Practice Question Set 1 - Online Edits PDF

Hi folks! This a collection of questions gleaned from a variety of sources (created by your TAs, me, past instructors, the web etc.) on material from our first ¼ of the semester. I am hoping that this might help you review material for 2244 in-class exams and to give you an idea of your own progress...

Hi folks! This a collection of questions gleaned from a variety of sources (created by your TAs, me, past instructors, the web etc.) on material from our first ¼ of the semester. I am hoping that this might help you review material for 2244 in-class exams and to give you an idea of your own progress with the course material. These questions are **not** meant to be your exclusive, "one and only", study guide to the course. Do not treat them as such! In particular please note that: 1\) I generally try not to re-use questions throughout the semester. Do not expect these exact questions to be reproduced on an exam even if the same topic is covered. 2\) This is a sampling of the material we have covered in lecture, discussion and in the book. Some material here may not actually appear on the exam. Similarly material on the exam may not appear here. *When in doubt about something, whenever confused, please come to office hours, talk to your TA or make an appointment with me!* **Good luck with your studying!** **Multiple choice:** 1. You observe a small yellow bird in a coniferous forest that only forages close to the trunk while a larger bird forages on the outsides of branches in the same trees. You would say that the tendency of the small yellow bird to only forage by the trunk is an expression of its: a. Habitat b. Niche c. Phenotype d. Genotype e. Fitness 2. Ecology and evolution are intimately linked at many levels of ecological organization. At which level does natural selection occur? f. Individual g. Species h. Population i. Community 3. If the Earth spun in the opposite direction (i.e., sunrise would happen in San Francisco ahead of New York), in which directions would the trade winds (the prevailing surface winds driven by Hadley circulation) be blowing in the northern hemisphere? j. From the southeast to the northwest k. From the southwest to the northeast l. From the northeast to the southwest m. From the northwest to the southeast 4. Why are desert biomes most commonly observed around 30 degrees N and S latitude? n. Trade winds take warm air away around 30 degrees o. Easterlies bring cold air from the poles to 30 degrees p. Upwelling of cold ocean water typically occurs at 30 degrees q. Many large herbivores live in these regions and overgraze r. Cold air drops from Hadley cells around 30 degrees 5. Fundamental niches are normally larger than realized niches because they don't account for \_\_\_\_\_ s. Limitations due to climate and soil t. Limitations due to abiotic factors u. Limitations due to biotic factors v. Limitations due to evolutionary history 6. Your plane crash lands in the Atlantic Ocean at 20° N latitude. If you get in a lifeboat and rely on the prevailing winds to guide you, what of the following is the first country you would strike? w. Canada x. Great Britain y. Brazil z. Indonesia a. Nigeria 7. A wind blows to the south in the Southern hemisphere. In what direction will it be deflected by the Coriolis effect? What would the wind most likely be called? b. To the north, a south wind c. To the north, a north wind d. To the east, a Westerly e. To the west, an Easterly f. To the east, an Easterly g. To the west, a Westerly 8. Which of the following is an example of weather? h. The average annual rainfall in a North American desert is 33 cm per year. i. The average summer temperature at a specific location has increased from 30°C in the 1950s to 32°C in the 1990s. j. Storrs, CT received 10 cm of snow on January 1, 2011, but no snow on January 2, 2011. k. The composition of the soil differs between the coastal beaches and the eastern forests of North 9. What is a contributing reason for the nutrient-poor soils of tropical rain forests? l. The nutrients are quickly used up by the diverse plant community m. High levels of rainfall wash the nutrients away n. Direct sunlight \"cooks\" the nutrients, making them unavailable to living organisms o. Diverse communities of decomposers use up the nutrients before they enter the soil  10. The energy of incident solar radiation reaching the surface of Earth declines toward the poles from its maximum in equatorial regions. Why is this? p. The tilt of Earth increases the reflection of solar radiation. q. A given amount of solar radiation is spread over a larger area at higher latitudes. r. Solar radiation travels a longer path through Earth\'s atmosphere at higher latitudes. s. Both a and b t. Both b and c 11. Which of the following is the most likely reason a soil would not have an O horizon? u. The area has heavy precipitation. v. The soil is in a desert. w. The soil is in a forest. x. The soil is in an area that receives a lot of weathering. 12. Where is the solar equator? y. at the Tropic of Cancer z. between the equator and 23.5º N, depending on the season a. between 23.5º S and 23.5º N of the equator, depending on the season b. along the equator c. between the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn 13. Which biome has distinct wet and dry seasons? d. tropical seasonal forest/savannah e. boreal forest f. temperate grasslands g. tropical rainforest h. tundra 14. Which is the correct order of the processes that occur in a Hadley cells i. adiabatic cooling, warm air displacing cool air, air rising, adiabatic heating, latent heat release j. adiabatic heating, air rising, warm air displacing cool air, latent heat release, adiabatic cooling k. air rising, warm air displacing cool air, adiabatic heating, latent heat release, adiabatic cooling l. air rising, adiabatic cooling, latent heat release, warm air displacing cool air, adiabatic heating 15. Which of the following are potential reasons for inverse density dependence (Allee effect)? m. Increased intraspecific competition n. Increased group foraging ability o. Inability to find a mate p. Competition for nest sites q. Reduced food abundance 16. Consider a biologist studying a population of deer. At the beginning of the year, there are 100 adult deer in the population. Over the course of the year, 15 adult deer die, and an additional 25 deer are born. What can we conclude about λ for this year? r. λ \< 0 s. λ = 0 t. λ \> 0 u. λ = 1 v. λ \> 1 17. The density dependence incorporated in the logistic model is a result of: 18. You\'re a fisheries manager who wants to manage a population of fish to allow maximum numbers of catch without decreasing the population's growth rate. If the carrying capacity of the fish in the lake is 200, at what population size would you want to maintain the lake? w. 50 x. 100 y. 150 z. 200 a. 400 19. The orange-breasted sunbird (*Anthobaphes violacea*) lives only in the fynbos region in the Western Cape of South Africa. This is an example of b. an extinct species. c. an endemic species. d. a cosmopolitan species. e. a localized species. 20. For which of the following organisms might camera traps provide the most useful information: f. plants g. gastropods (slugs, snails) h. mammals i. insects 21. An endangered frog species lives in only a few forest patches found throughout the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The Pacific Northwest is its \_\_\_\_\_ and the forest patches are its \_\_\_\_\_. j. realized niche; geographic range k. fundamental niche; realized niche l. geographic range; realized niche m. geographic range; fundamental niche 22. Which dispersion should be favored among plants that compete intraspecifically by casting shade? n. clumped o. evenly spaced p. random q. clustered 23. How would animals avoiding recapture influence your estimates of N using the mark-recapture method? r. This would artificially inflate your estimate of N s. This would artificially deflate your estimate of N t. This would not influence your estimate of N u. This would accurately represent your estimate of N 24. For a mark-recapture survey, the ratio of the number of marked individuals to the total population is equal to the ratio of the v. number of marked individuals recaptured to the total number of individuals in the second capture. w. total number of individuals in the second capture to the number of marked individuals recaptured. x. total number of individuals in the first capture to the number of marked individuals recaptured. y. number of individuals in the second capture to the number of individuals marked in the first capture. 25. According to an ideal free distribution, individual organisms would be expected to move into low-quality habitat z. when the quality of the low-quality habitat increases to equal the high-quality habitat. a. when the per capita benefit of the low-quality habitat equals the per capita benefit of the high-quality habitat. b. when habitat corridors open up between the two habitats. c. when the per capita benefit of the high-quality habitat is greater than the per capita benefit of the low-quality habitat. 26. Which of the following are not characteristic of a K-selected species? d. Late sexual maturity e. Long life spans f. High numbers of offspring g. High parental investment per offspring h. Increased competitiveness 27. How does having a large number of offspring affect a parent's fitness for subsequent breeding seasons? i. It could limit the number of offspring the adult produces in its life. j. The increased energy needed to feed many offspring may lower adult survival in the following breeding season. k. The energy required to feed many offspring could trigger smaller broods in the future. l. Competition with offspring for food could reduce energy for future reproduction. 28. Lack's hypothesis predicts that bird parents should lay the number of eggs yielding the highest *\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_* m. *parental survival rate* n. *per capita survival of offspring* o. *number of surviving offspring* p. *number of eggs* q. *offspring size* 29. A mature female sockeye salmon swims up to 5,000 km from her Pacific Ocean feeding ground to the mouth of a coastal river in British Columbia and then another 1,000 km upstream to her spawning ground. Once there, she lays thousands of eggs in her single reproductive event and promptly dies. The salmon\'s reproductive life history is r. semelparous. s. iteroparous. t. annual. u. perennial. **Short answer:** 1. What are the costs and benefits of doing a field observation vs. a manipulative experiment in the lab? 2. T/F With regard to the popular quote \"survival of the fittest,\" the term \"fittest\" describes the individual that can leave the most surviving offspring.  3. Define, compare, and contrast climate and weather. Define: Compare: Contrast: 4. Which of the nine terrestrial biomes could be represented by the climate diagram shown below? Make a list of each biome and say why or why not it is a possible match to this diagram. 5. Why does population growth at the start of a logistic curve resemble exponential growth? 6. Give an example of a real-world example from lecture of a population overshooting its carrying capacity and explain the causes of the overshoot. 7. The human population has roughly doubled since 1965, to approximately 7 billion in 2015. Given this trend, when might you expect to see 10 billion people on the planet? What kind of population model are you using? **Show your work** for credit. 8. You survey a population of butterflies during one summer. You count only females and observe 50 juveniles, 30 one-year-olds, 15 two-year olds, 3 three-year-olds, and no butterfies older than 3. You know that for one-year-olds the survival rate is 0.5; the survivorship to 2 years old is 0.3, and the survivorship to year three is 0.06. On average, the ages of butterfly have 0 young (0 yr), 2 young (1 yr), 4 young (2 yr) and 3 young (3 yr) (referring to female young only). Complete a life table for this population and answer the following: a. What is the survivorship to year 4? b. What is the survival rate in year 2? c. What is going to be the total number of females one year in the future? ------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- -------------- ------------- --------------- ------------------- **x** **n~x~** **s~x~** **l~x~** **b~x~** **l~x~b~x~** **Survive** **Offspring** **Total females** ------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- -------------- ------------- --------------- ------------------- 9. You've just finished a camera trap survey of tigers in a reserve in India. To increase photographic "capture" rates you used meat to bait the camera stations (and hopefully attract tigers which will then be photographed). You identify individual tigers based on their unique stripe patterns. You then run the camera traps for the next ten days during which time you photograph 16 individuals and catalog their unique stripe patterns for future identification. You then run the cameras for a further ten days over which you capture 12 individuals: 4 who were recaptures (they were photographed and identified during the first round) and 8 "new" individuals that you had never seen before. a. Based on capture-mark-recapture calculations, what is your best estimate of the number of tigers in the reserve? b. Capture-mark-recapture methods rely on several basic assumptions. One of these is the assumption that all individuals (those who have been caught before and those who haven't been captured before) have an equal probability of being captured. **Explain** one way you might be violating this assumption and **describe** how it would impact your estimate (increase, decrease or no effect). 10. If you capture and mark 62 individuals at time one, and recapture 13 individuals out of 44 captured at time two, what would be your estimate of N? 11. Explain causes and consequences of phenological mismatch and give two examples from lecture.