What is a modern human intervention in the phosphorus cycle?
Planting crops that release a lot of phosphate
Replacing phosphate with magnesium
Mining phosphate for use as a fertilizer
Capturing atmospheric phosphate for use as a fertilizer
Which of the following is a density-independent factor that does not become more limiting as the population increases?
Flash flood from a thunderstorm
Reproductive rate
Available habitat
Water
Which of the following is true about amensalism?
Amensalism can happen when a bigger, more established organism out competes a smaller organism for resources.
The prickly pear cactus is a producer. Which of the following organisms is a primary consumer of a prickly pear cactus?
Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Rattlesnake
Harris's Antelope Squirrel
What type of mimicry occurs when a harmless animal mimics a dangerous or unpalatable animal?
Mullerian mimicry
Coloration mimicry
Chemical mimicry
Batesian mimicry
A chaparral plant that is usually only seen in the first couple of years after a fire is also called what?
A fire-follower
Ash vegetation
A smoke germinator
A fire germinator
What does the term colonization mean in terms of organisms?
When a species starts to populate a habitat where the species was not already present
Which of the following is not a component of the phosphorus cycle?
Atmospheric phosphate
Phosphate bound to soil
Phosphate is incorporated into sedimentary rocks
Phosphate is absorbed from the soil by plants
What is coevolution?
Coevolution occurs when the fitness of two different species is tightly linked and these two species evolve in response to evolutionary changes in each other.
If a mosquito feeds on a bird that is infected with the West Nile Virus and then feeds on a human being who then contracts the virus, what role is the mosquito playing in the infection of the person?
The host
The vector
The parasite
The symbiont
Which specific field of science gave rise to the theoretical idea of island biogeography and its counterpart, island biodiversity?
Zoology
Paleontology
Biology
Ecology
Which term is used to describe how plants spread their seeds?
Migration
Colonization
Biogeography
Dispersal
What is niche differentiation?
When more than one species with almost the same fundamental niche adapt to become specialists in different aspects of the fundamental niche.
Which of the following is an indirect indicator that biologists can use to estimate a population's density?
All of the answers are correct.
The number of previously tagged animals they trap
Counting the number of nests in an area
Counting the number of organisms in an area
What usually happens in a natural population as it approaches its carrying capacity?
The growth rate of the population slows down.
The population will migrate to an area with more resources.
Niche differentiation.
The population drops dramatically.
Which of the following events is likely to precede primary succession?
A tsunami
A volcanic eruption that creates a new island
Deforestation
A wildfire
Within the biogeochemical cycle, where do consumers get most of their elements from, not including oxygen and hydrogen?
The air in the atmosphere
The pool of unavailable organic compounds
The soil
Other organisms
What is a niche?
A role thats played by a particular species in an ecosystem
The area where a predator hunts.
A area thats suitable for a particular organism to live in
The type of prey that a predator hunts.
Intraspecific competition usually gives rise to which of the following dispersion patterns?
Either uniform or clumped
Random
Uniform
Clumped
According to this graph, at which elevation is the population density of Species A the highest?
4,000 ft
6,000 ft
3,000 ft
5,000 ft
When a bee gathers nectar from a certain type of flower to make honey and in the process pollinates the flower, what kind of relationship exists between the bee and the flower?
Mutualistic
Parasitic
Amensalistic
Serendipitous
Which type of factors has the biggest impact on an organism's life history?
Factors unique to the organism's survival and fitness
Physiological factors
Environmental factors
Factors related to the predators of that species
In a typical ecosystem, what percentage of the energy produced by the autotrophs then consumed by the primary consumers will be passed along to the secondary consumers?
7%
1%
10%
0.7%
The lowest, most basic level at which ecology is studied is:
the organismal level
the biosphere
the population level
the cellular level
What is a population?
All of the individual organisms of all the different species
All of the ecosystems on the planet combined.
All of the communities within a geographical area.
The individual organisms belonging to the same species.
How many trophic levels does an omnivore feed on within an ecosystem?
3
Omnivores feed at all trophic levels.
None, because the various trophic levels do not apply
2
What is an ecosystem?
Production of a large number of small offspring, each of which receives little parental investment.
The chaparral biome is characterized by what?
Sparse evergreen shrubs; cold, dry winters; and mild, wet
Large perennial plants that can only grow in the dry summer
Dense evergreen shrubs mild, wet winters; and hot dry summer
Dense, rich soil and a very long growing season