Bio 162 Mock exam (2006)
Name___________________________________________________
Marine Ecology Exam – Open Book – work alone or preferably in Groups – but each
person much turn in a completed exam
Definitions (3 points each)
1) Hermatypic coral
2) Zooxanthallae
3) Anthocaulus
4) Recruitment limitation
5) Competitive exclusion
6) Statistical power
7) Niche Diversification
8) Carrying capacity
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Bio 162 Mock exam (2006)
Name___________________________________________________
Identifications (1 points each)
a) coral morphology – identify the structure that each arrow points to
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Bio 162 Mock exam (2006)
Name___________________________________________________
Compare and contrast (6 points each)
1) brooding vs broadcast spawning
2) Intratentacular vs Extratentacular budding
3) Lower vs upper slope on a coral reef (biological and physical characteristics of)
4) Density dependent vs density independent processes
5) Settlement vs recruitment
6) Type I vs Type II error
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Bio 162 Mock exam (2006)
Name___________________________________________________
Short Answer (10 points each)
1) What is the type of association between Zooxanthallae and Corals: what do each
get out of the association
2) What are the basic growth forms of hermatypic corals, where might these occur?
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Bio 162 Mock exam (2006)
Name___________________________________________________
3) Write down the (derivative form) logistic growth function. Describe the portions
of the function
4) Graph the expected relationship between settlement and subsequent adult density
a. Label the axes
b. Indicate the regions of density dependence and density independence
c. Indicate where recruitment is limiting and not limiting
d. Indicate the areas where pre and post settlement processes are important
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Bio 162 Mock exam (2006)
Name___________________________________________________
5) Can alternative hypotheses ever be confirmed under hypothetico-deductive
reasoning? Why or why not. (1/2 page only)
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Bio 162 Mock exam (2006)
Name___________________________________________________
Essay questions (20 points each, no more than one page per essay)
1) Maintenance of Diversity – describe 2 equalibrial and 3 non-equalibrial
hypotheses for the maintenance of diversity
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Bio 162 Mock exam (2006)
Name___________________________________________________
2) Describe our current thinking on the process by which coral reefs are formed.
Make sure that you describe the types of reef that result. What is the evidence for
this mechanism? Who first described the process?
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Bio 162 Mock exam (2006)
Name___________________________________________________
3) Assume that on your first set of dives in Moorea you notice that:
a. As recruits, both Chromis virdis and Dascylus arunanus occur on
Pocillopora and not on other coral species
b. When they co-occurred there seemed to be more total recruits than when
they occurred without the other species
c. The total number of recruits never exceeded a threshold
Propose plausible general hypotheses for these observations. Now provide a
specific hypothesis (or specific hypotheses) and an experiment or survey that will
critically test the hypothesis (hypotheses). Pay attention to design issues.
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Bio 162 Mock exam (2006)
Name___________________________________________________
4) Describe the process you followed to come up with your group survey design
(from the group study). I do not want details of everything that you did, but I do
want you to describe the basis for what you did: how you came up with your
desired effect size, critical p-value, power and replication. Then tell me if the
sample design worked for you. Finally, reflect on your sample design and
indicate whether your planned parameters (eg p-value, power, effect size,
replication and spatial design) were reasonable.
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