which biome is characterized by the presence of permafrost?
tundra
Which of the following statements about tropical atmospheric circulation is true?
Warm air expands and rises from the surface of the atmosphere around the poles.
Warm air begins to cool as it begins to sink at about 30° North and South latitude.
The moisture in cool air condenses into clouds and precipitates because cool air holds more moisture than warm air
.As warm air rises, air at the top of the atmosphere is pushed poleward and cools.
As warm air rises, air at the top of the atmosphere is pushed poleward and cools.
Which location on Earth receives the most solar radiation per unit area?
equator
True or false. Rain shadows are wet regions on the windward side of mountain ranges.
false
what is a biodiversity hotspot?
number of endemic species
number of species
degree to which the species are threatened to extiction
What percent of the plant species found on Madagascar are unique to that island?
80
Much of the original forest cover on Madagascar has been destroyed primarily as a result of _____.
burning for agricultural purposes
What is the cause of the red color of the waters about Madagascar?
soil washing into ocean
The human population of Madagascar doubles about every _____ years.
25
From 1930 to 1939 fire ants spread inland about 60 miles from their point of introduction in Mobile, Alabama. What was the cause of their spread over this distance?
natural spread
From 1940 to 1970 fire ants spread through many southern states, sometimes at a rate of 100 miles in a year. What was the cause of their spread over this distance?
soil transport
In 1958 federal law restricted the movement of soil and plants from areas where fire ants were established. Why was this law unsuccessful in stopping the spread of fire ant colonies?
People were unaware of the federal law and, when they moved, transported plants bearing fire ant colonies; a single mated queen can be transported without being noticed; and many states thought to be free of fire ant colonies already had them.
Techniques used, or are being considered for use, in controlling the spread of fire ants include _____.
setting baits that kill the queen when they are carried back to the nest, applying chemical powders that kill the colony, introducing a protist to infect the fire ant queen and her eggs, and introducing a fly that lays eggs in fire ants so that the eggs will hatch into larvae that eat their way into the ants' heads, which will then fall off
As of the time of the writing of Activity: Introduced Species: Fire Ants, fire ants have caused about _____ deaths in the United States.
20
One of the most severe consequences of habitat degradation is the _____ of a population.
fragmentation
A sink habitat is where a subpopulation's death rate is _____.
greater than its reproductive rate
Fertilizer runoff can result in _____ a lake.
the eutrophication of
Most biodiversity hot spots are in the _____.
tropics
_____ is the increase in pesticide concentration as the pesticides pass up a food chain.
biological magnification
The evolutionary explanations for behavior are called the
ultimate causes.
Answers to questions about the immediate mechanisms for a behavior are called
proximate causes
When a nipple is placed in a newborn baby's mouth, the infant will immediately begin to suckle. This is an example of
innate behavior
Researchers studying parental care in 20 mother robins found that every mother robin would place a recently collected worm into the first open mouth she saw in her nest. It appeared that the sight of an open mouth triggered the mother bird's feeding behavior. To test this hypothesis, a robotic baby robin was added to every one of the 20 nests. The robot baby always had its mouth open, and the mother robin always fed it first. We can conclude that _____.
the open mouth of a baby robin is a sign stimulus for the mother, and that the open mouth is the proximate cause of her behavior
Many rats were tested for their ability to learn a maze. The average number of errors for a total of 14 trials was 64 per rat. The rats that made the fewest errors were bred to each other, and the offspring were tested in a similar way. This process was repeated for seven generations, at which point the average number of errors for 14 trials was 36. This experiment demonstrates that
maze-learning ability has a genetic basis.
When building a nest, a female Fisher's lovebird cuts long strips of vegetation and carries them to the nest site one at a time in her beak. The female peach-faced lovebird cuts short strips and carries them to the nest tucked under back feathers. Hybrid female offspring cut intermediate-sized strips and attempt to tuck them under back feathers before carrying them in their beak. What does this demonstrate about behavior?
There is a gentic basis for their behavior
The modification of behavior based upon specific experiences defines
learning
Which of the following behaviors would be unlikely to involve imprinting?
A migrating mother gazelle leaves her calf hidden in grass while she feeds and always returns to the correct patch of grass.
You are told that the song of males among a particular songbird species has an innate component but is also largely learned. Nestling males imprint on their father's song and then sing it themselves when they reach sexual maturity. Which of the following observations would lead you to doubt this information?
A male chick reared in isolation but introduced as an older juvenile into an aviary containing normal males of his species sings his species' song.
A male turkey that imprinted onto a human at hatching is transferred as an older juvenile to a flock of "normal" turkeys. When this turkey reaches sexual maturity, he will probably try to court
humans
After many hours of observation, Jennifer noticed that a squirrel in her backyard seemed to retreat up a certain tree every time it was frightened. At the base of that tree was a wheelbarrow. Jennifer wondered how the squirrel found the same tree each time. Perhaps it simply knew to use the tree with the wheelbarrow. That night, Jennifer moved the wheelbarrow a few feet over and placed it against another tree. The next day, the squirrel retreated up the new tree, with the wheelbarrow resting at its base. This experiment suggests that the squirrel was using
spatial learning
A grayling butterfly will normally fly toward the sun. This is an example of
taxis
The baby bobcats watched as their mother stalked a rabbit and pounced, catching a meal that was shared by all. The next day, two of the young bobcats were seen stalking a field mouse, which quickly escaped from the inexperienced hunters. The young bobcats were learning how to hunt by the process of
social learning
A big difference between imitation (social learning) and imprinting is that
imitation is not limited to a sensitive period.
Which of the following situations could represent kin selection in action?
You help your brother pay for his children's college tuition, even though he may not be able to pay you back.
From a sociobiological perspective, altruism is a behavior that
has the potential to enhance the altruist's fitness at a later point in time.
Agonistic behavior
is used to establish dominance hierarchies.
A group of individuals of a single species that occupy the same general area defines a
population
Which of the following is an example of a population?
all students in classroom
The pattern of distribution for a certain species of kelp is clumped. We would expect that the pattern of distribution for a population of snails that live on the kelp would be
clumped
Assume that there are five alligators per acre in a swamp in northern Florida. This is a measure of the alligator population's
density
You drive through Iowa in the spring and notice that along a stretch of several kilometers, every third fence post has a male redwing blackbird perched on it defending its nesting territory. This is an example of
uniform disperstion
A Type I survivorship curve is the result of which of the following life history traits?
parents providing extended care for their young
A survivorship curve is a
graph that plots an individual's likelihood of being alive as a function of age.
A human population will achieve zero population growth if
couples have an average of about 2.25 children each (to account for some children who do not survive to reproduce).
The maximum number of individuals a habitat can support is called its
carrying capacity
In the logistic growth model, as population size increases, birth rates
rates decline and/or death rates increase.
A tidal wave wipes out the entire population of mice living on an island. This is an example of
the effects od aboitic factors
Which of the following is most clearly a case of density-dependent population regulation?
a dangerous new flu strain that is transmitted among humans by sneezing
An ecologist hypothesizes that predation by a particular owl species is the major factor controlling the population of a particular rabbit species. The first step in testing this hypothesis would be to determine
whether the owls eat the rabbits.
The life history strategy of an r-selected species is to
take advantage of human activity, such as clearing woodlots.
Guppies from Trinidad form two distinct populations that differ in several life history traits that appear to relate to the local predator populations, pike-cichlids or killifish. Which of the following experiments would test the heritability of these traits?
Raise both populations without predators to see if they maintain their life history traits.
What is the age structure of a population?
the proportion of individuals in different age groups
The greatest crisis ever faced by humans is probably
human population growth
A demographic tool used to predict a population's future growth is
age structures
An ecological footprint
is a means of understanding resource availability and usage.
The human population on Earth is expected to reach 9.5 billion people by
2050
One reason it is important to understand community ecology is
to aid in conservation of endangered species.
A community is composed of
potentially interacting populations of different kinds of organisms.
An owl and a hawk both eat mice. Which of these terms describes the relationship between a hawk and an owl?
competition
Which of the following is an example of predation?
hawk kills snake
When two different populations in a community benefit from their relationship with each other, the result is called
mutualism
The sum total of a population's use of the biotic and abiotic resources of its habitat constitutes its
niche
In an ecosystem, you would expect to find interspecific competition between
populations of two species that occupy the same niche.
Dinoflagellates are important to coral and coral-dwelling animals because they
produce energy that is used by coral animals through photosynthesis.
One mechanism that prey populations evolve to avoid predation is
camouflage
Some herbivore-plant interactions evolved through a series of reciprocal evolutionary adaptations in both species. The process is called
coevolution
Most plants have a variety of chemicals, spines, and thorns because the plants
cannot run away from herbivores.
In addition to environmental factors, community composition of plants can be severely compromised by
parasites and pathogens
The primary decomposers of a community are called
detrivitors
In a hypothetical food chain consisting of grass, grasshoppers, sparrows, and hawks, the grasshoppers are
primary consumers
On Earth, most organic molecules are produced by
photosynthesis
Within an ecosystem, a tree is a
producer
In a certain ecosystem, field mice are preyed on by snakes and hawks. The entry of wild dogs into the system adds another predator of the mice. Of the following, the most likely short-term result of this addition is
reduction in the number of mice
The number of species in a community is called the
speicies richness
Which of the following statements regarding food webs is true?
Several species of primary consumers may feed on the same species of producer.
During ecological succession, the species composition of a plant community generally
changes gradually because each species responds differently to the changing environment.
Which of the following statements about the role of fire in ecosystems is true?
Fire is essential to maintaining some ecosystems.
Biological control is defined as
the intentional release of a natural enemy of a pest population.
Non-native species that are introduced in new environments, spread far beyond the original point of introduction, and cause damage are called
invasive species.
The flow of ________ into ecosystems occurs in one direction only, while ________ are recycled within the ecosystem itself.
energy ___ chemicals
Which of the following processes does not occur in ecosystems?
The energy source that powers the system is used by consumers to make organic compounds.
For a given area and time period, the amount of solar energy converted to chemical energy is called
primary production.
Carbon mainly cycles between the biotic and abiotic worlds through the processes of
respiration and photosynthesis.
In experimental studies conducted at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, it was found that
water runoff increased in the deforested areas.
The primary goal of conservation biology is to
counter the loss of biodiversity.
In the 2,000 years that humans have lived on Madagascar, the island has lost approximately ________ of its native species.
50%
The U.S. Endangered Species Act oversees
threatened species
The three greatest current threats to biodiversity, in order starting with the greatest, are
habitat destruction, the introduction of invasive species, and overexploitation.
Habitat destruction by humans has been implicated in the decline of ________ of the species in modern history.
73%
CO2 flooding into the atmosphere is absorbed by ________ and converted into biomass.
photosynthetic organisms
An important change in populations and species in response to climate change is
distribution
An organism's responses to climate change that result in phenotypic variation is called