Environmental Science
Exam Answer Key
Course Introduction
Environmental Science is an interdisciplinary field that explores the interactions between humans and the natural environment, focusing on the scientific principles, processes, and solutions related to environmental issues. This course covers topics such as ecosystems, biodiversity, natural resources, energy production and consumption, pollution, climate change, and sustainability. Students will develop an understanding of how human activities impact the environment and learn about strategies and technologies for mitigating environmental problems. Through lectures, laboratory activities, and case studies, students will gain the skills to critically analyze environmental data and contribute to informed decision-making for a sustainable future.
Recommended Textbook
Essentials of Ecology 4th Edition by Michael Begon
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14 Chapters
702 Verified Questions
702 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Ecology and How to Do It
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50 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) An annual plant:
A) Completes its life cycle over many years
B) Completes a whole generation in a single year
C) Is a persistent plant that may not produce in its early years
D) Completes half a generation its first year
Answer: B
Q2) Ecological phenomena can occur at a range of
A) Biological scales.
B) Spatial scales.
C) Temporal scales
D) All of the above
Answer: D
Q3) 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) A student wants to test if a sessile species of a marine invertebrate (Actinia tenebrosa)grows differently in size and survives differently in a new environment where the water temperature and salinity are considerably different than where this organism typically grows.What type of experiment would allow this student to test for the local adaptation of this species?
A) A reciprocal transplant study
B) A cross correlation translocation study
C) A model study
D) A translocation approximation study
Answer: A
Q2) Norfolk Island,located approximately 700 km from New Caledonia and New Zealand is an island where many endemic species have evolved.If more species in a group found on that island were better dispersers then you would expect:
A) Those groups to have a lower proportion of endemic species
B) Those groups to have a higher proportion of endemic species
C) Those groups to be all endemics on New Caledonia
D) Those groups to be all endemics on New Zealand
Answer: A
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4
Chapter 3: Physical Conditions and the Availability of Resources
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Sample Questions
Q1) 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
Q2) Temperature,humidity,amount of precipitation,and water pH are examples of
A) Physiochemical resources
B) Lethal environmental variables
C) Physiochemical features of the environment known as conditions
D) All of the above
Answer: C
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Climate and the Worlds Biomes
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements are accurate?
A) The rate of primary production is similar in the ocean and on land
B) Total photosynthesis is similar in the ocean and on land
C) Terrestrial biomass is less than marine
D) Marine biomass is less than terrestrial
E) Total biomass is comparable on land and in the ocean
Q2) The formation of a savanna biome is largely due to the _______ cell.
A) Hadley
B) Ferrel
C) Polar
Q3) What is one possible explanation of why biodiversity is very high in subtropical gyres?
A) There is a great amount of disturbance that occurs in these sites
B) The low-nutrient status within a gyre has led to specialized adaptations
C) The rich amount of carbon dioxide within a gyre
D) Extensive gene flow between species within gyres and open ocean habitat
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Chapter 5: Birth, Death and Movement
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following are necessary for determining average density?
A) The total number of individuals
B) The original number of individuals at a location prior to dispersal
C) The total size of a habitat
D) The total population size 3 generations ago
Q2) If birth and death rates are density dependent,then the density of a population will cycle near ______________
A) Multiple times
B) On the carrying capacity
C) Always when mortality is at its lowest
D) Always when birth rates are at the highest
Q3) You are shopping at a plant nursery and come across a plant you have never seen.The sign indicates it is a flowering biennial.What should you already know about this plant?
A) It is likely iteroparous
B) It is likely poisonous
C) It is likely semelparous
D) None of the above
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Chapter 6: Interspecific Competition
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Sample Questions
Q1) You observe ten species of trees in a rainforest.You learn that species with similar light requirements tend to differ in terms of preferred soil textures and vice versa.You should recognize this pattern as
A) Niche complementarity.
B) Intraspecific competition.
C) Interspecific competition.
D) Niche differentiation.
Q2) A group of species that exploit the same class of environmental resources in the same way is called a _____.
A) Tribe.
B) Niche.
C) Guild.
D) Interspecific.
Q3) If a species is a weak competitor relative to another species that is a superior competitor,the weak competitor may be able to persist if:
A) It is a good colonizer and the environment homogenous.
B) It is a good colonizer and the environment is heterogeneous.
C) Only the environment needs to be heterogeneous.
D) The species needs only to be a good colonizer.
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Page 8
Chapter 7: Predation, Grazing and Disease
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Sample Questions
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) It appears that more species of mussels can coexist when sea stars are present then when they are not.This would be an example of:
A) The competitive exclusion principle.
B) N-dimensional hypervolume.
C) Predator-mediated coexistence.
D) The value of metapopulations.
Q3) The type of predator can negatively impact prey populations if the predator?
A) Selectively removes breeding individuals
B) Selectively removes sick individuals
C) Selectively removes equal numbers of males and females
D) Selectively alternates between prey types
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Chapter 8: Molecular and Evolutionary Ecology
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Sample Questions
Q1) Multiple regions of DNA that are used as markers would be referred to as what?
A) Loci
B) Alleles
C) Barcodes
D) Exons
Q2) __________ are mutualisms formed between plant root tissue and fungi.
A) Cruciferae
B) Mycorrhiza
C) Arbuscular ectobiota
D) None of the above
Q3) Are mutations in the coding regions of DNA primarily favored or selected against?
A) They are always selected for because they always increase fitness.
B) They are often selected against because they often make the mutated organism less fit.
C) They are generally maintained at a level of 50% throughout a population.
D) Selection does not act on this part of the genome.
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Chapter 9: From Populations to Communities
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Q1) Which of the following choices explains a dominance-controlled community?
A) Species are competitively equivalent. As a result, all species colonize a site and maintain their presence. Thus, species richness is high.
B) Species are not competitively equivalent. This means that some species will be able to colonize a site and maintain their presence, but some will not be able to do so.
C) Species can either be early species or later species, but ultimately regardless of which type of colonizer they are, each will be competitively equivalent.
D) Primary dominance is determined by density-dependent factors. As a result, the species richness is high.
Q2) The ___________ of the abundances of individuals is the combination of the effects of all factors and processes that affect population density,whether density-dependent or not.
A) Regulation
B) Determination
C) Maintenance
D) Correlation
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Chapter 10: Patterns in Species Richness
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Sample Questions
Q1) You would expect to see the greatest species richness in reptiles at:
A) 10 degrees North latitude.
B) 70 degrees South latitude.
C) 10 degrees South latitude.
D) 70 degrees North latitude.
Q2) 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
Q3) As vegetation productivity goes up in China,vertebrate richness _______.
A) Increases.
B) Decreases.
C) Remains the same.
Q4) It would be most difficult for a species to invade a community where the resource utilization of current resident species ________________.
A) Does not overlap.
B) Overlaps.
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Chapter 11: The Flux of Energy and Matter Through Ecosystems
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which organisms would be the early colonists of newly dead material?
A) Bacteria
B) Fungi
C) Grazers
D) Archaea
Q2) ,__________ occurs when an inorganic element is incorporated into an organic form.
A) Immobilization
B) Desalinization
C) Desertification
D) Mineralization
Q3) _____________ occurs when elements are converted from organic form back to an inorganic form.
A) Immobilization
B) Mineralization
C) Decomposition
D) Salinization
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Page 13
Chapter 12: Global Biogeochemical Cycles and Their Alteration by Humans
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Sample Questions
Q1) You might say that fertilizer has an indirect negative effect on amphibians because:
A) Fertilizer promotes algae which in turn promotes an intermediate host for a harmful amphibian parasite
B) Fertilizer directly disrupts amphibian development
C) Fertilizer promotes algae which is what frog tadpoles feed on
D) Fertilizer promotes algae which in turn produces more frog predators
Q2) The slowing of the great oceanic conveyor belts and the increased frequency of burn events in the tundra biome are evidence that __________.
A) The world is increasing its risk towards reaching some tipping point in the global climate system
B) The flux of methane has decreased
C) Solar radiation is warming the planet
D) There is nothing to worry about because these events have happened historically and are a part of Earth's natural climatic fluctuations
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Chapter 13: Conservation Ecology
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Sample Questions
Q1) It is documented that some introduced species can assimilate into communities without an obvious effect.However,many have caused significant alterations to native communities.Which of the following is an example of an accidentally introduced species that has reduced biodiversity?
A) Finches on to the Galapagos Islands
B) Tasmanian devils on to Australia
C) Brown tree snakes on to Guam
D) All of the above
Q2) According to research published by Beaumont and Hughes (2002),butterflies in Australia would suffer reduced distributions in the future if temperatures increased by 0.8 to 1.4 degrees Celsius by 2050.Which of the following is one reason why?
A) They are specialists and the plants they specialize on may be displaced from one another
B) All butterfly species will experience reduced population sizes
C) Coevolving relationships with ants will be disrupted
D) None of the above
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Chapter 14: The Ecology of Human Population Growth, Disease,
and Food Supply
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Sample Questions
Q1) Emerging infectious diseases are defined as
A) Diseases that particularly impact developed countries
B) Diseases that easily treated with antibiotics
C) Diseases that are new to human populations or are expanding their range of incidence
D) All of the above
Q2) Which of the following are examples of emerging infectious diseases?
A) Ebola
B) Human Immunodeficiency Virus
C) Severe acute respiratory syndrome
D) Malaria
Q3) Extreme weather events have
A) Decreased in number since the 1980s
B) Likely killed more people in the 1980s than they did in the 1970s
C) Are likely connected to changes in global climate patterns
D) All of the above
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