1) Population ecologists are primarily interested in
A)
studying interactions among populations of organisms that inhabit the
same area.
B) understanding how biotic and abiotic factors
influence the density, distribution, size, and age structure of
populations.
C) how humans affect the size of wild populations
of organisms.
D) how populations evolve as natural selection
acts on heritable variations among individuals and changes in gene
frequency.
E) the overall vitality of a population of organisms.
Answer: B
2) A population is correctly defined as having which of the following
characteristics?
I. inhabiting the same general area
II. belonging to the
same species
III. possessing a constant and uniform density and
dispersion
A) I only
B) III only
C) I and II only
D) II
and III only
E) I, II, and III
Answer: C
3) An ecologist recorded 12 white-tailed deer, Odocoileus
virginianus, per square mile in one woodlot and 20 per square mile in
another woodlot. What was the ecologist comparing?
A) density
B) dispersion
C) carrying capacity
D) cohorts
E) range
Answer: A
4) During the spring, you are studying the mice that live in a field
near your home. The population density is high, but you realize that
you rarely observe any reproductive female mice. This most likely
indicates
A) that there is selective predation on female mice.
B) that female mice die before reproducing.
C) that this
habitat is a good place for mice to reproduce.
D) that you are
observing immigrant mice.
E) that the breeding season is over.
Answer: D
5) Uniform spacing patterns in plants such as the creosote bush are
most often associated with
A) chance.
B) patterns of high
humidity.
C) the random distribution of seeds.
D)
competitive interaction between individuals of the same population.
E) the concentration of nutrients within the population's range.
Answer: D
6) Which of the following groups would be most likely to exhibit
uniform dispersion?
A) red squirrels, who actively defend
territories
B) cattails, which grow primarily at edges of lakes
and streams
C) dwarf mistletoes, which parasitize particular
species of forest tree
D) moths, in a city at night
E)
lake trout, which seek out cold, deep water high in dissolved oxygen
Answer: A
7) To construct a reproductive table for a sexual species, one needs
to
A) assess sperm viability for the males in the population.
B) keep track of all of the offspring of a cohort.
C) keep
track of the females in a cohort.
D) keep track of all of the
offspring of the females in a cohort.
E) analyze the ratio of
deaths to births in a cohort.
Answer: C
8) Which of the following examples would most accurately measure the
density of the population being studied?
A) counting the number
of prairie dog burrows per hectare
B) counting the number of
times a 1 kilometer transect is intersected by tracks of red squirrels
after a snowfall
C) counting the number of coyote droppings per
hectare
D) multiplying the number of moss plants counted in 10
quadrats of 1m² each by 100 to determine the density per kilometer².
E) counting the number of zebras from airplane census observations.
Answer: E
9) Which of the following assumptions have to be made regarding the
capture-recapture estimate of population size?
I. Marked and unmarked individuals have the same probability of
being trapped.
II. The marked individuals have thoroughly mixed
with the population after being marked.
III. No individuals have
entered or left the population by immigration or emigration, and no
individuals have been added by birth or eliminated by death during the
course of the estimate.
A) I only
B) II only
C) I and II only
D) II
and III only
E) I, II, and III
Answer: E
10) Long-term studies of Belding's ground squirrels show that
immigrants move nearly 2 km from where they are born and become 1%-8%
of the males and 0.7%-6% of the females in other populations. On an
evolutionary scale, why is this significant?
A) These immigrants
make up for the deaths of individuals, keeping the other populations'
size stable.
B) Young reproductive males tend to stay in their
home population and are not driven out by other territorial males.
C) These immigrants provide a source of genetic diversity for
the other populations.
D) Those individuals that emigrate to
these new populations are looking for less crowded conditions with
more resources.
E) Gradually, the populations of ground
squirrels will move from a clumped to a uniform population pattern of dispersion.
Answer: C
11) Which of the following sets of measurements is the most useful
when studying populations?
A) density, dispersion, and
demographics of a population
B) gene frequency over time and the
ratio of reproductive to nonreproductive individuals
C) annual
precipitation averages and mean annual temperatures
D) minimum
and maximum amounts of precipitation and annual temperature extremes
E) ratio of predators and the number of immigrants and emigrants
Answer: A
12) Which of the following scenarios would provide the most
legitimate data on population density?
A) Count the number of
nests of a particular species of songbird and multiply this by a
factor that extrapolates these data to actual animals.
B) Count
the number of pine trees in several randomly selected 10 m x 10 m
plots and extrapolate this number to the fraction of the study area
these plots represent.
C) Use the mark-and-recapture method to
estimate the size of the population.
D) Calculate the difference
between all of the immigrants and emigrants to see if the population
is growing or shrinking.
E) Add the number of births and
subtract the individuals that die to see if the population's density
is increasing or decreasing.
Answer: B
13) Which of the following is the best example of uniform
distribution?
A) bees collecting pollen in a wildflower meadow
B) snails in an intertidal zone at low tide
C) territorial
songbirds in a mature forest during mating season
D) mushrooms
growing on the floor of an old growth forest
E) a cultivated
cornfield in the Midwest
Answer: C
14) Which of the following choices would most likely promote random
distribution?
A) territorial species
B) species that
secrete chemicals to attract or inhibit other individuals
C)
flocking and schooling behaviors
D) spacing during the breeding
season
E) homogeneous chemical and physical factors in the environment
Answer: E
15) Which of the following best defines a cohort?
A) a group of
individuals that inhabits a small isolated region within the range for
the species
B) all of the individuals that are annually added to
a population by birth and immigration
C) the reproductive males
and females within the population
D) a group of the individuals
from the same age group, from birth until they are all dead
E)
the number of individuals that annually die or emigrate out of a population
Answer: D
16) Why do some invertebrates, such as lobsters, show a
"stair-step" survivorship curve?
A) Many invertebrates
mate and produce offspring on multiyear cycles.
B) Within a
species of invertebrates, younger individuals have a higher
survivorship than older individuals.
C) Many invertebrates molt
in order to grow, and they are vulnerable to predation during their
"soft shell" stage.
D) Many invertebrate species have
population cycles that go up and down according to the frequency of
sunspots.
E) The number of fertilized eggs that mature to become
females in many species of invertebrates is based on ambient temperature.
Answer: C
17) Which of the following is the most important assumption for the
capture-recapture method to estimate the size of wildlife populations?
A) All females in the population have the same litter size.
B) More individuals emigrate from, as opposed to immigrate into,
a population.
C) Over 50% of the marked individuals need to be
trapped during the recapture phase.
D) There is a 50:50 ratio of
males to females in the population before and after trapping and
recapture.
E) Marked individuals have the same probability of
being recaptured as unmarked individuals during the recapture phase.
Answer: E
18) A population of ground squirrels has an annual per capita birth
rate of 0.06 and an annual per capita death rate of 0.02. Calculate an
estimate of the number of individuals added to (or lost from) a
population of 1,000 individuals in one year.
A) 120 individuals
added
B) 40 individuals added
C) 20 individuals added
D) 400 individuals added
E) 20 individuals lost
Answer: B
19) Exponential growth of a population is represented by dN/dt =
A. SEE IMAGE
B. SEE IMAGE
C. SEE IMAGE
D. SEE
IMAGE
E. SEE IMAGE
Answer: B
20) Starting from a single individual, what is the size of a
population of bacteria that reproduce by binary fission every 20
minutes at the end of a 2-hour time period? (Assume unlimited
resources and no mortality.)
A) 6
B) 18
C) 128
D) 512
E) 1,024
Answer: D
21) Which of the following is the equation for zero population growth
(ZPG)?
A) R = b - m
B) dN/dt = rN
C) dN/dt =rmax N
(K -N)/K
D) dN/dt =rmax N
E) dN/dt = 1.0N
Answer: A
22) In July 2008, the United States had a population of approximately
302,000,000 people. How many Americans were there in July 2009, if the
estimated 2008 growth rate was 0.88%?
A) 2,700,000
B)
5,500,000
C) 303,000,000
D) 304,000,000
E) 2,710,800,000
Answer: D
23) In 2008, the population of New Zealand was approximately
4,275,000 people. If the birth rate was 14 births for every 1,000
people, approximately how many births occurred in New Zealand in 2008?
A) 6,000
B) 42,275
C) 60,000
D) 140,000
E) 600,000
Answer: C
24) Consider two forests: one is an undisturbed old-growth forest,
while the other has recently been logged. In which forest are species
likely to experience exponential growth, and why?
A) Old growth,
because of stable conditions that would favor exponential growth of
all species in the forest.
B) Old growth, because each of the
species is well established and can produce many offspring.
C)
Logged, because the disturbed forest affords more resources for
increased specific populations to grow.
D) Logged, because the
various populations are stimulated to a higher reproductive potential.
E) Exponential growth is equally probable in old-growth and
logged forests.
Answer: C
25) Logistic growth of a population is represented by dN/dt =
A. SEE IMAGE
B. SEE IMAGE
C. SEE IMAGE
D. SEE
IMAGE
E. SEE IMAGE
Answer: D
26) As N approaches K for a certain population, which of the
following is predicted by the logistic equation?
A) The growth
rate will not change.
B) The growth rate will approach zero.
C) The population will show an Allee effect.
D) The
population will increase exponentially.
E) The carrying capacity
of the environment will increase.
Answer: B
Please read the paragraph below and review Figure 53.2 to answer the
following question.
Researchers in the Netherlands
studied the effects of parental care given in European kestrels over
five years. The researchers transferred chicks among nests to produce
reduced broods (three or four chicks), normal broods (five or six
chicks), and enlarged broods (seven or eight chicks). They then
measured the percentage of male and female parent birds that survived
the following winter. (Both males and females provide care for
chicks.)
Figure 53.2: Brood size manipulations in the
kestrel: Effects on offspring and parent survival.
58)
Which of the following is a conclusion that can be drawn from this
graph?
A) Female survivability is more negatively affected by
larger brood size than is male survivability.
B) Male
survivability decreased by 50% between reduced and enlarged brood
treatments.
C) Both males and females had increases in daily
hunting with the enlarged brood size.
D) There appears to be a
negative correlation between brood enlargements and parental survival.
E) Chicks in reduced brood treatment received more food, weight
gain, and reduced mortality.
Answer: D
28) The Allee effect is used to describe a population that
A)
has become so small that it will have difficulty surviving and
reproducing.
B) has become so large that it will have difficulty
surviving and reproducing.
C) is viable and stable at its
carrying capacity.
D) has exceeded its carrying capacity.
E) is in crash decline.
Answer: A
29) Carrying capacity is
A) seldom reached by marine producers
and consumers because of the vast resources of the ocean.
B) the
maximum population size that a particular environment can support.
C) fixed for most species over most of their range most of the
time.
D) determined by density and dispersion data.
E) the
term used to describe the stress a population undergoes due to limited resources.
Answer: B
30) Which of the following causes populations to shift most quickly
from an exponential to a logistic population growth?
A)
increased birth rate
B) removal of predators
C) decreased
death rate
D) competition for resources
E) favorable
climatic conditions
Answer: D
31) Which of the following statements about the evolution of life
histories is correct?
A) Stable environments with limited
resources favor r-selected populations.
B) K-selected
populations are most often found in environments where
density-independent factors are important regulators of population
size.
C) Most populations have both r- and K-selected
characteristics that vary under different environmental conditions.
D) The reproductive efforts of r-selected populations are
directed at producing just a few offspring with good competitive
abilities.
E) K-selected populations rarely approach carrying capacity.
Answer: C
32) Natural selection involves energetic trade-offs between
A)
choosing how many offspring to produce over the course of a lifetime
and how long to live.
B) producing large numbers of gametes when
employing internal fertilization versus fewer numbers of gametes when
employing external fertilization.
C) the emigration of
individuals when they are no longer reproductively capable or
committing suicide.
D) increasing the number of individuals
produced during each reproductive episode with a corresponding
decrease in parental care.
E) high survival rates of offspring
and the cost of parental care.
Answer: E
33) The three basic variables that make up the life history of an
organism are
A) life expectancy, birth rate, and death rate.
B) number of reproductive females in the population, age
structure of the population, and life expectancy.
C) age when
reproduction begins, how often reproduction occurs, and how many
offspring are produced per reproductive episode.
D) how often
reproduction occurs, life expectancy of females in the population, and
number of offspring per reproductive episode.
E) the number of
reproductive females in the population, how often reproduction occurs,
and death rate.
Answer: C
34) Which of the following pairs of reproductive strategies is
consistent with energetic trade-off and reproductive success?
A)
Pioneer species of plants produce many very small, highly airborne
seeds, whereas large elephants that are very good parents produce many
offspring.
B) Female rabbits that suffer high predation rates
may produce several litters per breeding season, and coconuts produce
few fruits, but most survive when they encounter proper growing
conditions.
C) Species that have to broadcast to distant
habitats tend to produce seeds with heavy protective seed coats, and
animals that are caring parents produce fewer offspring with lower
infant mortality.
D) Free-living insects lay thousands of eggs
and provide no parental care, whereas flowers take good care of their
seeds until they are ready to germinate.
E) Some mammals will
not reproduce when environmental resources are low so they can survive
until conditions get better, and plants that produce many small seeds
are likely found in stable environments.
Answer: B
35) Pacific salmon and annual plants are excellent examples of
A) cohort disintegration.
B) dispersion.
C) Allee
effect.
D) iteroparous reproduction.
E) semelparous reproduction.
Answer: E
36) Which of the following is characteristic of K-selected
populations?
A) offspring with good chances of survival
B)
many offspring per reproductive episode
C) small offspring
D) a high intrinsic rate of increase
E) early parental reproduction
Answer: A
37) Which variables define the ecological life history of a species?
A) the age at which reproduction begins, frequency of
reproduction, and the number of offspring for each reproductive
episode
B) the ratio of females to males, the length of the
breeding season, and the number of offspring for each reproductive
episode
C) the number of offspring produced over a lifetime by a
breeding pair and the survivability of the offspring
D) timing
breeding sessions with optimal environmental conditions and the number
of offspring produced during each breeding session
E) the amount
of parental care given after birth, the number of reproductive
episodes per year, and the number of years females are capable of
producing viable offspring
Answer: A
38) Which pattern of reproduction is correctly paired with a species?
A) iteroparityPacific salmon
B) iteroparityelephant
C) semelparityoak tree
D) semelparityrabbit
E)
semelparity–polar bear
Answer: B
39) Often the growth cycle of one population has an effect on the
cycle of another. As moose populations increase, for example, wolf
populations also increase. Thus, if we are considering the logistic
equation for the wolf population,
SEE IMAGE
which of the factors accounts for the effect on the moose
population?
A) r
B) N
C) rN
D) K
E) dt
Answer: D
40) In which of the following situations would you expect to find the
largest number of K-selected individuals?
A) a recently
abandoned agricultural field in Ohio
B) the sand dune
communities of south Lake Michigan
C) the flora and fauna of a
coral reef in the Caribbean
D) South Florida after a hurricane
E) a newly emergent volcanic island
Answer: C
41) Which of the following is most likely to contribute to
density-dependent regulation of populations?
A) the removal of
toxic waste by decomposers
B) intraspecific competition for
nutrients
C) earthquakes
D) floods
E) fires
Answer: B
42) Why do populations grow more slowly as they approach their
carrying capacity?
A) Density-dependent factors lead to fewer
births and increased mortality.
B) Density-independent factors
lead to fewer births and increased mortality.
C) Hormonal
changes promote higher death rates in crowded populations.
D)
Individuals voluntarily stop mating so that overcrowding does not
occur.
E) The incoming energy decreases in populations
experiencing a high rate of increase.
Answer: A
43) A population of white-footed mice becomes severely overpopulated
in a habitat that has been disturbed by human activity. Sometimes
intrinsic factors cause the population to increase in mortality and
lower reproduction rates to occur in reaction to the stress of
overpopulation. Which of the following is an example of intrinsic
population control?
A) Owl populations frequent the area more
often because of increased hunting success.
B) Females undergo
hormonal changes that delay sexual maturation and many individuals
suffer depressed immune systems and die due to the stress of
overpopulation.
C) Clumped dispersion of the population leads to
increased spread of disease and parasites, resulting in a population
crash.
D) All of the resources (food and shelter) are used up by
overpopulation and much of the population dies of exposure and/or
starvation.
E) Because the individuals are vulnerable they are
more likely to die off if a drought or flood were to occur.
Answer: B
44) Why is territoriality an adaptive behavior for songbirds
maintaining populations at or near their carrying capacity?
A)
Songbirds expend a tremendous amount of energy defending territories
so that they spend less time feeding their young and fledgling
mortality increases.
B) Only the fittest males defend
territories and they attract the fittest females so the best genes are
conveyed to the next generation.
C) Songbird males defend
territories commensurate with the size from which they can derive
adequate resources for themselves, their mate, and their
chicks.
D) Many individuals are killed in the agonistic behaviors
that go along with territorial defense.
E) Adult songbirds make
improvements to the territories they inhabit so that they can produce
successfully fledged chicks.
Answer: C
45) Which of the following could be a density-independent factor
limiting human population growth?
A) social pressure for birth
control
B) earthquakes
C) plagues
D) famines
E) pollution
Answer: B
46) An ecological footprint is a construct that is useful
A)
for a person living in a developed nation to consider to make better
choices when using global food and energy resources.
B) for a
person living in a developing country to see how much of the world's
resources are left for him/her.
C) in converting human foods'
meat biomass to plant biomass.
D) in making predictions about
the global carrying capacity of humans.
E) in determining which
nations produce the least amount of carbon dioxide from the burning of
fossil fuels.
Answer: A
47) Which of the following was the most significant limiting factor
in human population growth in the 20th century?
A) famine
B) non-HIV disease
C) HIV
D) genocide
E) clean water
Answer: E
48) Which of the following is most key to understanding the
demographic transition in human population growth?
A) education
of global famine
B) improved worldwide health care
C)
voluntary reduction of family size
D) improved sanitary
conditions in the world's hospitals
E) reduction of casualties
of war
Answer: C
49) Why does the 2009 U.S. population continue to grow even though
the United States has essentially established a ZPG?
A)
emigration
B) immigration
C) better sanitation
D)
baby boomer reproduction
E) the 2007-2009 economic recession
Answer: B
50) Which statement is true with regard to human population growth?
A) It is at a zero reproduction rate.
B) Its rate of
increase continues to grow at an exponential rate.
C) Its rate
of growth is slowing.
D) Its rate of growth is increasing.
E) There is no scientific prediction that can be made about
human population growth.
Answer: C
51) Which curve best describes survivorship in marine molluscs?
A) A
B) B
C) C
D) D
E) E
Answer: E
52) Which curve best describes survivorship in elephants?
A) A
B) B
C) C
D) D
E) E
Answer: A
53) Which curve best describes survivorship in a marine crustacean
that molts?
A) A
B) B
C) C
D) D
E) E
Answer: D
54) Which curve best describes survivorship in humans who live in
undeveloped nations?
A) A
B) B
C) C
D) D
E) E
Answer: A
55) Which statement best explains survivorship curve B?
A) It
is likely a species that provides little postnatal care, but lots of
care for offspring during midlife as indicated by increased
survivorship.
B) This curve is likely of a species that produces
lots of offspring, only a few of which are expected to survive.
C) It is likely a species where no individuals in the cohort die
when they are at 60—70% relative age.
D) There was a mass
emigration of young to middle-aged individuals in this cohort.
E) Survivorship can only decrease; therefore, this curve could
not happen in nature.
Answer: E
56) Which of the following graphs illustrates the population growth
curve of single bacterium growing in a flask of ideal medium at
optimum temperature over a 24-hour period?
A. SEE IMAGE
B. SEE IMAGE
C. SEE IMAGE
D. SEE
IMAGE
E. SEE IMAGE
Answer: C
57) Which of the following graphs illustrates the growth curve of a small population of rodents that has grown to reach a static carrying capacity?
Answer: E
Please read the paragraph below and review Figure 53.2 to answer the
following question.
Researchers in the Netherlands
studied the effects of parental care given in European kestrels over
five years. The researchers transferred chicks among nests to produce
reduced broods (three or four chicks), normal broods (five or six
chicks), and enlarged broods (seven or eight chicks). They then
measured the percentage of male and female parent birds that survived
the following winter. (Both males and females provide care for
chicks.)
Figure 53.2: Brood size manipulations in the
kestrel: Effects on offspring and parent survival.
58)
Which of the following is a conclusion that can be drawn from this
graph?
A) Female survivability is more negatively affected by
larger brood size than is male survivability.
B) Male
survivability decreased by 50% between reduced and enlarged brood
treatments.
C) Both males and females had increases in daily
hunting with the enlarged brood size.
D) There appears to be a
negative correlation between brood enlargements and parental survival.
E) Chicks in reduced brood treatment received more food, weight
gain, and reduced mortality.
Answer: D
59) Which of the following is a likely graphic outcome of a
population of deer introduced to an island with an adequate herbivory
and without natural predators, parasites, or disease?
A. SEE IMAGE
B. SEE IMAGE
C. SEE IMAGE
D. SEE
IMAGE
E. SEE IMAGE
Answer: A
60) Which of the following graphs illustrates the growth over several seasons of a population of snowshoe hares that were introduced to an appropriate habitat also inhabited by predators in northern Canada?
Answer: D
The following questions refer to Figure 53.3, which depicts the age
structure of three populations.
61) Which population(s) is (are) in the process of decreasing?
A) I
B) II
C) III
D) I and II
E) II and III
Answer: B
The following questions refer to Figure 53.3, which depicts the age
structure of three populations.
62) Which population(s) appear(s) to be stable?
A) I
B) II
C) III
D) I and II
E) II and III
Answer: C
The following questions refer to Figure 53.3, which depicts the age
structure of three populations.
63) Assuming these age-structure diagrams describe human
populations, in which population is unemployment likely to be a
societal issue in the future?
A) I
B) II
C) III
D) No differences in the magnitude of future unemployment would
be expected among these populations.
E) It is not possible to
infer anything about future social conditions from age-structure diagrams.
Answer: A
The following questions refer to Figure 53.3, which depicts the age
structure of three populations.
64) Assuming these age-structure diagrams describe human
populations, which population(s) is (are) likely to experience zero
population growth (ZPG)?
A) I
B) II
C) III
D)
I and II
E) II and III
Answer: C
Refer to Figure 53.4 and then answer the following questions.
Figure 53.4: Infant mortality and life expectancy at birth in
developed and developing countries (data as of 2005).
65) What is a logical conclusion that can be drawn from the
graphs above?
A) Developed countries have lower infant mortality
rates and lower life expectancy than developing countries.
B)
Developed countries have higher infant mortality rates and lower life
expectancy than developing countries.
C) Developed countries
have lower infant mortality rates and higher life expectancy than
developing countries.
D) Developed countries have higher infant
mortality rates and higher life expectancy than developing countries.
E) Developed countries have a life expectancy that is about 42
years more than life expectancy in developing countries.
Answer: C
Refer to Figure 53.4 and then answer the following questions.
Figure 53.4: Infant mortality and life expectancy at birth in
developed and developing countries (data as of 2005).
66) In terms of demographics, which country is likely to
experience the greatest population growth problem over the next ten
years?
A) Mexico, because there are fewer pre-reproductive
individuals in their population
B) China, whose population is
more than a billion, but whose expected fertility rate is 1.8 children
C) Germany, where the growth rate of the population is 0.1% per
year
D) United States (2009 population ~ 205,000,000, where
200,000 Americans are added to the population each day)
E)
Afghanistan, with a 3.85 annual growth rate
Answer: E
67) To measure the population of lake trout in a 250-hectare lake,
400 individual trout were netted and marked with a fin clip, then
returned to the lake. The next week, the lake was netted again, and
out of the 200 lake trout that were caught, 50 had fin clips. Using
the capture-recapture estimate, the lake trout population size could
be closest to which of the following?
A) 160
B) 200
C) 400
D) 1,600
E) 80,000
Answer: D
68) Your friend comes to you with a problem. It seems his shrimp
boats aren't catching nearly as much shrimp as they used to. He can't
understand why because he used to catch all the shrimp he could
handle. Each year he added a new boat, and for a long time each boat
caught tons of shrimp. As he added more boats, there came a time when
each boat caught somewhat fewer shrimp, and now, each boat is catching
a lot less shrimp. Which of the following topics might help your
friend understand the source of his problem?
A)
density-dependent population regulation and intrinsic characteristics
of population growth
B) exponential growth curves and unlimited
environmental resources
C) density-independent population
regulation and chance occurrence
D) pollution effects of a
natural environment and learned shrimp behavior
E) a K-selected
population switching to an r-selected population
Answer: A
69) Imagine that you are managing a large game ranch. You know from
historical accounts that a species of deer used to live there, but
they have been extirpated. You decide to reintroduce them. After doing
some research to determine what might be an appropriately sized
founding population, you do so. You then watch the population increase
for several generations, and graph the number of individuals (vertical
axis) against the number of generations (horizontal axis). The graph
will likely appear as
A) a diagonal line, getting higher with
each generation.
B) an "S," increasing with each
generation.
C) an upside-down "U."
D) a
"J," increasing with each generation.
E) an
"S" that ends with a vertical line.
Answer: D
70) Population ecologists follow the fate of same-age cohorts to
A) determine a population's carrying capacity.
B)
determine the birth rate and death rate of each group in a population.
C) determine if a population is regulated by density-dependent
processes.
D) determine the factors that regulate the size of a
population.
E) determine if a population's growth is cyclic.
Answer: B
71) A population's carrying capacity
A) may change as
environmental conditions change.
B) can be accurately calculated
using the logistic growth model.
C) generally remains constant
over time.
D) increases as the per capita growth rate (r)
decreases.
E) can never be exceeded.
Answer: A
72) Scientific study of the population cycles of the snowshoe hare
and its predator, the lynx, has revealed that
A) the prey
population is controlled by predators alone.
B) hares and lynx
are so mutually dependent that each species cannot survive without the
other.
C) multiple biotic and abiotic factors contribute to the
cycling of the hare and lynx populations.
D) both hare and lynx
populations are regulated mainly by abiotic factors.
E) the hare
population is r-selected and the lynx population is K-selected.
Answer: C
73) Based on current growth rates, Earth's human population in 2012
will be closest to
A) 2 million.
B) 3 billion.
C) 4
billion.
D) 7 billion.
E) 10 billion.
Answer: D
74) A recent study of ecological footprints concluded that
A)
Earth's carrying capacity for humans is about 10 billion.
B)
Earth's carrying capacity would increase if per capita meat
consumption increased.
C) current demand by industrialized
countries for resources is much smaller than the ecological footprint
of those countries.
D) it is not possible for technological
improvements to increase Earth's carrying capacity for humans.
E) the ecological footprint of the United States is large
because per capita resource use is high.
Answer: E
75) The observation that members of a population are uniformly
distributed suggests that
A) the size of the area occupied by
the population is increasing.
B) resources are distributed
unevenly.
C) the members of the population are competing for
access to a resource.
D) the members of the population are
neither attracted to nor repelled by one another.
E) the density
of the population is low.
Answer: C
76) According to the logistic growth equation
SEE IMAGE
A) the number of individuals added per unit time is greatest
when N is close to zero.
B) the per capita growth rate (r)
increases as N approaches K.
C) population growth is zero when N
equals K.
D) the population grows exponentially when K is small.
E) the birth rate (b) approaches zero as N approaches K.
Answer: C
77) Which pair of terms most accurately describes life history traits
for a stable population of wolves?
A) semelparous; r-selected
B) semelparous; K-selected
C) iteroparous; r-selected
D) iteroparous; K-selected
E) iteroparous; N-selected
Answer: D
78) During exponential growth, a population always
A) grows by
thousands of individuals.
B) grows at its maximum per capita
rate.
C) quickly reaches its carrying capacity.
D) cycles
through time.
E) loses some individuals to emigration.
Answer: B
79) Which of the following statements about human population in
industrialized countries is incorrect?
A) Life history is
r-selected.
B) Average family size is relatively small.
C)
The population has undergone the demographic transition.
D) The
survivorship curve is Type I.
E) Age distribution is relatively uniform.
Answer: A