Name: ___________________________________________
Honors Biology
Populations Chapter 26
Questions are organized by section number and have an (F), (C), or (A) at the beginning to designate the modified Bloom categories used in the test
item files.
Practice Questions:
(C)1. Which of the following would NOT be a suitable research project for an ecologist?
a. the effect of parasitic worms on death rates of people in tropical Africa
b. the recovery of the forest community around Mount St. Helens following its eruption in 1980
c. adaptations of deep-sea fish that allow them to live under such high pressures
d. how predation by feral cats on ground-nesting birds on an island affects the numbers of each species
e. how the three-dimensional structure of the active site of an enzyme involved in converting glucose to glycogen in the liver affects its activity
Answer:
(F)2. Which of the following processes would contribute to an increase in population size?
a. birth
b. death
c. immigration
d. emigration
e. Both the first and third answers are correct.
Answer:
(F)3. The rate at which a population reproduces and grows under ideal or optimal conditions is known as the __________.
a. replacement-level fertility
b. biotic potential
c. carrying capacity
d. environmental resistance
e. survivorship curve
Answer
(C)4. The biotic potential of a species depends on which of the following factors?
a. the age at which the organism first reproduces
b. the chance of survival to the age of reproduction
c. the frequency with which reproduction occurs
d. the average number of offspring produced each time
e. the length of the reproductive life span of the organism
f. all of the above
Answer:
(C)5. Which of the following examples illustrates the principle of exponential growth?
a. a population of aphids whose population numbers decrease consistently from year to year
b. a population of spiders whose population numbers increase one year but decrease in other years
c. a population of spider mites whose population numbers double every two weeks for the course of the summer
d. a population of purseweb tarantulas whose population numbers remain essentially unchanged over time
Answer
(C)6. For exponential growth to occur, it is necessary that
a. there is no mortality
b. there are no density-independent limits
c. the birth rate consistently exceeds the death rate
d. a species is very fast reproducing
e. the species is an exotic invader in an ecosystem
Answer:
(A)7. Growth rate implies a change over time. If a city in California has a population of 7500 people and 100 children were born in the city this past year, what is
the birthrate for this city?
a. 0.013
b. 13%
c. 75
d. 760
e. less than 1%
Answer
(C)8. If the elk population was drastically reduced, perhaps due to disease, what prediction could one make about the effects on the wolf population that preys
on the elk?
a. The wolf population will crash, because there are no other food sources for the wolves but elk.
b. The wolf population will increase because there will be more dead or weakened prey to eat.
c. The wolf population will be unaffected because it will change its food source to something else, such as bighorn sheep or rabbits.
d. The wolves will decline as well, but will rebound if the deer/elk population increases.
e. The wolf population will achieve carrying capacity and maintain an S-shaped curve.
Answer:
(F)9. The carrying capacity is _________.
a. the total number of organisms of a species that an environment can support.
b. the population size always reached by a particular species
c. a measurement of the total resources in the environment
d. a measurement of the total resources in an environment that are used by one population
e. the maximum biotic potential of a species assuming no limitation of resources
Answer:
(C)10. Which of the following factors is NOT an example of density-dependent environmental resistance?
a. weather
b. competition
c. predation
d. parasitism
e. lack of food
Answer
(C)11. Once established, exotic species introduced into a new area often increase dramatically in numbers for quite some time. This increase is believed to
occur because __________.
a. they lack many of the natural enemies (predators, parasites, etc.) that would keep their numbers in check in their native range
b. exotic species always have very high population growth rates (r)
c. there are many vacant niches in most ecosystems that exotic species can readily fill
d. exotic species always have very high carrying capacities
e. all of the above
Answer
(C)12. A clan of spotted hyenas in Ngorongoro Crater (Africa), gobbling down the carcass of a zebra from which they have chased a lone lioness, exhibit
__________ competition among themselves.
a. contest competition
b. scramble competition
c. intraspecific competition
d. interspecific competition
e. Both the second and third answers are correct.
Answer:
(F)13. Although the death rate exceeds the birth rate, the population in North America and the United States in particular, continues to expand. What factor(s)
might account for this continued increase?
a. an unstable economy
b. failed birth control measures
c. immigration
d. none of the above
Answer:
(C)14. How have humans been able to expand the carrying capacity over the course of recorded history?
a. through advances in technology and medicine
b. by co-opting the resources of other species
c. by exploiting renewable resources faster than they can be replaced and nonrenewable resources that cannot be replaced
d. all of the above
Answer:
(F)15. Developing countries, like Pakistan, that have passed only halfway through the demographic transition __________.
a. have high growth rates as death rates have already dropped but birth rates remain high
b. have high growth rates as birth rates have already risen but have not yet fallen back down
c. have low growth rates as birth rates have already dropped but death rates remain high
d. have low growth rates as death rates have already risen but birth rates remain low
e. have unchanged growth rates as both birth and death rates have declined simultaneously
Answer: