Ecology CH.1

Which of the following are examples of how humans have affected the global environment?

Deforestation; increase in atmospheric CO2; desertification from overuse of groundwater

Which of the following could be considered ecological thinking by early human hunters and gatherers?

Habitats of food plants; knowing the behavior of animal prey

Understanding how variation in weather and soils may affect the growth of crops and livestock would be considered ecological thinking.

An ecological conducting research on American Bison (buffalo) could include which of the following in their research program:

Calf-suckling behavior on survival rates

Diversity of grasses on grazing rates

Predation by wolves on calving

Male mate choice on population growth rates

Ecology is a science

Rank the following in order from smallest to largest ecological scale, with the smallest at the top:

Individual; population; community; ecosystem; biosphere

Which of the following would be a research focus for a population ecologist?

The effects if hunters “bag limits” on the number of white-tail deer in a county

The effects of wildfires on prong-horn antelope migrations

The effects of grass fires on the reproductive rates of sage grouse

Which of the following would a research focus for behavioral ecologist?

Wildlife corridors on elk migration patterns

Nectar production on flower visitation rates by bee pollinators

Ecologists researching the interactions between species have focused on the evolutionary effects of the interactions on the species involved.

Researching the effects of dust storms from the Sahar Desert on phytoplankton density in the Caribbean Sea is an example of research in the area of community ecology. FALSE

An ecosystem ecologist would include the physical and the chemical factors influencing the interactions within communities.

Which of the following would be examples of a research focus for a landscape ecologist?

The effects of nutrient inputs from dead salmon in a stream on the diversity of aquatic insects in that stream.

The effects of nutrient input from bird feces on the diversity of aquatic insects in that stream.

The biosphere includes those portions of the planet that support life, including the land, water, and atmosphere.

A research program examining the relationship between island size and numbers of bird species living on them found that the larger islands have a greater number of bird species while fewer species are found on smaller islands. This is an example of geographic ecology.

A research program is looking at changes in tundra grass diversity from caribou migration, between the Brooks (mountain) Range and the tundra on the north slope of Alaska. This is an example of landscape ecology. TRUE

For an ecology class project, you write a proposal to study a pond. Your instructor returns the proposal to you indicating that it is incomplete. Which of the following components will you need to add to your proposal in order to resubmit a complete design for your project?

A specific research question; the location or locations to be sampled; a time period for the sampling; the research tools needed

Two species of organisms with similar ecological requirements should not be able to co-exist due to competitive interactions between the two species.

By subdividing the trees into different zones, MacArthur could determine more exactly where the warblers were feeding and living.

MacArthur’s observations showed that the warblers subdivided the forest into zones within the same forest.

Ecologists studying sediments use the layers of pollen in the sediments to build a record of vegetation history of plant growing near a lake.

The effects of Chestnut blight are recorded in lake sediment layers by the absence of Chestnut pollen in the upper layers of the sediments.

In response to climate change, plants will maintain constant geographic distributions. FALSE

Isotopes are forms of an element that differ in the number of neutrons in their nucleus.

Stable isotope analysis evaluates the relative amount of isotopes in the material being examined.

In Jamaica, older male redstarts occupy high-quality mangrove habitats while younger male redstarts are found in poor-quality habitats.

By knowing the isotopic ratios of food items at different locations, the birds become chemically tagged, allowing the scientists to know where the birds are feeding without directly observing them.

Which of the following would be considered to be part of a rain forest ecosystem?

Organisms; physical environment

A nutrient would be the materials that organisms use from the environment in order to survive.

Nadkarni’s use of mountain-climbing equipment allowed her to explore the rain forest canopy.

The low amount of nutrients in rain forest soil is the result of heavy rainfall

In the temperate rain forests of the Olympic Peninsula, the mass of epiphytes is greater than the mass of the leaves on their host tree.

The host trees gain access to the nutrients stored in the epiphytes by growing roots into them

The Wind River Canopy Crane provides access to the conifer forest of southwestern Washington state

A research program focused on the effects of precipitation on the number of suar maple trees of different ages in a forest would be considered research at the landscape scale. FALSE

Which of the following activities would meet the definition of ecology? A scientist who studies:

The effects of antibiotics on the growth of the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus

The role of grazers on flower production of marsh marigolds

The effects of air temperature on the feeding behavior of pocket gophers

The effects of temperature on the growth rate of Monarch butterfly larvae (caterpillars)

An ecologist would conduct research on which of the following:

Groups of plants on a mountain slope

Forest canopies

Phytoplankton blooms

A research focus for a behavioral ecologist would be to understand the effects of grass density on herd density and movement patterns for wildebeest. TRUE

Which of the following would be considered a research focus in the area of population ecology?

The effects of winter snow depth on the ration of male to female squirrels