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Introduction to animal ecology

58 important questions on Introduction to animal ecology

A student wants to prove that their research is significant using statistics. What’s wrong with this approach?

The approach is wrong because statistics cannot be used to prove something; it is used to disprove a null hypothesis

A researcher is studying how individual single-celled organisms of the same species are affected by water temperature. This is an example of studying ecology at what level?

Organismal

You are conducting an experiment in a large pond to observe how the input from fertilizer runoff affects the native pond community. You find that many amphibians are not able to survive in this pond when the nitrogen levels are high. What could you do next to best test if nitrogen concentrations affect amphibians?

Experimentally raise frogs in a controlled laboratory experiment where some are exposed to water from the pond at certain periods of time and others only raised in filtered water for the duration of the experiment

You are interested in finding out why crayfish can eat many toxic or noxious amphibian species. You find through a research project of the primary literature that the species of crayfish you are interested in has evolved from a lineage of ancestors that appears to have had resistance. This is a i) proximate explanation or ii) ultimate explanation?

Ultimate explanation

What type of experiment takes organisms from a variety of sources and rears them under the same conditions?

Common garden experiment

You take a research trip to Australia and observe that the wombat appears to be a similar looking species to a ground hog you have studied in North America. These two species have evolved in separate, but climatically similar environments, and they have developed closely corresponding adaptive features. This is a clear example of:

Convergent evolution

A recent examination of two geographically isolated populations of mountain sheep indicates there has been long-standing separation between the two populations. An analysis shows that the two populations are actually different species. What type of speciation likely occurred?

Allopatric

While you’re walking your dog, you observe two snails interacting on a turf of grass. You recognize that they are two separate species. The two individuals are attempting to mate, but the direction of the turn in the shell prevents the two species from successfully mating. This is an example of:

A pre-zygotic barrier

Conditions can affect disease dynamics. A grasshopper species will escape serious infection by a fungal pathogen by modifying what condition?

Its body temperature, and it does so by basking

Which type of organism feeds on already dead material?

Decomposer

There is evidence that some plants respond to herbivore attacks by increasing the production of chemicals known to deter herbivory. This is an example of...

An inducible defense

According to the following figure, a major distinction between the food sources of herbivores and carnivores is that

Plants are primarily sources of carbohydrates, while animals are primarily sources of protein

Snowy plovers, a coastal bird species, are found to live only on sandy beaches. Where snowy plovers live is referred to as their

Habitat

Corals feed on zooplankton. The uptake of zooplankton per coral polyp depends on the density of coral cover and the water flow velocity over the coral reef. This is NOT an example of

Acclimatization

Biodiversity is great at deep sea hot vents. One type of organism you would expect to see at these vents is:

A chemo-autotroph

You discover that a species of bacteria is found in all individuals of a species of fish you have studied. It appears that this bacteria lives inside of the fish species, and that it provides this species of fish with some nutrients. What term best describes the role of this bacteria?

Symbiont

Which term describes the number of species found in a particular area?

Species richness

Using the figure below, hypothesize which animal would be the most generalist feeder

Ratufa affinis

According to the figure below, which biome has the smallest amount of precipitation and lowest temperatures?

Tundra

Which type of organism typically does not kill their prey, but consumes part of each prey item, and does not need a host?

Grazer

In the following figure, the effects of mollusk grazing are shown for a number of plant traits in natural and experimental populations. As measured by relative difference, how much greater was seed production in the natural population compared to the experimental population?

It was 1.5 units greater

Compensation in plants due to herbivory might occur differently depending on...

Whether it is grazed upon during a time of year when herbivores typically graze

Hummingbirds actively and aggressively defend rich sources of nectar. This food source is not limited, yet the consumption rate per individual is reduced. This might be due to...

Mutual interference and hummingbirds spending more time defending sources of nectar

Which option below best describes the benefits of dispersal for a population?

Reduce competition and reduce inbreeding

Which option below best explains why animals migrate?

Animals migrate in response to the environmental conditions

Which of the options below is NOT a limiting factor for dispersal?

Geographic barrier
Anthropogenic barrier

Environmental conditions
Physiological/Anatomical traits and constraints

In the following figure, which species mass was greatest prior to being infected with Cuscuta salina?

Salicornia

Which of the following is an aspect of a species that would show evolutionary evidence of past interspecific competition with another species?

Species behavior
Species morphology
Species niche

For any given species, there is a _, which describes the niche that occurs under normal circumstances of interspecific competition within a community and typically differs from the hypothetical , which describes the niche that the species would inhabit if interspecific competition were removed.

Realized niche, fundamental niche

Coexistence between a superior and inferior competitor can occur if...

The two species have independent, aggregated distributions

Why is it impossible to “prove” an evolutionary effect of interspecific competition?

Because you cannot directly observe evolution that has already occurred

The defenses of turtles and armadillos are likely designed to...

Increase handling times of potential predators

Which term defines an organism that reduces the growth, fecundity, or survival of another living organism that it consumes?

Predator

When predators consume prey, there is not always a negative effect on prey populations. Why?

Predation can reduce intraspecific competition

In this figure, which age group experiences the greatest risk of death by cheetah predation?

Fawns

You are not sure what type of organism you are studying, but you know that it has a definitive number of developmental stages and body parts. It is also mobile. How would you classify this organism?

It should be classified as a unitary organism

You are studying salamanders to test if offspring fitness is affected by the number of eggs a female oviposits. What you learn is that females that lay more eggs produce smaller offspring. This is an example of _ and means that there is __ to high reproductive output for these salamanders

a tradeoff; a cost

Which organism completes its entire life cycle in a single year?

An annual

What can you say about a species that presents a Type II Survivorship curve?

The probability of surviving is similar throughout the whole life of an individual

What is carrying capacity

The maximum number of individuals of a given population that an ecosystem can support

A static life table describes the numbers of survivors of different ages. What is the main assumption when building/analyzing a static life table?

The age distribution is overall similar/stable from generation to generation

Which of the following explains what species richness is?

Species richness is the number of species in a community

You are assigned the task of determining species richness in a given area. The lead researcher has told you that the number of samples you have to take is not limited. As you collect data, what pattern should you expect to see?

The most common species in this space will likely be identified first, followed by more rare species

What is one way to define a harsh environment?

An environment that is dominated by an extreme abiotic factor

What is the relationship between number of island species and island area?

There is a positive relationship between number of species and area of an island

All keystone species are predators. Is this accurate?

No, any species can theoretically be a keystone species

If all trophic levels are being controlled by the abundance of resources available to plants it would be called _____________

Bottom up control

Which of the following defines a trophic cascade?

A trophic cascade is a process whereby predators reduce abundances of their prey, and as a result, abundances of the prey’s own resources increase

If you were given a measure of the total fixation of energy via photosynthesis, you would have which?

Gross primary productivity

Which of the following is an example of a trophic cascade?

A mountain lion preys upon deer and as a result the abundance of a grass species dramatically increases

Which of the following choices is a reason why it is important to ensure that genetic diversity is preserved in small populations?

Because increasing genetic variation in small populations will ensure long-term evolutionary potential

Describe the relationship between population size and probability of extinction for island bird species

It is an exponential relationship; the probability of extinction increases much more when populations fall below 100 pairs

With regard to the size of a marine protected area (MPA), you would expect a MPA that is 50% of the size of a nearby MPA to be _________ at protecting a fish population

Less effective

Rerciprocal transplant experiment

A classical ecological. + evolutionary study wherre idividuals from different populations/locations are transplanted into each otherr ennvironnments to asses local adaptation and fitness trade-offs

Natural history experiment

Observational study of organisms in their natural environments

What are r-selected species?

Fast-reproducing, short-lived species

What arer K-selected species?

Slow-producing, long-lived species with few offspring

What's the difference bewteen funndamental and realized niche?

- funndamental = inndeal without constraints
- reralized = actual under competition

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

introduction to animal ecology

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