Environmental Biology Question
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Course Introduction
Environmental Biology explores the complex interactions between living organisms and their environments, focusing on how natural systems function and the impact of human activities on ecosystems. The course covers fundamental principles of ecology, energy flow, nutrient cycling, biodiversity, population dynamics, and the adaptation of species to their habitats. Students will also examine pressing environmental issues such as habitat destruction, pollution, climate change, and the loss of biodiversity, as well as strategies for conservation and sustainable resource management. Through lectures, case studies, and practical activities, this course provides a foundation for understanding and addressing environmental challenges from a biological perspective.
Recommended Textbook
Essentials of Ecology 4th Edition by Michael Begon
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Chapter 1: Ecology and How to Do It
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Sample Questions
Q1) You design an experiment to test how ultraviolet radiation effects the development of a species of frog tadpoles.You set up your experiment so that there are 50 replicates,instead of only 10.Why is it a good idea to have so many replicates?
A) A greater number of replicates makes no difference. The 40 additional replicates are a waste of time and money
B) A greater number of replicates will create pseudo replication.
C) The more replicates you have the greater the likelihood of obtaining significant results.
D) All of the above.
Answer: C
Q2) A proximate explanation explains:
A) What has happened to a species through evolutionary time
B) What is predicted to happen to a species
C) What is happening here and now to a species
D) None of the above
Answer: C
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3
Chapter 2: Ecologys Evolutionary Backdrop
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Sample Questions
Q1) Since the peak of the last glaciation,global temperatures have risen by about 8 degrees Celsius.Pollen records indicate:
A) All flora have responded the same by expanding their range
B) Some tree species have retreated their range
C) Some tree species have expanded their range
D) That trees were not expanding or contracting their range
Answer: B,C
Q2) Peppered moths (Biston betularia)vary in color from place to place.Is the variation within these populations heritable?
A) No, variation within this species is not heritable
B) Yes, the trait is the same in all populations which allows any moth to change from white to black at any given time
C) Yes, this trait is heritable and is selected for or against depending on the environment
D) No, variation is not heritable because reproduction does determine the color morph. Answer: C
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Chapter 3: Physical Conditions and the Availability of Resources
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Sample Questions
Q1) A mimic is a species that:
A) Is usually not toxic or noxious
B) Possess poisons
C) Adopt a color or pattern of a species that is poisonous or distateful
D) Eats species it resembles
Answer: A,C
Q2) A niche for a species of salamander is determined by the density of individuals in the area,soil temperature,amounts of precipitation,and food availability.Thus,the niche would be modeled as a:
A) Fundamental niche dimension
B) A four-dimensional niche volume
C) A two-dimensional niche volume
D) You could not model this niche
Answer: B
Q3) Which waste products from an organism would be most rich in carbon?
A) A deer
B) A mountain lion
C) A killer whale
D) None of the above
Answer: A
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Chapter 4: Climate and the Worlds Biomes
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Q1) Which abiotic processes are responsible for the Ferrel cells?
A) The Coriolis Effect
B) Westerlies
C) Hadley Cells
D) Polar Cells
Q2) Because of how sunlight hits the surface of Earth:
A) Heating by sunlight is greater at the North and South Poles
B) Heating by sunlight is greater at the Equator
C) Temperatures are cooler at the Equator
D) Water redistributes heat to temperate and polar regions
Q3) Charles Darwin visited much of South America during his voyage on the Beagle.When Darwin was in South America,did surface winds of the Polar,Hadley,and Ferrel cells flow in the same direction as his homeland?
A) Yes, because these cells all flow in the same direction regardless of global position
B) No, because these cells do not flow in the same direction
C) These cells flow in different directions due to the Coriolis effect
D) The Coriolis effect has no significance on these cells
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Chapter 5: Birth, Death and Movement
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Q1) Which of the following choices best describes an iteroparous organism?
A) An iteroparous species breeds only once and invests all of its energy into reproduction.
B) An iteroparous species breeds many times in its life and invests all of its energy into reproduction.
C) An iteroparous species breeds many times and invests its energy into reproduction, growth and development.
D) An iteroparous species breeds only once but invests all of its energy into growth and development.
Q2) In a mark and recapture study you initially collect 50 frogs.You mark and release those 50 and plan to collect again in another week.The following week you collect 50 frogs and 10 of them are from your previous mark and recapture.How large would you estimate the population to be?
A) The population is estimated to contain approximately 90 individuals
B) The population is estimated to contain approximately 250 individuals
C) The population is estimated to contain approximately 100 individuals
D) None of the above
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Chapter 6: Interspecific Competition
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Q1) Fires in the Mojave Dessert are occurring more frequently because of the introduction of nonnative grasses that have become invasive.How are these grasses able to persist?
A) The grasses are able to outcompete native plants for space.
B) The grasses are able to grow back faster than native plants.
C) The grasses do not persist, and instead die after a fire.
D) The grasses have evolved fire resistance and they don't burn.
Q2) Competing species can coexist when both species are provided with a i)realized niche,ii)fundamental niche,iii)guild,iv)competitor,v)overlap in resource utilization
A) ii.
B) i, ii, iii, v.
C) i.
D) ii, iv, v.
Q3) To minimize or avoid competition,coexisting species,with an apparent potential to compete,will exhibit differences in which of the following?
A) Morphology.
B) Physiology.
C) Geographic distribution
D) Morphology
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Chapter 7: Predation, Grazing and Disease
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Q1) In which interaction would it be typically be easiest to see the fitness impacts on the negatively affected individual?
A) Predation
B) Parasitism
C) Grazing
D) Symbiosis
Q2) Select which of the following choices are correct.
A) Predator populations can be impacted by other predators
B) When predator numbers increase there is often a density dependent negative impact on the predator species
C) The lynx and hare population cycles are easily explained by Lotka Volterra models
D) Parasites rarely interfere with one another
Q3) A spider that spins a web to capture prey would be considered which of the following?
A) A foraging predator
B) A sit-and-wait predator
C) A grazer
D) A parasitoid
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Chapter 8: Molecular and Evolutionary Ecology
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Q1) The bacteria that inhabit pufferfish and produce a chemical defense for them called tetrodotoxin would be an example of what?
A) A parasite
B) A grazer
C) A host
D) A symbiont
Q2) What is one factor that appears to drive the coevolution of insect-plant arms races?
A) Flowering plants that require pollinators.
B) Plant toxins that have high specificity.
C) Quantitative compounds that plants produce, which have high specificity.
D) Herbivores that respond to plant chemical defenses that reduce digestion.
Q3) Regions of DNA that do not vary between individuals are referred to as what?
A) Microsatellites
B) Allele
C) Locus
D) Conserved
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Chapter 9: From Populations to Communities
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Q1) Approximately 20 years ago,a large fire burned through part of a national park.You are shown data that describe the species identified and enumerated over this 20 year period.These data show that some species colonized the land relatively fast.Those same species,however,are not present in the last 5 years of the data.Other species appear to maintain abundances throughout the 20 years.How would you characterize this process?
A) This is the process of primary succession
B) This is the process of community succession
C) This is because the community is a founder-controlled community
D) This is a metapopulation patch and all of the species are part of a metapopulation.
Q2) Food webs appear to be most controlled by what process?
A) Density-dependent selection
B) Bottom-up control
C) Top-down control
D) Metapopulations
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Chapter 10: Patterns in Species Richness
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Q1) Which of the following would be considered an island where species diversity would be limited by area?
A) A lake
B) An island in the Pacific ocean
C) A gap of forest cleared
D) Soil that has much less phosphorous and nitrogen than the soil surrounding it
Q2) Experiments performed in the rocky intertidal zone by Robert Paine showed that the experimental removal of a predator had dramatic consequences to the structure of the community.What was the ultimate conclusion of this study?
A) That predators can prey so heavily that they eventually reduce species richness to nearly zero. As a result species richness is reduced.
B) That prey need spatial and temporal fluctuations to coexist, otherwise the community structure will collapse. When fluctuations do not occur, then species richness is significantly reduced.
C) That predators have no impact on the structure of lower trophic levels.
D) That predators can mediate coexistence by reducing the number of individuals of a species in the community that tend to dominate and as a result increase species richness more than if they were not present.
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Chapter 11: The Flux of Energy and Matter Through Ecosystems
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Q1) ______________ is a process whereby dead bodies,shed parts of bodies,or feces gradually disintegrate.
A) Immobilization
B) Decomposition
C) Mineralization
D) Desalinization
Q2) In general,where would net primary productivity be regulated more by the availability of nutrients?
A) In a savanna
B) In a lake
C) In a desert
D) On mountains
Q3) Which of the following statements is accurate regarding the total potential rate of net primary productivity (NPP)of Earth's natural ecosystems?
A) Almost all NPP is produced in terrestrial ecosystems
B) Almost all NPP is produced in the oceans
C) Slightly more NPP is produced in terrestrial ecosystems and slightly less NPP is produced in the oceans
D) NPP is equal between terrestrial ecosystems and the oceans.
Page 13
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Chapter 12: Global Biogeochemical Cycles and Their Alteration by Humans
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Q1) The rate of phosphorous flow through the global environment is three times faster now than before the industrial and agricultural revolutions.The main problem with this accelerated cycle is that?
A) It results in acidification of the oceans
B) It causes drastica alteration of ocean currents
C) It causes eutrophication of freshwater lakes
D) It initially slows the growth of freshwater vegetation
Q2) If Earth's oceans are carbon dioxide sinks,that means that carbon dioxide should remain in oceans infinitely.Is that accurate?
A) Yes, the oceans are a sink and no carbon dioxide is ever released. This process explains ocean acidification.
B) No, the oceans are not sinks although they do assimilate carbon dioxide.
C) No, the carbon dioxide assimilated into the deep ocean in the Atlantic will eventually surface elsewhere and be released back into the atmosphere.
D) Yes, the oceans are a sink for carbon dioxide, but only in the Southern Indian and Pacific Oceans. In a few decades the carbon dioxide is assimilated by marine animals and released when they die.
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Page 14
Chapter 13: Conservation Ecology
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Q1) Which of the following explains why conservation biologists would be particularly concerned about the effects of introduced species on an island?
A) Conservation biologists are not concerned with introduced species on islands
B) Because islands tend to have high amounts of endemism
C) Because island populations will always be genetically homogenized
D) Conservation biologists are concerned with intense intraspecific competition on islands
Q2) What is the simplest way to describe biodiversity?
A) It is simply all the animals of the rainforest
B) It is all the bacteria and animals of the tropical biomes
C) It is the number of species found in a defined geographic unit
D) It is the percentage of rare species in a defined geographic unit
Q3) At what scales can biodiversity be assessed?
A) Genetic diversity within species
B) Using phylogenetic analyses
C) Species within a community
D) Subspecies within a species
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15
Chapter 14: The Ecology of Human Population Growth,
Disease, and Food Supply
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Q1) Which of the following terms is used to explain a disease that appears in the human population for the first time or expands rapidly in incidence or geographic range?
A) Emerging infectious disease
B) Emergent zoospore
C) Emerging destructive disease
D) Emigrating disease propagule
Q2) The root of most,if not all,global environmental problems are due to _________.
A) Global climate change
B) Population growth
C) Greenhouse gases
D) Ocean acidification
Q3) Most aquaculture occurs in ______________.
A) The North Atlantic
B) Asia
C) The tropics
D) The United States
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