Study Guide for Test 1
Wildlife and Fisheries 175 Fall 2014
Exam I will cover 4 chapters: 1-4. All exam questions come from lecture and lab activities, so focus your
study on your notes. Please read the book prior to lectures. It is an excellent resource. Use the book to
help you study, but do not try to memorize everything in it. See the good practice questions at the end of
each chapter. Use this study guide to help recall material and study. But, please do not just study this
study guide because there might be something missing, though not intentional. My suggestion is to go
through this study guide after studying your notes, etc. and see if you can answer everything correctly. If
you can, then you will ace the test! The test will be worth 100 points. It will consist of multiple choice
questions mostly so bring a # 2 pencil. There may also be a few matching, fill-in-the-blanks, and maybe a
short answer. Study hard, but more importantly study smart, and good luck! Also, don’t forget to see me if
you need help! (george.merovich@mail.wvu.edu). Finally, see the practice question at the end of this study
guide.
CHAPTER 1: Defining Wildlife and Fisheries
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Can you revisit these class objectives from the notes and correctly respond to them?
Objectives:
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Define wild animal, wildlife, and fish.
Define fisheries and wildlife systems and their 3 components.
Relate, compare, and contrast natural resource management, science, conservation
and preservation.
ID historical trends and important people in the history of wildlife and fisheries and
natural resource science.
Know and define the important bolded words in this intro chapter.
Explain how the model of the 3 overlapping circles represents wildlife and fisheries systems.
What is the meaning of the overlapping of the circles? Be sure to clearly show how the 3
components interrelate and compare to each other, while also explaining how they function
independently of the others.
Know the difference between wildlife and fisheries. How are they defined, legally or
ecologically?
Define renewable natural resource.
What is a game vs. a non-game species?
What is a fishery? What are the components that define a fishery or a wildlife system?
What is the difference between biotic and abiotic?
Define wildlife/fisheries science and management.
Know the general trend in the state of wildlife and fisheries resources through history. Who were
Aldo Leopold, Carl Hubbs, Rachel Carson, Gifford Pinchot?
In the past, researchers and managers focused on individual organisms: protecting them, growing
them, managing them? How has this changed? That is, how do we try to manage wildlife and
fisheries today?
Know the scientific method. What is a theory? What is a hypothesis?
CHAPTER 2: Ecological Principles
 Objectives:
Explain the science of ecology and how wildlife and fisheries is an applied ecological
science.
Identify and define the different temporal and spatial scales important in ecology.
Differentiate between structure and function (and explain examples) at different
ecological scales.
Define and analyze species (bio) diversity.
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Know the bold terms and terms associated with food chains, etc. (Read the book
chapters)
Define ecology. What is the purpose of ecology?
Define ecosystem. How is an ecosystem dependent on spatial and temporal scales?
Know the hierarchical organization of life, and the scales of ecology.
Define community in the ecological sense.
Know the difference between ecosystem structure and function, and give examples to explain.
Know the essence of biogeochemical cycles. You don’t have to know the details of any particular
cycle yet.
What is the fate of energy in ecosystems? Compare that to the fate of matter in ecosystems.
Know the process makes the sun’s energy available to all living things.
What does the term “trophic level” mean?
Know the classification or organisms within each trophic level of a food chain/web in an
ecosystem. Give examples of each for both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Terms: autotroph,
producer, heterotroph, primary consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer, grazer,
herbivore, predator, prey, plankton, phytoplankton, zooplankton, planktivore, zooplanktivore,
omnivore, carnivore, detritivore, detritus, scavengers, saprophytes, parasites, fungi, bacteria,
piscivores.
Why are food chains and trophic levels an oversimplification of real ecosystems (i.e., what are
some problems with the trophic level concept)?
What is a trophic pyramid? What is the 10% rule?
Species diversity, species richness, species evenness, biodiversity
Know the difference between habitat and niche. Give examples of each.
What are some factors that limit species from occupying their habitat and full niche?
What are introduced species and why are they generally considered to be bad?
Define indigenous, endemic, competition, competitive exclusion, niche partitioning.
What is a range of tolerance curve, and how do survival, growth, and reproduction relate to it?
Compare fundamental niche and realized niche.
Compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantage of the specialist and generalist niche
strategies.
What are some different ways individuals within populations are distributed in their habitat and
how might this distribution pattern change with scale?
Compare dispersal, range expansion, and migration.
Define: migration corridor, habitat fragmentation, ecotone, patch size, ecological succession,
ecoregions, biosphere, biomes, guild, home range, territory,
Chapter 3: Population Ecology
 Objectives from lecture notes:
 Define population, population dynamics, and population ecology.
 Explain why the study of populations is important.
 Describe several characteristics of populations including population growth models.
 Describe factors that influence population dynamics.
 Justify hunting and fishing by classifying mortality in wildlife and fisheries.
 Define what a population is. What is meant by the term population dynamics? Give examples
and define things that are measures of population dynamics.
 Why is understanding the status of populations so important to wildlife and fisheries management?
 What factors determine population dynamics? Define natality, recruitment, growth, and mortality
as they relate to population dynamics.
 Population growth: exponential and logistic, carrying capacity, biotic potential, environmental
resistance, welfare factors, decimating factors
 Define standing stock, density, surplus production, yield.
 How do wildlife and fisheries scientists classify mortality in populations that are managed as game
species? What is the justification for harvesting game species for recreational purposes?
 What is harvestable surplus, compensatory mortality, additive mortality?
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Chapter 4: Defining Species
Objectives:
 Define “species”
 Explain the origin of different species (i.e., macroevolution)
 Explain why it is importance to protect unique genetic variation (i.e., sub-species)
 What is the biological speciation concept? Define species. How do species originate (i.e., explain how
speciation might occur)? What criteria distinguishes different species?
 What are isolating mechanisms and why are they important? What is allopatric speciation?
 What is gene flow?
 What is a subspecies? Why is it important to protect geographically separated populations of
subspecies (think of genetic variation, environmental heterogeneity and adaptation)?
Lab 1: Library and literature in Wildlife and fisheries
 Terms: Gray literature, primary literature, peer-review
Lab 2: Stream and riparian zone ecology
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Objectives:
Explain the safe sampling techniques for stream fishes and macroinvertebrates
See and appreciate fish, amphibian, and invertebrate diversity in stream and riparian
zones
Explain the life cycles and basic stream/riparian zone ecology of fish, amphibians,
and invertebrates, and the importance of these organisms as ‘indicator species’
Terms: BMI, indicator species, EPT, complete vs. incomplete life cycle of insects,
guild, seine, electro-shock, electrofishing safety, ecosystem health
1=B; 2=D; 3=D; 4=A; 5=D; 6=B; 7=B
Multiple Choice Practice Questions
1) Which of these is an example of a species’ niche?
A) Cavities in old dead trees
B) Eats insects from underneath rotting logs
C) The velocity of water in a stream
D) How quickly rocks dry
E) The slope of mountainside
F) The color of polar bear fur
2) Which of these is an example of system structure?
A) rate of decomposition
B) pollution loading rate
C) speed of nutrient cycling
D) quantity that are juveniles
E) growth rate of forage plants
3) With respect to diversity, evenness refers to:
A) how many species there are
B) how abundant a species is
C) which species is dominant
D) how equal in abundance species are
E) how a species is distributed in a landscape
4) The pyramid of mass and energy concept refers to the fact that:
A) the total amount of mass and energy decreases up trophic levels.
B) the total amount of mass and energy increases up trophic levels.
C) the total amount of mass and energy remains constant as you go up trophic levels.
D) there are more 3rd level consumers than 2nd level consumers.
E) there are more consumers than producers.
5) Natality and recruitment tend to decrease with increasing population size because of:
A) Density independent factors
B) Changing sex ratios
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C) Larger age structures
D) Competition
E) Harvest mortality
6) The number of different species and their abundances make up the characteristics of which of the
following thing?
A) Population density
B) Community structure
C) A species
D) A metapopulation
E) Recruitment
7) Ecological succession is:
A) the adaptation of a population of organisms to changing environments
B) the change in a community in a particular area over time
C) a decrease in net primary production over time
D) a static, unchanging habitat over time
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