Download EXAM 1

Biology 317 This is an example of some questions I have asked in the past. These
questions may not exactly fit the lectures I’ve given you, but provide good examples of
the type and style of questions I will ask.
Exam I
Instructions: Read each question carefully. The correct answer is the best answer among
the choices. Each answer is worth 2 points.
Multiple choice. Select the most correct answer and write it in the blank next to the
question.
_____1. Which of the following is NOT among the top 5 extinction threats both for rare species
and biological diversity in general in the immediate future?
A. land conversion for development
B. water development activities
C. off-road vehicle activity and other recreation
D. agricultural development
E. logging
_____2. Microevolution (genetic changes in populations) occurs when which of the following is
significant:
A. extinction debt
B. allometry
C. allelic disjunction
D. genetic drift
E. recessive regression
_____3. A ‘rain shadow’ means:
A. more rain falls on windward slopes than leeward slopes
B. fog drip occurs beneath the shadow of trees
C. areas that only get rains when it is dark
D. raindrops that are darkened by pollution
E. rain that only falls beneath isolated clouds
_____4. Warning coloration (usually incorporating red, black and yellow) refers to:
A. bright coloration on animals indicating they are toxic or deadly
B. seasonal colors among males warning off potential competitors for mates
C. bright colors on males to lure predators away from nests
D. trophic interactions
E. pathogen attacks on plants for animals to avoid
_____5. In the northern hemisphere, compared with south-facing slopes, north-facing slopes are:
A. cooler
B. warmer
C. steeper
D. subject to more drought
E. usually contain higher salinity
_____6. Soil is the result of interactions among:
A. organisms, climate and geological substratum
B. tectonics, climate and water
C. geological substratum, grinding of tectonics, erosion
D. climate, erosion, water
E. organisms, migration and climate
_____7. Geological substratum is important in soil development because it is:
A. the source of soil minerals
B. the source of soil texture
C. important in inhibiting carbon loss
D. all the above
E. A & B only
_____8. Some ways plants adapt to herbivores include:
A. chemical toxins
B. nutrient deficient or imbalanced tissue
C. spines
D. all the above
E. A & C only
_____9. One of the forms of natural selection is called ‘directional selection’, and it refers to:
A. adaptive migration of populations
B. selection favoring one end of a range of phenotypes, like larger beaks in birds
C. selection acting by founder effects of a group that has migrated
D. selection for different dispersal mechanisms
E. dispersal into favored habitats
_____10. Among many characteristics of soil texture and structure, probably the two most
important are:
A. balance between sand and clay
B. surface area per unit volume and pore structure
C. geological substrate and water holding capacity
D. chemical toxicity and texture
E. mimicry and geological substrate
_____11. What is an endemic species?
A. species that control herbivores
B. species restricted in distribution to a particular area
C. fungi that are mutualistic with plants
D. soil bacteria and fungi that decompose organic matter
E. a species that can survive fire
_____12. Ecological ‘opportunity’ seems to be critical for:
A. adaptive radiations
B. invasive alliance
C. mutations
D. founder effect
E. monophyly
_____13. Which of the following is not a dimension of biological diversity?
A. respiration
B. numbers of species
C. variation in the genetics of a population
D. variation in trophic levels
E. none of the above
_____32. After overcoming plant defenses, the problem for herbivores is:
A. excessive weight gain
B. population explosions
C. avoiding predators
D. obtaining sufficient carbon
E. regulating community composition
_____70. In plants, a common way new species arise without exchanging genes from parents is
due to:
A. polyploidy
B. long-distance dispersal
C. the development of mutualisms with dispersal agents
D. migrational regression
E. green taxation
_____35. The problem for carnivores is:
A. their populations are dependent on sizes of prey populations
B. motivation
C. susceptibility to rapid evolution
D. photoperiod induced dormancy
E. orographic susceptibility
_____1. The ‘founder effect’, or the establishment of new populations by a small group of
individuals, may be a prime example of:
A. gene flow due to migration
B. genetic drift
C. mutational monstrosities
D. adaptive radiation
E. island biogeography
_____24. “Descent with modification” is a definition of the concept of:
A. ‘harbinger’
B. fisheries overharvesting
C. evolution
D. biogeography
E. germination
_____27. Reproductive isolating mechanisms refer to:
A. people without dates at dances
B. ways in which individuals from 2 species are prevented from exchanging genes
C. mating among individuals in small populations
D. the prevention of genetic drift
E. restriction of trophic interactions to just a few types
_____29. The two most important biological transformations are:
A. germination
B. photosynthesis
C. respiration
D. only A & B
E. only B & C
_____31. In the northern hemisphere, compared with south-facing slopes, north-facing slopes
are:
A. cooler
B. warmer
C. steeper
D. subject to more drought
E. usually contain higher salinity
_____35. Soil is the result of interactions among:
A. organisms, climate and geological substratum
B. tectonics, climate and water
C. geological substratum, grinding of tectonics, erosion
D. climate, erosion, water
E. organisms, migration and climate
_____36. Diversifying selection means that:
A. selection looks for different phenotypes each generation
B. selection acts of different ends of a range of phenotypes
C. selection in a lineage evolves into a variety of selection types
D. all the above
E. none of the above
_____67. The ‘flux of nature’ model:
A. focus on how managers can maintain processes rather than species
B. assumes ‘natural’ disturbances are inherent parts of communities
C. incorporates humans as parts of natural systems
D. all of the above
E. none of the above
_____38. Evolution can occur by:
A. chance, for example by gene drift
B. suppression of mutation
C. Hardy-Weinberg genetics
D. all the above
E. none of the above
_____40. Among the world’s 25 “hotspots” for biological diversity are:
A. Switzerland
B. California
C. Afganistan
D. Kamchatka
E. Bermuda
_____43. In California, due to the shrinking of Pleistocene lakes to small areas in the deserts,
the diversity of pupfish is considered a good example of:
A. overfishing
B. sustainable fishing
C. allopatric speciation
D. post-radiation mutation
E. accumulation of analogous structures
_____45. The extinction vortex refers to
A. changes in populations (genetic variability, size) that lead to their loss in fitness through time
B. changes in climate that cause populations to go extinct
C. a continuous series in animal extinctions due to smaller animals losing in competition with
animals evolving into larger sizes
D. the loss of habitats by shifts in rates of erosion due to tectonics
E. the result of the lack of hubris in the leadership of most countries towards managing their rare
species
_____46. One of the greatest difficulties to sustainably managing ‘wild’ landscapes is:
A. extinction debt
B. site stewardship
C. intrinsic value of systems
D. conflicts among objectives or desires of different groups
E. diversity isolation
_____47. Which level of organization do we traditionally assume to display evolutionary
fluctuations?
A. individual
B. population
C. species
D. community
E. ecosystem
_____49. Vestigial structures (nonfunctional remnants of structures in organisms that were
functional in their ancestors):
A. facilitate the extinction vortex
B. is a line of evidence supporting evolution
C. is critical is detritivore diversity
D. includes structures like aerenchyma
E. are indication of lineages heading toward extinction
_____54. ‘Extinction debt’ is a concept referring to processes modified principally by:
A. trophic release
B. habitat loss and fragmentation
C. genetic distinctness
D. extinctions due to trade-offs in evolutionary cost-benefit analyses
E. mitigation failures
_____24. Trophic efficiency, or how much energy from one trophic level is passed to the next
(e.g., from herbivores to carnivores), is generally averages around:
A. 2%
B. 10%
C. 33%
D. 60%
E. 85%
_____58. One example of natural selection due to human actions is:
A. analogous structures
B. remnants of toes in horses
C. geographical distribution of species
D. antibiotic resistance of bacteria
E. dominant alleles
_____66. Mutation is the genetic change of alleles at a chromosomal locus and is a mechanism
of:
A. the founder effect
B. microevolution
C. the bottleneck effect
D. mineralizaton
E. hybridization
_____5. The two most important biological transformations are:
A. germination
B. photosynthesis
C. respiration
D. only A & B
E. only B & C
_____68. Reproductive isolating mechanisms between 2 species that have evolved due to
allopatric speciation have generally resulted due to:
A. directional selection to prevent reproduction
B. no special process, just due to chance
C. embryological diversification
D. post-zygotic sterilization
E. disruptive selection
_____16. Soil structure refers to modifications of the soil due to:
A. actions of earthworms
B. soil organic matter
C. ability of soil to hold large plants
D. how many invertebrates are involved in soil food webs
E. layers of soil
_____69. Sometimes new species can arise from parental species in the same, co-occurring
location, a concept called:
A. progenital speciation
B. preferential selection
C. directional selection
D. sympatric speciation
E. radiational speciation
_____67. The ‘balance of nature’ model:
A. suggests a stable ‘end point’ for natural communities
B. requires relatively closed systems for self-regulation
C. is a universal cultural perspective
D. all the above
E. A & C only
_____71. Sexual selection, the preference of one gender for certain phenotypes in the other
gender, is a common among animals during:
A. sympatric speciation
B. end of season activities
C. ‘Sady Hawkins’ radiations
D. polyploidy
E. polygenic disruption
_____18. All organisms require:
A. minerals
B. energy
C. water
D. all the above
E. only B & C
_____74. ‘Genetic Drift’ refers to:
A. gene flow due to migration
B. changes in gene frequencies due to chance
C. random mutations
D. embryology with respect to evolution
E. common ancestry
_____ 26. “Life” has several unique properties. Two are clearly:
A. reproduction and migration (or dispersal)
B. chemical conversions and energy sources
C. surviving freezing and drying
D. migration and communication
E. orography and photosynthesis
_____67. The ‘domain’ of a scientific model:
A. is the country of origin for the model
B. reflects the kinds of organisms represented
C. is the spatial or temporal extent within which the model works
D. describes whether a model is predictive or not
E. indicates a balance between facts and speculation
II. True/False. Indicate whether you think the following statements are more true than
false by circling the “T”, or that they are more false than true by circling the “F”.
Each question is worth 1 point.
46. T---F
-life forms increase their energy levels by thermodynamically improbable
transformations
47. T---F
-rarity includes species with abundant numbers of individuals, just restricted
in distribution
48. T---F
- When the Hardy-Weinberg Principle of genetics is operating, a population is
genetically heterogeneous, and slow evolutionary change is occurring.
49. T---F
-A change in DNA, like a modification of an allele to a different expression or
phenotype, is considered a mutation.
50. T---F
-Mutations are important to evolution in the long term because they are the
only source of new alleles at the long-term time scale.
51. T---F
-Stabilizing selection means that the average expression of a population will
not change.
52. T---F
-North-facing (pole-facing) slopes in the northern hemisphere are considered
moister than south-facing slopes.
53. T---F
-Scientific models try to explain observable patterns with hypothesized
processes as a way of making predictions in other places/circumstances
54. T---F
-Organisms adapt to different climates in lots of ways, plants, for example, by
shifting the range of temperatures in which photosynthesis is optimized
55. T---F
-Some complex compounds, or even simple minerals like mercury, may
accumulate up trophic food webs in natural communities with highest
concentrations in top predators