Deck 56: Population Ecology

Question 1

What is a tool of population ecology to study populations?

A) iteoparity
B) growth ecology
C) demography
D) exponential growth
E) disease ecology

Answer 1

demography

Question 2

In mark-recapture, if number of individuals marked in first catch = 10, number of marked recaptures in second catch = 4, and total number of second catch = 8, what is the total population size?

A) 22
B) 24
C) 42
D) 20
E) 40

Answer 2

20

Question 3

Dispersion is

A) the ability to move.
B) the rate of movement.
C) the spatial distribution of reproduction.
D) the spatial distribution of individuals.
E) the timing of reproduction.

Answer 3

the spatial distribution of individuals.

Question 4

Many species of birds form large flocks. What dispersion pattern describes this behavior?

A) random
B) uniform
C) rapid
D) social
E) clumped

Question 5

Why is a random dispersal pattern the rarest in nature?

A) Only aquatic resources are randomly dispersed.
B) Resources in nature are rarely randomly spaced.
C) Most animals have social behavior such as forming flocks.
D) Resources such as most, fertile soil are common and abundant.
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 6

Lions, leopards and other large terrestrial predators maintain well-defined territories. What kind of dispersion pattern would this produce?

A) clumped
B) clustered
C) uniform
D) random
E) logistic

Question 7

Organisms that produce all of their offspring in a single event are

A) always successful.
B) never successful.
C) autogenous.
D) semelparous.
E) iteroparous.

Question 8

Organisms that reproduce repeatedly are said to be

A) semelparous.
B) cohorts.
C) iteroparous.
D) demographic.
E) survivors.

Question 9

Which of these organisms is NOT iteroparous?

A) humans
B) oak trees
C) bears
D) dogs
E) agave plants

Question 10

A fisheries biologist tells you she is studying a cohort of salmon returning to their birth river. What does this tell you about these salmon?

A) These salmon are iteroparous.
B) Most of these salmon are one or two years old.
C) All of these salmon are the same age.
D) This group of salmon show a uniform distribution.
E) The salmon are still too young for reproduction.

Question 11

A life table

A) provides data on the number of individuals alive in a particular age class.
B) more often than not excludes males.
C) typically includes age classes each representing one year.
D) allows predictions to be made on how a population will grow.
E) All of the answers are correct.

Question 12

Which of the following is not a typical characteristic of K-selected plant species?

A) small size
B) slow growth
C) long life span
D) few large seeds
E) poor seed dispersal

Question 13

_____ selected species have a low rate of per capita growth.

A) r-
B) p-
C) K-
D) n-1
E) n-

Question 14

Growth slows down when populations reach carrying capacity because of

A) competition and resource limitation.
B) uniform dispersion patterns.
C) zero population growth.
D) per capita growth rate.
E) resource limitation and lognormality.

Question 15

The intrinsic rate of increase is

A) the rate of population growth under optimal conditions.
B) rarely seen.
C) independent of predation and competition.
D) the unchanging rate of population growth until the carrying capacity is reached.
E) the rate of population growth under optimal conditions and rarely seen.

Question 16

The per capita growth rate of a population can be defined as

A) N.
B) unchanging for a species.
C) birth minus death.
D) exponential growth.
E) logistic growth.

Question 17

What percentage of the population are children 4 year old and younger in West Africa?

A) 8.5
B) 12
C) 17
D) 23
E) 50

Question 18

What percentage of the population are children 4 years old or younger in Western Europe?

A) 2.5
B) 5
C) 10
D) 17
E) 22

Question 19

What average global total fertility rate is needed for zero population growth?

A) 1
B) 2
C) 2.3
D) 2.59
E) None of the choices are correct

Question 20

After the demographic transition, birth rates

A) death rates exceed birth rates.
B) equal 2 × death rates.
C) outpace death rates.
D) equal death rates.
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 21

The United Nations projects a stabilizing world population at

A) two billion.
B) seven billion.
C) ten billion.
D) fourteen billion.
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 22

If 100 females produce 50 offspring, the age specific fertility rate is

A) 0.75.
B) 0.5.
C) 2.
D) 50.
E) impossible to calculate with this information.

Question 23

Random dispersion is rare compared to clumped dispersion.

Question 24

Humans are iteroparous.

Question 25

Demography is the study of how births and deaths change population sizes over time.

Question 26

If resources are increased, carrying capacity increases.

Question 27

K-selected populations reproduce quickly.

Question 28

Slow-growing oak trees are r-selected compared to dandelions.

Question 29

r-selected species tend to have type III survivorship curves.

Question 30

Drought and floods are considered to be density-dependent factors potentially affecting population size.

Question 31

In a demographic transition, death rates decline before birth rates.