Transcript Ecology

Ecology




Biomes
Behavior
Populations
Community
 Symbiosis
 Competition
 Succession

Ecosystems
Density dependant inhibition
 Density independent inhibition
 R selected species
 K selected species

4.
If a meteor impact or volcanic eruption
injected a lot of dust into the atmosphere and
reduced sunlight reaching Earth's surface by
70% for one year, all of the following marine
communities would be greatly affected except
a
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deep-sea vent community.
coral reef community.
benthic community.
pelagic community.
estuary community.
2. As
N approaches K for a certain population,
which of the following is predicted by the
logistic equation?





The growth rate will not change.
The growth rate will approach zero.
The population will show an Allee effect.
The population will increase exponentially.
The carrying capacity of the environment will
increase.
3. In
which of the following habitats would you
expect to find the largest number of Kselected individuals?

an abandoned field in Ohio
 the sand dunes south of Lake Michigan
 the rain forests of Brazil
 south Florida after a hurricane
 a newly emergent volcanic island
The following question refers to the figure
below, which depicts the age structure of
three populations
4.
Assuming these age structure diagrams describe
human populations, in which population is
unemployment likely to be most severe in the
future?





I
II
III
No differences in the magnitude of future
unemployment would be expected among these
populations.
It is not possible to infer anything about future social
conditions from age structure diagrams.
5.
Which of the following variables is (are)
important in contributing to the rapid growth
of human populations?

the high percentage of young people
 the average age to first give birth
 carrying capacity of the environment
 only A and B
 A, B, and C

Clear-cutting tropical forests yields agricultural land
with limited productivity because
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



it is too hot in the tropics for most food crops.
the tropical forest regrows rapidly and chokes out
agricultural crops.
few of the ecosystem’s nutrients are stored in the
soil; most are in the forest trees.
phosphorus, not nitrogen, is the limiting nutrient in
those soils.
decomposition rates are high but primary
production is low in the tropics.
Use the figure below to answer the following
questions (2 and 3). Examine this food web for a
particular terrestrial ecosystem. Each letter is a
species. The arrows represent energy flow.
2.
Which species is autotrophic?
A
B
C
D
E
3.
Species C makes its predators sick. Which
species is most likely to benefit from being
a mimic of C? *

A
 B
 C
 D
 E
6.
If the flow of energy in an Arctic ecosystem goes
through a simple food chain from seaweeds to fish
to seals to polar bears, then which of the following
is true?





Polar bears can provide more food for Eskimos
than seals can.
The total energy content of the seaweeds is lower
than that of the seals.
Polar bear meat probably contains the highest
concentrations of fat-soluble toxins.
Seals are more numerous than fish.
The carnivores can provide more food for the
Eskimos than the herbivores can.
AP Labs and Essays
Lab 12
Lab 11
1997, # 1
1997, # 3 (lab)
1998, # 4
2002, # 2
2003, # 3
Symbiotic Relationships
Parasitism
 Mutualism
 Commensualism

3.
Which of the following is true about
imprinting?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
It may be triggered by visual or chemical
stimuli.
It happens to many adult animals, but not to
their young.
It is a type of learning involving no innate
behavior.
It occurs only in birds.
It causes behaviors that last for only a short
time (the critical period).
4.
Every morning at the same time John went into
the den to feed his new tropical fish. After a few
weeks John noticed that the fish would rise to
the top of the tank as soon as he would enter the
room. This is a good example of
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
habituation.
imprinting.
classical conditioning.
operant conditioning.
maturation.
5.
A dog learns that it will get a treat when it
barks. Which of the following might you use
to describe this behavior?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The dog is displaying an instinctive fixed action
pattern.
The dog is performing a social behavior.
The dog is trying to protect its territory.
The dog has been classically conditioned.
The dog's behavior is a result of operant
conditioning.
6.
The presence of altruistic behavior in animals is
most likely due to kin selection, a theory that
maintains that
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
aggression between sexes promotes the survival of the
fittest individuals.
genes enhance survival of copies of themselves by
directing organisms to assist others who share those
genes.
companionship is advantageous to animals because in the
future they can help each other.
critical thinking abilities are normal traits for animals and
they have arisen, like other traits, through natural selection.
natural selection has generally favored the evolution of
exaggerated aggressive and submissive behaviors to
resolve conflict without grave harm to participants.
2.
As N approaches K for a certain
population, which of the following is
predicted by the logistic equation?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
The growth rate will not change.
The growth rate will approach zero.
The population will show an Allee effect.
The population will increase exponentially.
The carrying capacity of the environment will
increase.
3.
In which of the following habitats would
you expect to find the largest number of Kselected individuals?
an abandoned field in Ohio
b. the sand dunes south of Lake Michigan
c. the rain forests of Brazil
d. south Florida after a hurricane
e. a newly emergent volcanic island
a.
The following question refers to the figure
below, which depicts the age structure of
three populations
4.
Assuming these age structure diagrams describe
human populations, in which population is
unemployment likely to be most severe in the
future?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
I
II
III
No differences in the magnitude of future
unemployment would be expected among these
populations.
It is not possible to infer anything about future social
conditions from age structure diagrams.

Why do most food chains consist of only three to five
links? *
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
There are only five trophic levels: producers; primary, secondary,
and tertiary consumers; and decomposers.
Most communities are controlled bottom-up by mineral nutrient
supply, and few communities have enough nutrients to support
more links.
The dominant species in most communities consumes the majority
of prey; thus, not enough food is left to support higher predators.
According to the energetic hypothesis, the inefficiency of energy
transfer from one trophic level to the next limits the number of links
that can exist.
According to the trophic cascade model, increasing the biomass of
top trophic levels causes a decrease in the biomass of lower
levels, so that the top levels can no longer be supported.
3.
Two barnacles, Balanus and Chthamalus, can
both survive on the lower rocks just above the
low tide line on the Scottish coast, but only
Balanus actually does so, with Chthamalus
adopting a higher zone. Which of the
following best accounts for this niche
separation?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
competitive exclusion
predation of Chthamalus by Balanus
cooperative displacement
primary succession
mutualism
The following questions refer to the diagram in
Figure 53.2 of five islands formed at about the
same time near a particular mainland.
6.
Island with the greatest number of species





A
B
C
D
E
7.
Island with the lowest extinction rate





A
B
C
D
E
Use the figure below to answer the following
questions (2 and 3). Examine this food web for
a particular terrestrial ecosystem. Each letter is
a species. The arrows represent energy flow.
2.
Which species is autotrophic?





A
B
C
D
E
3.
Species C makes its predators sick. Which
species is most likely to benefit from being
a mimic of C? *

A
 B
 C
 D
 E
Refer to the figure below,, a diagram of a
food web, for the following questions (4 and
5). Arrows represent energy flow and letters
represent species.
6.
If the flow of energy in an Arctic ecosystem goes
through a simple food chain from seaweeds to fish to
seals to polar bears, then which of the following is
true?
a. Polar bears can provide more food for Eskimos
than seals can.
b. The total energy content of the seaweeds is
lower than that of the seals.
c. Polar bear meat probably contains the highest
concentrations of fat-soluble toxins.
d. Seals are more numerous than fish.
e. The carnivores can provide more food for the
Eskimos than the herbivores can.
Behavioral Ecology

Innate Behavior
 FAP

Learning
– critical period
 Associative learning
 Imprinting


Classical conditioning (pavlov)
Operant conditioning
 Play

Animal Cognition (percieption and
processing)
 Taxis
 Kinesis
 Migration

Social Behavior
 Hierarchy
 Agonistic
 Territoriality
 Courtship
rituals

When, during a field trip, the instructor touched the
body of a moth that was sitting on a tree trunk, the
moth raised its forewings to reveal large eye-spots on
its hind wings. The instructor asked the class why
the moth lifted its wings. One student said that
certain sensory receptors had fired and triggered a
neuronal reflex culminating in the contraction of
certain muscles. A second student responded that
the behavior might frighten would-be predators.

(cont.) What can you say about the explanations of
these two students? *

The first response is correct, while the second is
incorrect.

The first response answers a proximate question, while
the second answers an ultimate question.

The first response is biological, while the second is
philosophical.

The first explanation is testable as a scientific hypothesis,
while the second is not.

Both explanations are reasonable and simply represent a
difference of opinion.
2.
A cage with male mosquitoes in it has a small
earphone placed on top, through which the sound
of a female mosquito is played. All the males
immediately fly to the earphone and thrust their
abdomens through the fabric of the cage.
2.
(cont.) Which of the following best describes this?





The males learn to associate the sound with a female and
are thus attracted to it.
Copulation is a fixed action pattern, and the female flight
sound is a sign stimulus that initiates it.
The sound from the earphone irritated the male
mosquitoes, causing them to attempt to sting it.
The reproductive drive is so strong that when males are
deprived of females, they will attempt to mate with
anything that has even the slightest female characteristic.
Through classical conditioning, the male mosquitoes have
associated the inappropriate stimulus from the earphone
with the normal response of copulation.
3.
Which of the following is true about imprinting?





It may be triggered by visual or chemical
stimuli.
It happens to many adult animals, but not to
their young.
It is a type of learning involving no innate
behavior.
It occurs only in birds.
It causes behaviors that last for only a short
time (the critical period).
4.
Every morning at the same time John went into
the den to feed his new tropical fish. After a few
weeks John noticed that the fish would rise to the
top of the tank as soon as he would enter the
room. This is a good example of





habituation.
imprinting.
classical conditioning.
operant conditioning.
maturation.
5.
A dog learns that it will get a treat when it
barks. Which of the following might you use to
describe this behavior?





The dog is displaying an instinctive fixed action
pattern.
The dog is performing a social behavior.
The dog is trying to protect its territory.
The dog has been classically conditioned.
The dog's behavior is a result of operant
conditioning.