Exam 26: Population Growth and Regulation

Purple loosestrife was introduced into the Great Lakes region from Europe and sold as a garden flower. It produces thousands of seeds and has no natural predators there. It now clogs acres of wetlands and is considered a(n):

Herd animals typically live in a ________ distribution pattern.

Why do many non-native species, such as a prickly pear cactus brought to Australia from South America, rapidly become abundant when first introduced?

Invasive species can rapidly disrupt an ecosystem because they have a high biotic potential and face little environmental resistance. True or False?

Which tends to be more intense: intraspecific or interspecific competition? Why?

Predation is considered to be a density-dependent factor that controls the population size of prey species. Give two examples of predators acting in density-dependent ways in response to fluctuations in the size of prey populations.

During the winter of 1999, minimum temperatures did not get much below freezing in an Oregon pond, and the following summer, large mosquito populations were observed. In the winter of 2000, frost came early and most ponds were frozen for 3 months. The following summer, very small mosquito populations were observed. This is an example of:

Within their territory, pack animals like wolves exhibit a uniform distribution. True or False?

As a developing country passes through the demographic transition,

Populations that have been relatively undisturbed by man normally grow with no limits set by their environments. True or False?

Based on the data in the table, this population has a ________ growth pattern.

When a population stops growing because it has reached the maximum number that the environment can support, we say that the population has reached what?

Natural populations cannot exceed their carrying capacities. True or False?

Explain what happens in exponential population growth.

Deforestation increases the productivity of land. True or False?

The ________ of a population is the maximum rate at which a population could increase.

In a constant-loss population, an organism has an equal risk of dying at any time during its life span. True or False?

Floods and fires are examples of ________, which can dramatically and unpredictably reduce populations.

In countries that have large numbers of children under age 15, the population is:

At the start of a study, 200 spotted owls lived in an old-growth forest patch in western Oregon. During the next year, a biologist tracking the birds observed that 25 new birds hatched and 5 died. What was r for this year?