Deck 1: Introduction: Ecology, Evolution, and the Scientific Method

Question 1

An ecologist who studies populations would most likely be interested in

A) adaptations that help individual organisms live in their environment.
B) births and deaths of individuals belonging to a particular species in a particular place.
C) the number and relative abundances of species living in a particular place.
D) physical and chemical transformations of energy and materials in the soil, atmosphere, and water.
E) transport of energy and materials at the global scale.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Who gave the word ecology its current broad meaning?

A) the German zoologist Ernst Haeckel
B) the English naturalist Charles Darwin
C) the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus
D) the American ecologist Rachel Carson

Answer 2

A

Question 3

How can species interactions increase the rate at which species evolve?

A) Interactions reduce the effects of natural selection.
B) Interactions increase the fitness of all individuals.
C) Interactions make specialized traits more useful.
D) Interactions reduce the genetic variety in individuals.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

The boundaries of communities are

A) difficult for species to cross.
B) flexible.
C) clear and distinct.
D) never overlapping.

Question 5

Which ecological level would be of most interest to an ecologist studying adaptations?

A) ecosystem
B) population
C) individual
D) community
E) biosphere

Question 6

How might one hierarchical level that is not in steady state affect the hierarchical level above?

Question 7

A phenotype is

A) the traits an individual can pass on to its offspring.
B) the expression of an individual's traits.
C) an adaptation that increases fitness.
D) a trait caused by interaction with another species.

Question 8

At what ecological level does evolution occur?

A) individual
B) population
C) ecosystem
D) community
E) biosphere

Question 9

In a dynamic steady state

A) there are no inputs or outputs to the system.
B) the second law of thermodynamics does not apply.
C) there is no net change in the system.
D) the system will continue to grow.

Question 10

The first law of thermodynamics states that

A) life requires energy to be continually added to Earth.
B) matter cannot be created or destroyed.
C) when energy changes form, some energy is lost.
D) energy cannot be created or destroyed, but only change form.

Question 11

Which of the following is NOT a property used in the study of populations?

A) density
B) change in size
C) composition
D) relative abundance

Question 12

Which is the correct hierarchy of ecological systems, starting at the most general?

A) ecosystem, biosphere, community, population, individual
B) individual, community, population, ecosystem, biosphere
C) individual, population, ecosystem, biosphere, community
D) individual, population, community, ecosystem, biosphere
E) biosphere, community, ecosystem, population, individual

Question 13

Which level of ecological hierarchy includes the movement of water and air?

A) community
B) population
C) ecosystem
D) biosphere

Question 14

In evolution by natural selection, which of the following is true?
I) Individuals have varied traits.
II) Some individuals have higher fitness because of their traits.
III) Some traits cannot be passed on to the offspring.

A) I only
B) I and II only
C) I and III only
D) II and III only
E) I, II, and III

Question 15

The word ecology is derived from the Greek oikos, which means

A) world.
B) ocean.
C) house.
D) origin.

Question 16

Explain how studying a community can provide insight into population changes.

Question 17

Which of the following systems is composed of assemblages of organisms together with their physical and chemical environments?

A) organism
B) population
C) community
D) ecosystem
E) biosphere

Question 18

A group of organisms that interbreed in nature and produce fertile offspring is called

A) a population.
B) a species.
C) a community.
D) a prokaryote.

Question 19

To maintain a dynamic steady state in a community, which two factors must balance?

A) new species and species extinctions
B) immigration and emigration
C) births and deaths
D) food consumed and energy expended

Question 20

Explain how the definition of species has become more complicated. Give an example.

Question 21

Which evolved first?

A) plants
B) fungi
C) protists
D) bacteria

Question 22

Which consumes decomposing organic matter?

A) detritovore
B) herbivore
C) parasite
D) predator
E) parasitoid

Question 23

Why are protists suited for symbiotic relationships with other species?

Question 24

What pair of species would you expect to be commensalistic?

A) owls and oak trees
B) fruit bats and herons
C) rats and foxes
D) algae and kelp

Question 25

The law of conservation of matter states that matter cannot be destroyed. Why, then, are we concerned about the depletion of resources?

Question 26

Plants and animals exchange energy and materials with their physical environments. These exchanges occur across surfaces. In animals, surfaces tend to be internal, while in plants, surfaces tend to be external. Discuss the principal reason for this important difference.

Question 27

Hyphae are structures found in

A) plants.
B) animals.
C) fungi.
D) protists.

Question 28

Organisms that use photosynthesis or chemosynthesis are

A) autotrophs.
B) consumers.
C) heterotrophs.
D) herbivores.

Question 29

What method is used to increase experimental reliability?

A) replication
B) proximate hypotheses
C) natural experiment
D) mathematical models

Question 30

A mixotroph is an organism that

A) consumes dead organic matter.
B) can be both a parasite and a predator.
C) survives only because of a symbiotic relationship.
D) can use multiple methods to obtain energy.

Question 31

Many warm-blooded organisms must maintain a constant temperature that is commonly warmer than its surroundings. What is the cost associated with maintaining the dynamic steady state, and how is this cost met?

Question 32

An ultimate hypothesis

A) explains how an organism has adapted its physiology.
B) addresses an organism's response to the environment.
C) has been tested and revised.
D) is a prediction about how an organism might adapt in the future.

Question 33

Blue-green algae are

A) protists.
B) bacteria.
C) plants.
D) fungi.

Question 34

Which interaction is characterized by negative effects for both species?

A) predation
B) herbivory
C) commensalism
D) competition

Question 35

The range of biotic and abiotic conditions a species can tolerate is its

A) community.
B) habitat.
C) niche.
D) ecosystem role.

Question 36

There are many examples in nature of cooperation among organisms, such as the bacteria that inhabit the root nodules of leguminous plants. Partnerships between organisms that live in close association are called

A) networks.
B) communities.
C) symbioses.
D) ecosystems.

Question 37

The relationship between a burdock plant and a fox is

A) competition.
B) herbivory.
C) predation.
D) parasitism.
E) commensalism.

Question 38

Eukaryotic organisms are distinguished by their

A) inability to photosynthesize.
B) chloroplasts.
C) mitochondria.
D) single-cell structure.

Question 39

Why are two species unable to share exactly the same niche?

Question 40

How might the use of pesticides to control insects that feed on wheat affect how the insects evolve?

Question 41

Explain why a species with a very limited niche is particularly susceptible to human influences.

Question 42

If the number of fruits on 10 strawberry plants is sampled and E[χ] is found to be 6 and E[χ²] is 38, what is the sample variance?

A) 32
B) 2
C) 2.2
D) 35.5
E) 6.3

Question 43

Describe one specific successful solution to an environmental problem caused by human activity.

Question 44

Explain the potential difficulties of using a natural experiment to test a hypothesis.

Question 45

Explain why the sample variance is larger than the variance of the mean, especially for small samples.

Question 46

Ecologists using global carbon-balance models were overestimating the rate of increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide. This discovery led these ecologists to

A) discard their models.
B) switch to modelling other phenomena.
C) conclude that increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide is not a serious environmental problem.
D) search for evidence of other carbon dioxide sinks in the global cycle of carbon.

Question 47

Use the example of the California sea otter to explain why ecologists must study multiple hierarchical levels to understand most environmental problems.

Question 48

Which would be the most informative about the reliability of data gathered in an experiment?

A) low mean
B) high mean
C) low variance
D) high variance

Question 49

Which of the following has NOT caused increased habitat destruction?

A) biofuel use
B) the pet trade
C) growing populations
D) cactus harvesting

Question 50

Scientists ask questions about how the natural world works. These can usually be classified as how questions or why questions. A scientist observes that an owl species can fly silently. Give an example of a how and a why question that the scientist might study and what the differences would be.

Question 51

What is the mean of these data: 22, 19, 34, 24, 27, 20?

A) 24
B) 144
C) 23
D) 26.5

Question 52

Which is the best action if an experiment does not support a hypothesis?

A) Create a mathematical model.
B) Revise the hypothesis.
C) Test the hypothesis again.
D) Publish your results.

Question 53

The formulation of hypotheses is a critical step in the scientific process. In the simplest terms, what is an hypothesis?

A) an explanation
B) an experiment
C) an observation
D) a proven fact

Question 54

A scientist hypothesizes that the larvae of a particular species of swallowtail butterfly uses olfaction (the sense of smell) to locate their preferred host plants in the carrot family. To test the hypothesis, the scientist uses extracts from various plants-including some from the carrot family-to moisten small pieces of paper arranged randomly under a wire screen. Swallowtail larvae are released on the wire screen but cannot come into direct physical contact with the pieces of paper. What is the advantage of this experiment compared with simply presenting the larvae with a choice among various plants?

Question 55

Explain the role of ecology in efforts to reduce the damage humans do to the environment.

Question 56

Most scientific investigations begin with a set of facts about nature. These facts are obtained by

A) observation and description.
B) development of mathematical models.
C) development of hypotheses.
D) experimental testing of hypotheses.

Question 57

Because it is difficult to experiment on large ecological systems, researchers often replicate the essential features of a system in smaller, simplified laboratory or field settings known as

A) microcosms.
B) approximate systems.
C) natural treatments.
D) experimental units.

Question 58

Fishermen living along the North Pacific Rim felt threatened by increased populations of sea otters because sea otters consume commercially valuable abalone, sea urchins, and spiny lobster. What beneficial aspect of sea otter ecology did these fishermen ignore?

A) Sea otters are consumed by killer whales, which would otherwise eat commercially valuable fish.
B) Sea otters catch and eat trash fish, allowing stocks of commercially valuable fish to increase.
C) Sea otters catch and eat sea urchins, thereby protecting kelps, which in turn shelter populations of larval fish.
D) Sea otters have been used in medical research to develop vaccines that protect domestic cats from a variety of diseases.

Question 59

If you wanted to understand the impact of an introduced species on existing species in an area, what ecological level should you examine?

A) population
B) individual
C) community
D) biosphere

Question 60

An experimental control is

A) an experiment performed on randomly selected samples.
B) a manipulation without the factor of interest.
C) a manipulation using natural conditions.
D) a sample size that is large enough to accurately reflect the variance.