Download Sample Test #4

EVSC 101 : Exam 4
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Introduction to Environmental Sciences
SAMPLE TEST #4 : EVSC 101
1. Character displacement between two species serves what function?
a. to increase mutualism
b. to hasten competitive exclusion and push one of the two out of the area
c. to increase the predation of one species on the other
d. to increase the food supply
e. to decrease competition
2. Which nutrient is usually most limiting in most terrestrial ecosystems?
a. carbon
b. potassium
c. phosphorus
d. nitrogen
e. sulfer
3. Factors that exert an influence on the mortality and the reproductive rates of a species but
the strength of that influence is not relative to the size of the population are know as
a. S factors
b. Density-dependent factors
c. Density-independent factors
d. Survivorship factors
e. Natality factors
4. The largest reservoir of carbon storage in the global carbon cycle is in the __________
but the reservoir that it the smallest with the highest turnover rate is ____________.
a. soil carbon; atmosphere
b. deep ocean; land biota
c. dOC (dissolved organic carbon); surface ocean
d. lithosphere; ocean biota
e. atmosphere; soil carbon
5. TRUE or FLASE? Fixation is when an inorganic nutrient is assimilated and stored in an
organic form in living tissue.
a. True
b. False
6. What is the name for a group of organisms of the same species in a particular area that
interact with one another?
a. biome
b. realm
c. population
d. community
e. tribe
f. ecosystem
EVSC 101 : Exam 4
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7. K-selected organisms attempt to optimize their existence by
a. maintaining a maximum population size.
b. damaging their competitors.
c. hiding during the day.
d. growing rapidly.
e. none of the above.
8. When frogs eat fruit flies, they are acting as
a. producers
b. primary consumers
c. secondary consumers
d. tertiary consumers
e. herbivores
9. An anaerobic chemotroph
a. is unable to use the energy of the sun directly and requires O2 for respiration.
b. is able to use energy from inorganic chemicals but only in the presence O 2.
c. is able to turn CO2 and H2O into sugar, but only in the presence of sunlight.
d. is unable to survive in the presence of O2 but can make its own food.
e. is one kind of primary consumer.
10. True or False? The colonization of lava and ash following a volcanic eruption first by
lichens and grasses, and then by wildflowers and shrubs, and finally by tropical forest
trees, is an example of primary succession.
a. True
b. False
11. Which of the following are procaryotic?
a. Fungi
b. Plantae
c. Protista
d. Monera
e. Animalia.
12. An example of a transformation is
a. the decomposition of the amino acids in dead rats in a forest by bacteria into NH3
(ammonia).
b. the assimilation of the N in sugars and proteins present in flower pollen by
foraging hungry bumblebees into more bumblebee biomass.
c. the uptake and fixation of NO2 (nitrite) by growing reproducing bacteria living in
sewage-rich waters.
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13. True or False? Entropy in an ecosystem causes
a. The inefficient transfer of energy between trophic levels and progressively lower
amounts of energy (and biomass) in the higher trophic levels.
b. Competitive exclusion due to the friction and disorder created by group social
behavior among carnivores.
c. Slow turnover rates for nutrient reservoirs with small amounts of nutrients in
them.
d. Biomagnification of toxic chemicals stored in lipids (fat tissue) of top predators.
14. The grazing food chain is composed of
a. bacteria and fungi that decompose dead organic matter, and the consumers that
eat them.
b. green plants and algae that are eaten in turn by herbivores and then by carnivores.
c. zooplankton feeding on small fish feeding on larger fish.
d. a web of multiple connections where some organisms consume more than one
prey and some prey are consumed by more than one predator.
15. The different kingdoms of organic life are differentiated based on
a. on cell structure and nutritional requirements.
b. on reproductive rate and carrying capacity.
c. on natality and mortality rates.
d. on whether they photosynthesis or not .
e. solely on whether they are single- or multi-cellular.
16. Niche overlap and intense competition may result in any of the following EXCEPT
a. the local extinction of one of the competing populations.
b. Phenological changes in the morphology of the members of the two populatons
such that they are better able to exploit different “parts” of the resource in
contention, lessening the intensity of the competition.
c. Changes in the reproductive rate and population growth curves to allow a Kstategist to become a r-strategist, or vies versa, lessening the intensity of the
competition.
d. Resource partitioning such that the two populations either use the resource at
different times, or they specialize in using the resource mostly in different places
or parts of the habitat, lessening the intensity of the competition.
17. True or False? In the Gleasonian “individualistic” model of succession, groups or
associations of species act together facilitating their own progressive replacement by
species other than themselves in a sort of community- or ecosystem-level “evolution”
towards a stable climax community, in such a way that the community as a whole might
be thought to be acting like a single evolving and maturing “Super-Organism”.
a. True
b. False
EVSC 101 : Exam 4
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18. The largest definable community consisting of a major set of species generally associated
with each other and distributed over a large geographic region would be a type of
a. ecosystem.
b. population.
c. biome.
d. eucaryote.
e. secondary succession.
19. True or False? It is possible over time for the nature of the interaction between two
species to change over time (such as between trees and their mychorrizal soil fungi)
depending on how the abiotic environment fluctuates or on other biotic interactions with
other members of the community. (In the case of the trees and their associated root fungi,
the trees provide sugars to the fungi in exchange for their aid in collecting water and
other nutrients, but if soil conditions improve and the trees no longer need the fungi, the
fungi are still tapped into the tree roots and drawing out sugars, draining the tree… so is
this a case of mutualism turned parasitism?)
a. True
b. False
20. Which of the following is a member of the Protista?
a. cyanobacteria (blue-green algae)
b. jellyfish
c. pine trees
d. paramecium
e. mushroom
Answers: E,D,C,D,A,C,
A,C,D,A,D,B,
A,B,A,C,B,
C,A,D