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If there are “CUES” listed within the question, please USE them and UNDERLINE them in your
answer!
Chapter 50
1. Discuss five abiotic factors; be sure to include information on how these factors determine
the distribution of organisms and the evolution of organisms.
2. Discuss the effect of climate on the distribution of plants and animals. Include a discussion
of all 4 sections of Figure 50.10. (CUES: sunlight intensity, trade winds, tilted axis)
3. Using Figure 50.12 to explain why Winston-Salem rarely receives high snow accumulations
when the moisture sources flow strictly from west-to-east across North Carolina. (CUES:
windward, leeward)
4. Look at Figure 50.17 to briefly describe the 8 major freshwater & marine biomes.
5. Use Figure 50.20 to briefly describe the 8 major terrestrial biomes.
Chapter 51
1. Suppose you exposed various fish species to the alarm substance from minnows. Based on
what you know about natural selection, suggest why some species might respond like
minnows, some might increase activity, and some might show no change. (CUES: fitness,
environment, adaptation)
2. Suppose the digger wasps that Tinbergen studied had returned their original nest site,
despite the pinecones having been moved. What alternative hypotheses might you propose
regarding how the wasps find their nest and why the pinecones didn’t misdirect the wasps?
(CUES: landmarks, chemical communication, pheromones)
3. How might associative learning explain why different species of distasteful or stinging
insects have similar colors? (CUES: stimulus, mimicry, evolution)
4. Why does the mode of fertilization correlate with the presence or absence of male parental
care? (CUES: certainty of paternity, internal fertilization, external fertilization)
5. Explain why geographic variation in garter snake prey choice might indicate that the
behavior evolved by natural selection. (CUES: chemoreception, fitness)
Chapter 52
1. As shown in Figure 51.4, a male stickleback fish attacks other males that invade its nesting
territory. Predict a likely pattern of dispersion for male sticklebacks, and explain your
reasoning. (CUES: territoriality, antagonistic)
2. Each female of a particular fish species produces millions of eggs per year. Draw and label
the most likely survivorship curve for this species and explain your choice.
3. Where is population growth more likely – in an area where a forest was destroyed by fire or
in a mature undisturbed forest? Why? (CUES: competition, resources, space, nutrients,
light)
4. Concept 18.2 discusses viruses that are pathogens to animals and plants. How might the
presence of such pathogens alter the carrying capacity of a population? Why? (CUES:
lysis)
5. Mice that experience stress such as a food shortage will sometimes abandon their young.
Explain how this behavior might have evolved in the context of reproductive trade-offs &
life history. (CUES: generation, reproduction, environmental conditions)
Chapter 53
1. Use Figure 53.2 to describe the difference between a fundamental niche & realized niche.
(CUES: potential, actual, competition)
2. Describe 2 hypotheses that explain why food chains are usually short, and state a key
prediction of each hypothesis. (CUES: energetic, 10% rule, dynamic stability, unpredictable
environment)
3. Consider a grassland with 5 trophic levels: plants, grasshoppers, snakes, raccoons & bobcats.
If you released additional bobcats into the grassland, how would plant biomass change if the
bottom-up model applied? If the top-down model applied? (CUES: nutrients, predation)
4. During succession, how might the early species facilitate the arrival of other species?
5. Most prairies experience regular fires, typically every few years. If these disturbances
were relatively modest, how would the species diversity of a prairie likely be affected if no
burning occurred for 100 yrs? Explain your answer. (CUES: competition, intermediate
disturbance hypothesis)
6. Use Figure 53.27 to explain the relationship of the following on small islands. a) immigration
& extinction b) island size & # of species c) distance from mainland & # of species.
Chapter 54
1. Review the discussion of the 2nd law of thermodynamics in Concept 8.1 (p 143). How does
this physical law explain why an ecosystem’s energy supply must continually be replenished?
2. Concept 10.3 describes the Calvin cycle of photosynthesis. Explain how nitrogen and
phosphorus, the nutrients that most often limit primary production, are necessary for the
Calvin cycle to function. (CUES: intermediate molecules, NADPH, ATP)
3. Why is nutrient availability in a tropical rainforest particularly vulnerable to logging?
Chapter 55
1. Explain why it is too narrow to define the biodiversity crisis as simply a loss of species.
(CUES: genetic, microevolution, ecosystem, ecosystem services)
2. How does the reduced genetic diversity of small populations make them more vulnerable to
extinction? (CUES: extinction vortex, genetic drift, bottleneck effect)
3. Suppose a developer proposes to clear-cut a forest that serves as a corridor between 2
parks. To compensate, the developer also proposes to add the same area of forest to one of
the parks. As a professional ecologist, how might you argue for retaining the corridor?
(CUES: dispersal, inbreeding, migration, genetic diversity)
4. There are vast stores of organic matter in the soils of northern coniferous forests and
tundra around the world. Based on what you learned about decomposition on pg 1198,
suggest an explanation for why scientists who study global warming are closely monitoring
these stores. (CUES: permafrost, methane, carbon dioxide, thaw, greenhouse gas layer)
Can Credit Question
There are often unofficial “limits” on ingesting certain fish like tuna, swordfish, and king mackerel.
Why are these limits likely in place? Use ideas from Chapter 54 in your answer. (CUES: biological
magnification)
Also, include in your answer the following: A) The chief contaminant affecting these
organisms B) 5 possible sources of this pollution C) 3 possible human health risks of not
abiding by the suggested fish ingestion limits.