Bio Final

While on a walk through a forest you notice birds on trees, earthworms in the soil, and fungi on the bark of trees. Based on this you can conclude that each of these organisms occupies a different

Habitat

The sum of all Earth's ecosystems is called the

biosphere

Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring deals with the

environmental effects of pesticides.

Which of the following environmental factors usually has the greatest direct effect on an organism's rate of water loss by evaporation?

Wind

In many dense forests, plants living near the ground level engage in intense competition for

sunlight

When people speak of the "rain shadow" of the California Coast Range, they are referring to the

scarcity of rain on the eastern flank and adjacent lowlands compared to the western flank.

Most of the world's deserts are located at latitudes where

cold, dry air moving toward the poles descends.

Which of the following ocean zones is biologically the most productive and physically the most demanding?

intertidal

Fresh water and seawater mix in a(n)

estuary

Under the conditions known as El Nio, the mineral nutrient content of the seawater off the coast of Peru declines to very low levels. What effect will this likely have on marine life in the area?

It will reduce the abundance of phytoplankton and, consequently, the abundance of other organisms.

Why is the runoff from fertilized agricultural fields, even if free of pesticides, often harmful to the ecosystems of temperate lakes?

The runoff causes a surface algal bloom, which reduces the lake's oxygen by cutting off the sunlight and fouling the water with dead organic matter.

Species in widely separated biomes often appear similar because of

convergence

The kind of vegetation in a tropical rain forest is generally determined by the amount of

rainfall

The dominant herbivores in savannas are

insects

Chaparral vegetation occurs around much of the central valley of central and southern California. This biome is very similar to that found

in the Mediterranean region.

Most of the best agricultural soils in the United States occur in areas that formerly were

grasslands

The factors that help to perpetuate temperate grasslands, such as the American prairies, and prevent them from becoming woodlands include

seasonal drought and frequent fires.

In which of the following biomes would you expect to find the highest abundance of large grazing mammals?

temperate grassland

The main organizing force of the tropical forests in Puerto Rico is

hurricanes

The major factor in tropical deforestation is

people clearing forests to open agricultural lands.

The evolutionary cause of behavior is called the

ultimate cause

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

When nest building, 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 peach-faced lovebird cuts short strips and carries them to the nest tucked under back feathers. Hybrid 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 genetic basis to behavior.

When you successfully study with the stereo on in the background, you are demonstrating

habituation

A male turkey that imprinted onto a human at hatching is transferred as a subadult to a flock of "normal" turkeys. When this turkey reaches sexual maturity, he will probably try to court

Humans

A grayling butterfly will normally fly toward the sun. This is an example of

taxis

A blue jay hides hundreds of nuts throughout the fall and finds them throughout the winter and spring. The blue jay is most likely finding the stored food by using

a cognitive map

The most extensive study of internal maps have involved animals that

Migrate

Squirrels on a bird feeder seem to be able to figure out how to steal seeds no matter what people do. Yesterday, Jeremy hung out a new bird feeder design, and sure enough, by the end of the day the squirrels found a way to get to the seeds. The squirrels most likely figured out how to get the seeds through

trial-and-error learning.

The baby bobcats watched as their mother stalked a rabbit and pounced, catching dinner 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.

Problem-solving behavior is known to occur in some

A. primates.
B. dolphins.
C. ravens.
D. humans.
Student Response E. All of the choices are correct.

You lose track of your friend in a store and now start looking for her. Which one of the following things that you could do represents the use of a search image?

You think about what color clothing she wore and look for that color.

An insectivorous bird has the choice of eating (1) meadow beetles, which are abundant and large but expose the bird to hawk predation; (2) under-a-rock beetles, which are large and fatty but hard to obtain; and (3) under-a-leaf beetles, which are easy to obtain but small. The bird has nestlings to feed. As an optimal forager, it will

eat all three kinds of beetles, balancing the energy spent obtaining each against the energy gained and the risks incurred.

The need for intense parental care of offspring favors mating systems that are

monogamous

Territories are typically used for

A. feeding.
B. mating.
C. rearing young.
Student Response D. All of the choices are correct.

Which of the following would be an example of agonistic behavior?

A dog raises its hackles, bares its teeth, and stands high to appear threatening.

Agonistic behavior

is used to establish dominance hierarchies.

Organisms that are nocturnal are more likely to communicate using

smell and sound.

An adult human jumps into a raging river to try to save a child who is drowning and is unrelated to the adult. This is an example of

reciprocal altruism.

Human social behavior appears to be

a product of our genes, external influences, and environment.

A group of individuals of a single species that occupy the same general area defines a

Population

Assume that there are five alligators per acre in a swamp in northern Florida. This is a measure of the alligator population's

density

The pattern of distribution for a certain species of kelp is clumped. We will expect that the pattern of distribution for a population of snails that live on the kelp would be

clumped

You drive through Iowa in the spring and notice that every fence post for 3 km has a male redwing blackbird on it defending its nesting territory. This is an example of

uniform distribution.

A Type I survivorship curve is the result of which of the following life-history traits?

Parents provide 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.

Consider a stable frog population living at carrying capacity in a pond. If an average female produces 6,000 eggs during her lifetime and an average of 300 tadpoles hatch from these eggs, how many of these tadpoles will, on average, survive to reproduce?

2

A population of fungi in a yard produces 10 mushrooms in year 1, 20 in year 2, and 40 in year 3. If this trend continues, by year 5 there will be __________ mushrooms.

160

The maximum number of individuals a habitat can support is called the

carrying capacity.

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).

A tidal wave wipes out the entire population of mice living on an island. This is an example of

the effects of abiotic factors

The death by bubonic plague of about one-third of Europe's population during the fourteenth century is a good example of

a density-dependent effect.

An ecologist hypothesizes that predation by a particular owl species is the major factor controlling the population of a particular rabbit species. A good preliminary step in testing this hypothesis would be to determine

whether the owls eat the rabbits

The "big bang" life history strategy of the agave plant is a response to

an erratic climate.

Which of the following will likely decrease a population's size?

All of the choices will likely increase a population's size.

The type of growth illustrated by the human race during the past 2,000 years is __________ growth.

exponential

The greatest crisis ever faced by humans is probably

human population growth.

The sample-plot method of determining the population density of a wild population would work best for organisms such as

pine trees.

A survivorship curve that involves producing very few offspring, each of which has a high probability of surviving to adulthood, is typical of

elephants

In the 14th century, __________ was responsible for the death of more than one-third of the entire European population of humans.

bubonic plague

A community is made up of

potentially interacting populations of different kinds of organisms.

The number of species in a community is called the

species richness.

The feeding relationships among the species of a community is the community's

trophic structure.

According to the competitive exclusion principle, two species cannot continue to occupy the same

ecological niche

We expect that a keystone species that is a predator will

maintain the species diversity in a community

Most plants have a variety of chemicals, spines, and thorns because the plants

cannot run away from herbivores

The prokaryotes that cause tooth decay have a __________ relationship with humans.

parasitic

When a New England farm is abandoned, its formerly plowed fields first become weedy meadows, then shrubby areas, and finally forest. This sequence of plant communities is an example of

secondary succession.

In a hypothetical food chain consisting of grass, grasshoppers, sparrows, and hawks, the grasshoppers are

primary consumers.

In a food chain consisting of phytoplankton zooplankton fish fishermen, the fishermen are

tertiary consumers.

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

a reduction in numbers of mice.

For a given area and time period, the amount of solar energy converted to chemical energy is called

primary production.

You want to do all that you can to help our global environment. One thing you can do every day is to eat a diet that consists of organisms that are

producers

An owl and a hawk both eat mice. Which of these terms describes the relationship between a hawk and an owl?

competition

Within an ecosystem, a tree is a

producer

When you eat lettuce, you are acting as a

primary consumer.

On Earth, most organic molecules are produced by

photosynthesis

Which of these terms applies to organisms that produce the organic molecules needed by all living things?

producers

Which of these processes removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere?

photosynthesis

Proteins are converted into ammonia by

decomposers

The primary goal of conservation biology is to

counter the loss of biodiversity.

In the 2,000 years humans have lived on Madagascar, the island has lost approximately __________ of its native species.

50%

You arrive back in the U.S. after having visited a foreign country located on another continent. The customs agent stops the person in front of you and confiscates the fruit basket this person is bringing home. Being the knowledgeable person you are, you calmly explain to your enraged fellow traveler that the reason for the detainment is that the fruit basket may be

carrying an exotic species that could damage North American ecosystems.

The increase in the concentration of a substance in the tissues of organisms as it is passed up a food chain is called

biological magnification.

Large coastal dead zones depleted of oxygen by accelerated eutrophication are primarily caused by

nutrient pollution.

Without the natural levels of CO2 released by respiration, the surface temperature of Earth would be approximately

-18°C.

The increase in global temperature that is the greenhouse effect is primarily due to

CO2 slowing the escape of heat from Earth.

The red-cockaded woodpecker is dependent upon __________ for maintenance of its source habitat.

fire

Habitat fragmentation

A. favors species specialized for edges.
B. generally decreases species diversity at the edges.
C. often results from human activities.
Student Response D. All of the choices are correct. 1

Small areas that exhibit exceptionally high species diversity are referred to as

biodiversity hot spots.

Species found in only one place on Earth are called __________ species.

endemic

If wolves were now removed from Yellowstone National Park, we would expect that

A. elk populations would increase.
B. deer populations would increase.
C. moose populations would increase.
Student Response D. All of the choices are correct.

Using living organisms to clean up polluted ecosystems is known as

bioremediation

Which of the following is the greatest challenge facing the zoned reserve systems of Costa Rica?

a growing human population

Which one of the following species was threatened with extinction in the United States by DDT and has since rebounded into abundance?

brown pelicans

Fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) are native to

South America.

Fire ants can spread naturally at a rate of up to __________ miles per year.

10

Carbon dioxide traps heat and warms the atmosphere. This is known as the __________ effect.

greenhouse

Most biodiversity hot spots are found in __________ regions.

tropical

Fertilizer runoff can result in the __________ of lakes.

eutrophication