Evolution/Ecology Practice Exam
What biome does this climate diagram represent?
a) Chaparral
b) Tropical rain forest
c) Temperate forest
d) Tropical dry forest
e) Temperate grassland
Conditions in the benthic aphotic zone most closely resemble:
a) salt water, cold, dark, nutrient-poor
b) fresh water, cold, dark, nutrient-poor
c) Salt water, ice, dark, nutrient-rich
d) fresh water, warm, well-lit, nutrient rich
e) salt water, cold, dark, nutrient rich
The spring tide is caused by:
a) The tilt of the Earth’s axis and seasonality
b) The Earth, moon and sun being aligned in a straight line
c) The Earth, moon and sun being at a right angle
d) The moon being directly ahead (the sun doesn’t matter)
e) The moon being on the opposite side of the Earth (the Sun doesn’t matter.)
All of the following are examples of gradients we have discussed this course EXCEPT:
a) Salinity in estuaries
b) The thermocline
c) A steno organism
d) Character displacement
e) Continuous traits
Each of these biomes have distinct seasons AND a year-round growing season EXCEPT:
a) Desert
b) Tropical dry forest
c) Tropical rain forest
d) Chaparral
e) None of the above (all fulfill both criteria)
Plants in this biome will likely have which adaptations?
a) Succulents
b) Slow growth
c) Shallow roots
d) Broad, leafy canopy
e) A and C
f) B and D
A male blackbird sees a red patch (whether on another male blackbird or a fake) and immediately
attacks it in a highly stereotyped way. This is an example of:
a) Male-male competition
b) Predation
c) A releaser-stimulated FAP
d) A conditioned response
e) Aposematic coloration
In selecting food, an organism will consider all of the following EXCEPT:
a) How much energy it has to expend to get the food
b) How dangerous it is to get the food
c) How much energy is in the food
d) Whether the food is toxic
e) Whether they will affect their prey species
Altruism may have evolved by:
a) True altruistic behaviors always increase the fitness of the actor, so natural selection would
favor altruistic individuals
b) Altruism is a learned behavior and is not heritable, so it did not evolve
c) A population bottleneck most likely reduced the population such that only altruistic individuals
were left
d) Altruistic behaviors increase the fitness of individuals with the same alleles, so natural selection
would favor altruistic individuals
e) Altruism won the evolutionary arms race against cheaters, despite natural selection favoring the
cheaters.
A dog that used to live in a warm region moves to a boreal forest. As a result, it grows longer fur. This is
an example of:
a) Phenotypic variation
b) Adjustment
c) Acclimation
d) Adaptation
e) Heat exchange
You observe a population of elephants. You calculate the population size and observe the birth and
death rates. Using exponential growth, you predict that dN=27 in one year. You return after a year and
find only 5 new individuals. What possible explanations could there be for this finding? Choose all that
apply.
a) Immigration and emigration are occurring at an equal rate
b) The population is near its carrying capacity
c) The population was infected by a fatal disease, increasing its death rate
d) Predation is killing baby elephants
e) None of the above explain this observation.
Exponential population growth occurs when:
a) An organism has a Type III survivorship curve
b) Interspecific competition is fierce
c) The organism is undergoing natural selection
d) Resources are abundant
e) The realized niche is the fundamental niche
Vibrio cholerae, the organism which causes Cholera, usually lives on the exoskeleton of marine
invertebrates called copepods. As the copepod moves to new locations, V. cholerae finds new food
sources. V. cholerae pumps water out of the copepod as it travels up an estuary, allowing it to
osmoregulate. What type of interaction does this describe?
a) Mutualism
b) Amenalism
c) Parasitism
d) Commenalism
e) Competition
The mold Penicillium produces the antibiotic Penicillin to protect it against predation and allow it to
outcompete bacteria for resources. This is an example of what?
a) Exploitation competition
b) A secondary compound
c) Competitive release
d) Co-evolution
e) Taxis
The biotic environment deals with:
a) Temperature, water, light
b) Understanding behavioral solutions to environmental challenges
c) The plants, other species and their interactions in the environment
d) The restoration and preservation of threatened populations
Winds combined with the _______ drive ocean hurricanes.
a) hurricane effect
b) coriolus effect
c) glomerulus effect
d) global effect
What must happen for homeostasis in heat exchange to take place:
a) the organism must be in its thermal neutral zone
b) the organism must be an ectotherm
c) the organism’s metabolic rate must increase
d) the environmental inputs must equal the organism’s heat output
e) microclimate variation
Give a definition and example of each of the following:
Batesian mimicry
Amenalism
Exploitation competition
Coevolution
Adjustment
Thermal neutral zone
Euryhaline
Semelparity
Conditioning
Risk-averse foraging
Reciprocal altruism
1. Albuquerque, NM is located on the west side of the Rocky Mountains. It is at 1 mile of
elevation. It is at least 8 hours’ drive from any ocean. Its coordinates are 35° North, 106° W.
From this information, predict the climate of Albuquerque.
2. When a keystone predator is removed from an area, the diversity of species often dramatically
decreases. Using your understanding of evolution and ecology, explain why this is the case.
3. How does eutrophication work? Why is it bad?
4. Two species of birds each eat the same kind of bugs. In some parts of their range, the ranges
overlap. Describe how character displacement can ease the competition between the two
species, using examples. What would happen if one of the species died out completely?
5. What is the biotic potential? How is it calculated? What does this value take into
consideration?
6. When a worker bee stings something, her stinger pulls out and she dies. Explain how this
behavior could have evolved.
Evolution review
Natural selection acts on __________________________________________ which causes
___________________________________________________.
There are five macroevolutionary processes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Fitness is a measure of ___________________________________.
Important pieces of evidence for evolution include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
How do natural geological processes and ecosystem changes cause evolution?