Zooplankton populations in Lake Erie and the Hudson River have declined by up to 70% since the arrival of zebra mussels because ________.
d. zebra mussels feed on phytoplankton, which zooplankton need as a food source
Individuals of a single species fighting over access to a limiting resource is one example of ________
c. intraspecific competition
How do predation and parasitism differ?
d. Parasites rarely kill their host while predators kill their prey.
Many plants have developed complicated defenses to protect themselves against _____.
a. herbivory
Decomposers and detritivores are responsible for enhancing the soil by recycling __________.
c. nutrients
Zooplankton-eating fish are ________.
d. secondary consumers
Microbes in our digestive tract that help us digest food demonstrate a(n) ________ association.
a. mutualistic
The most accurate way to represent trophic levels in a food chain graphically would be as ____________.
a. a pyramid of energy
Which of the following is true about top predators?
c. They are likely to be keystone species.
________ carried out research to determine the impact of zebra mussels on fish communities
d. David Strayer
Which statement is an accurate description of a keystone species?
a. A keystone species that is a predator controls the herbivore populations, which in turn maintains the plant populations and keeps balance.
Which statement best describes the process of ecological succession?
b. After a disturbance, the community goes through a somewhat predictable set of changes until reaching a final state called a climax community.
Techniques to eradicate zebra mussels ________.
d. include introducing predators and diseases
The Everglades Restoration Plan in Florida ________.
c. will restore natural levels of water flow by undoing numerous damming and drainage projects
Which of the following types of graphs would a scientist reference when determining the biome of an area?
b. A climatograph
________ are typical primary consumers in a temperature deciduous forest.
e. Deer
Desert and tundra both ________.
a.. have relatively low precipitation
Which list includes biomes in the correct order based on those that have the lowest annual rainfall to those that have the highest?
c. desert, grassland, temperate deciduous forest, tropical rain forest
Which of the following biomes has soil with the lowest nutrients and least organic matter?
b. a tropical rain forest
The type of biome that has been converted most frequently by humans for agricultural use is the _____.
c. temperate grassland
The "reef" of a coral reef is
e. all of the above
In Mangrove swamps, air roots are important
c. for oxygen
Ocean water has high levels of Sodium Chloride (NaCl) because
b. living organisms have little use for Na or Cl
Ocean current are affected by global warming because saltier water is _________ , and global warming is making tropical waters ________ salty.
c. heavier, more
"Ecosystem" is a __________ concept than "Community" because it includes ____________.
d. broader, abiotic environment
Ecologists study emergent properties at different levels, for example "carrying capacity" is an emergent property at the level of the
b. population
Desert seed eating rodents that don't drink get their water from
a. respiration
Macho B, the last known jaguar in the U.S., was trapped using one of the three main factors that "organize" populations, namely
a. sex
The following statement about carrying capacity is true
b. it exists because conditions for organisms deteriorate with increasing density
The two main benefits of joining social group cooperation are
b. feeding and defense
In ecology, the central idea of the "niche" refers to
c. the characteristics of the environment where a species succeeds
Coexistence of two species is MORE likely if their niches are
b. different
As species interactions, clownfish and sea anemones are considered _______________ while plants and myccorhizae are considered ____________.
e. mutualism, mutualism
Ecologists have concluded that species ______ primarily exist because of their contribution to the success of the community, and one consequence of this is that communities ______ tend to assemble spontaneously.
c. do not, do
Ecosystem ecology emphasizes system components generally ignored by community ecology, namely __________ and ___________
a. decomposers, nutrients
The key insight of ecosystem ecology was to recognize that energy ________ the system, and materials ___________ the system.
c. flows through, cycle within
An essential element required in the construction of a chlorophyll molecule in addition to C, H, O and N is
a. Magnesium (Mg)
The most abundant gas in the atmosphere, __________, is there because of the action of ____________.
c. nitrogen (N2), bacteria
The reason there are many more gazelles than lions on the Serengeti is that
c. ecological efficiency averages about ten percent
The single factor _____________ most strongly predicts the NPP of terrestrial ecosystems.
e. precipitation
The forests in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan from which your text book was made are ________.
b. FSC certified
________% of Earth's land area is currently covered by forest.
e. 30
How is global climate change associated with deforestation?
b. Forests are carbon sinks. Deforestation releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Most commercial logging today takes place in ________.
a. Canada, Russia, and Brazil
Most of the forests in the United States are _____.
a. secondary forests
How do concessions affect a developing nation's uncut primary forest?
a. Concessions are helping to accelerate the rate of deforestation in developing countries.
________ are replacing primary forests in much of southeast Asia
c. oil palm plantations
What is a main role of foresters?
d. Foresters must balance our society's demand for forest products against the conservation of the forest ecosystem.
Ecosystem-based timber harvesting uses methods that ________.
b. leave seed-producing or mature trees uncut to provide for future forests
Which of the following harvesting methods is the most cost-efficient but has the greatest ecological impacts?
c. clear-cutting
The National Forest Management Act ________ national forest land.
b. was passed in 1976 with the intent to ensure multiple use and sustainable yield of national forests
Which of the following forestry practices would best conserve structural diversity?
d. selection system
Prescribed burns would be used in forests ________.
a. that are subject to severe wild fires to remove fuel load and stimulate new growth
Fire history in an open pine woodland ecosystem would be best determined by ________.
a. tree ring burn marks
Why is salvage logging not an environmentally responsible action to take?
c. Salvage logging removes dead trees that if left, would add to the number of habitats, increasing biodiversity.
Which of the following is true about the preservation of land in the United States?
c. The federal government, state governments, and private groups can all set aside land for preservation.
What percentage of the world's land area is part of a preserve?
c. 12%
Which of the following is not associated with "edge effects?"
b. An increase in biodiversity
What is the SLOSS dilemma?
c. Whether to make a few, large reserves or many small reserves.
What human-caused environmental issue is directly threatening to alter species ranges?
d. climate change
Two of the Domains in the 3 Domain system of classification are considered one Kingdom in the 5 Kingdom system, that is the Kingdom ___________.
a. Prokaryotes
The notion of a cleanly branching tree of life, where species are separate and divide to create new species, may not describe evolution in Prokaryotes very well, because of the following feature
c. genetic exchange
Chemoautotrophs get their carbon from ___________ and aerobic heterotrophs get energy ______________.
a. carbon dioxide, using oxygen
Members of the Cyanobacteria
e. a, b & c
Members of the Prokaryotes
d. have adapted to extreme (salty, hot) environments
Eukaryotes generally do photosynthesis thanks to specialized cellular organelles called ___________ that originally resulted from endosymbiosis of cyanobacteria.
e. chloroplasts
Algae have internal cell components that include
d. all of the above
Algae do NOT
d. have roots
One generalization about complex life cycles that seems to hold up is that large, multicellular organisms need to be diploid, and the haploid phase is restricted to small, short-lived temporary stages.
b. False
One of the most potent anti-malarial drugs, artemisinin, was originally isolated from an organism in the Kingdom
c. Plants
Mitosis results in perfect duplication of cells. Meiosis results in a shift from ________ to _________.
b. diploid, haploid
In sexual reproduction, organisms make genetically variable gametes by mixing genes from two _________ and these gametes then make even more genetically variable zygotes by fusing with ________ from other individuals ("outcrossing").
d. parents, gametes
Which following statement INCORRECTLY summarizes an hypothesis about the functional (adaptive) significance of meiosis (relative to mitosis).
b. Offspring will on average be more deviant than either paren
Unicellular algae share a common ancestor with
e. all of the above
Tree ferns _______ currently extinct and _________ important during the Coal Age (Carboniferous period).
c. are not, were
According to most calculations, we will likely use up our global petroleum reserves in approximately _______ years.
c. 45
The most important decomposers belong to the kingdoms
d. fungi and prokaryotes
An interesting group of Fungi that can both photosynthesize and withstand drying is
e. lichens
The species that can so far legitimately boast having the largest documented single individual organism (single genotype) is
c. Trembling Aspen
The kingdom that does NOT have forms that photosynthesize is
e. none of the above
A major process that inhibits speciation is
c. gene flow
Reproductive isolation occurs in allopatric speciation via ________ and in sympatric speciation via _________.
d. physical separation, ecological separation
The fox (Arctic vs. Grey) speciation example is considered a(n) ______________ speciation with coat color divergence driven by reduced visibility (camouflage) to _____________.
c. allopatric, prey
Evolution is defined as change in ______ in a ___________ over time.
c. genes, population
Adaptive evolution requires processes that both increase and decrease ______________, and natural selection is a process that _____________ it.
d. genetic variation, decreases
Processes that add new genes to a population include
e. a, b & c
Some Creationists argue that while natural selection certainly can and does change the traits of species, 6,000 years is not long enough for it to have generated the diversity of life that we currently see. Biologists __________.
a. agree
Heritable variation depends on differences in ____________ resulting in differences in _______________.
b. genotype, phenotype
All domestic dogs are derived from the same wild species.
a. True
Due to the increase in problems with antibiotic resistance, drug companies have greatly increased their investment in antibiotic research, resulting in a record number of applications for approval of new antibiotics.
b. False
An example of homologous organs are
b. bat wing and whale fin
Which following statement correctly summarizes an example of the imprint of history on biological design?
c. The vas deferens of the human male is much longer than it needs to be
Plants are green because
d. wavelengths not absorbed by pigments are reflected
Horses (Equidae) and Dogs (Canidae) both have fossil records that indicate there were far more species in the past than currently exist.
a. True
The Coelacanth, that was first discovered as a fossil before it was found still extant in modern times (a so called "living fossil"), is a species of ________.
b. fish
Extinction rates have been _______ over evolutionary time, but long term diversity measures have been ______.
e. variable, increasing
Which of the following scenarios is most likely to lead to an adaptive radiation?
d. At tsunami destroys all life on a remote Pacific island
Adaptive radiation in the Hawaiian honeycreepers shows the interesting pattern that _______ species are found on __________ islands.
a. newer (derived), newer
Dinosaurs evolved following the _______________ extinction 250 million years ago.
b. Permian
_____________ are more closely related to whales than to _____________.
d. camels, horses
Only about 2.5% of all the water on our planet is freshwater. However, ________.
d. most of this is far from where humans live
An artesian well occurs when ________.
c. an aquifer is trapped under pressure between two layers that are less permeable
The region of a lake where plants are able to attach to the bottom and still reach above the surface is known as the __________.
d. littoral zone
What percentage of Earth's surface is ocean?
a. 71%
Most of the productivity of the ocean occurs in or on the _____________.
b. uppermost layer of the ocean called the photic zone
Ocean currents can affect climate. One major downwelling specifically responsible for keeping Europe warmer than it would otherwise be is known as ________________.
c. North Atlantic Deep Water
The exceptionally strong warming of the eastern Pacific is referred to as ________.
a. El Niño
Zooxanthellae are ________.
e. Symbiotic algae that provide energy to many species of marine corals
What is our primary consumptive (as opposed to nonconsumptive) use of water?
a. irrigation
Dams create a _________ from which we can get water for human use.
c. reservoir
Overpumping groundwater in coastal areas can cause ________ to move into aquifers, making the water undrinkable.
b. salt water
A factory in a rural part of the United States has just been implicated for releasing toxic substances into the same water source that is used for drinking water in the area. Which of the following statements is true regarding this factory?
b. The factory is a point source of water pollution.
Which of the following types of water pollution causes eutrophication?
c. nutrient pollution
Which of the following statements about drinking water is true?
b. Most bottled water is just purified tap water.
The primary effect of thermal pollution on aquatic ecosystems is ________.
c. depleting dissolved oxygen
A septic system is ________.
c. a rural method of handling sewage
Populations in ocean fisheries have been dropping for decades throughout the world's oceans. What is the main reason for this?
a. overfishing
Bycatch ________.
d. refers to the accidental capture of animals
Which of the following is true regarding marine reserves?
a. They tend to increase species diversity.
Most marine protected areas ________.
d. are along the coastlines of developed nations