FINAL EXAM – 300 points - comprehensive
100 points - exams 1 &2 – you will see questions similar or identical to those on previous exams
also refer to online study guides from earlier exams
200 points - material presented since exam 2 covering: SEE BELOW
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Population Ecology
Biological Communities & Species Interactions
Ecosystems
Conservations Issues
Use the handouts from films and assigned reading /homework
POPULATIONS
1. Explain: carrying capacity (K), demographics, Exponential vs. Logistic population growth
2. What is population ecology?
3. How are populations characterized?
 Population density and distribution
 Age/reproductive and gender distribution
4. Describe sampling techniques
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direct count
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plot sampling
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mark-recapture sampling
5. What factors influence population growth?
6. Define, understand and give examples of:
- density dependent controls on population size
- density independent controls on population size
7. Describe the following population distributions and indicate which is more common in nature
a) clumped
b) random
c) uniform
8. Do predators ever control population size of their prey?
9. Do prey ever control population size of their predators?
10. What happens if the population size exceeds the carrying capacity?
11. Explain how population ecologists contributed to addressing hanta virus or Lyme disease.
COMMUNITIES
12. Explain: brood parasitism, social parasitism, parasitoid, convolution, resource partitioning, exotic
species, niche, fundamental niche, realized niche, indicator species, keystone species
13.Describe the 5 types of symbiosis and give examples of each.
14. A relationship in which one species benefits while the other is neither helped nor harmed to any
significant degree is best labeled …
15. Flowers and the insects that pollinate them are an example of ….
16. A relationship in which a member of one species obtains its nourishment by living on or in a member
of another species over an extended time is best labeled …
17. Zebra mussels, Kudzu vine, and ice plant are all ….
18. Resource partitioning allows similar organisms to reduce competition and exploit a resource in noncompetitive ways. An example would be ...
19. Wolves and coyotes do not share habitat. We know that wolves do not prey on coyotes, so the
reason the two species do not share habitat is most likely due to ...
20. Predator-prey studies suggest what about the effect of predators on prey populations?
21. Symbiosis occurs in many forms. The form in which one species benefits while the other is not
affected is called ...
22. The leaves of the black walnut tree contain an inhibitor which reduces germination under the
canopy of the tree. This is an example of ...
23. On mudflats, shorebirds feed in mixed flocks, but because different species have bills of different
lengths, the birds use different food resources. This relationship is termed ...
24. In an example of _____, the rough-skinned newt has evolved one of the most potent known toxins,
but is still eaten by the garter snake.
ECOSYSTEMS
25. Explain: 10% rule, autotrophs, biological magnification/amplification/biomagnification, biomass,
carbon cycle, consumers, decomposers, ecosystem, eutrophication, food chain, food web,
herbivores, heterotrophs, nutrients, matter, energy, omnivores, primary consumer, producers,
primary productivity, secondary consumer, trophic levels, Gauzes’ Rule
26. Primary producer(s) include …
27. A decrease in the number of otters of the coast of California due to hunting resulted in increased
abundance of …
28. How are nitrogen and phosphorous cycled back to their inorganic form after being eaten in some
form by animals?
29. How do nitrogen and phosphorous enter the food web from their inorganic form?
30. Which ecosystem(s) has/have the greatest annual average net primary productivity per unit area?
31. What are producers and what is their role in an ecosystem?
32. Why are decomposers so important?
33. According to the theory of island biogeography, a ______ will have the greatest number of species.
a. a large island far from any continents
b. a small island far from any continents
c. a small island close to a continent
d. a large island close to a continent
34. Is energy transfer between trophic levels 100% efficient? If not, how efficient is it and what happens
to the energy that is not transferred to the next trophic level as biomass?
35. What is biomass?
36. Why are there rarely more than 3 trophic levels in a food chain?
37. What is meant by the statement that energy flow through ecosystems is unidirectional but matter is
cycled?
38. Organisms whose feeding helps break down dead organic matter are called …
39. If an antelope herd eats 100 kilograms of grass, the net gain in antelope biomass will be
approximately …
40. In a marsh ecosystem contaminated with DDT the highest pesticide concentrations would be found
in the
a. mud
b. algae that lived on the surface of the marsh
c. minnows that feed on the algae growing in the marsh
d. perch that feed on the minnows
e. osprey that feed on the perch
41. The trophic level with the greatest biomass is usually the ...
42. Which ecosystems have the highest productivity?
43. Which trophic level is the most ecologically important? Why?
44. What is a eutrophic lake?