Exam 37: Communities and Ecosystems

A biology teacher takes fish, algae, pond weed, invertebrates, and bottom muck from a local pond and establishes them in an aquarium. When the system is stable, the teacher seals it into a large, airtight glass box and leaves the box in a sunny location. After three months, the organisms in the aquarium appear alive and healthy. Which of the following statements about the experiment is true?

Which of the following processes does not occur in ecosystems?

In your backyard you overturn a large rock. In the damp soil underneath the rock, you see various insects scurrying for cover: one black spider, five black ants, two brown beetles, and three gray pillbugs. In this community of organisms, species richness is represented by

Kudzu is a fast-growing vine that was introduced to the United States in 1876 as a fragrant, ornamental plant and was later used as a source of erosion control. Kudzu grows especially well in the warm, humid climate of the Southeastern United States. In fact, it grows so well that it outgrows and can kill off less successful native plants; it can also kill off areas of forest because it prevents forest tress from receiving sunlight. Kudzu can best be described as

One predator avoidance mechanism that has evolved in prey is

Which of the following ecological problems might result from fertilizing a golf course with phosphorus-rich fertilizer?

Which arrow shows nitrogen fixation?

Some herbivore-plant interactions evolved through a series of reciprocal evolutionary adaptations in both species. This process is called

In addition to abiotic factors, community composition of plants can be severely compromised by

When two different populations in a community benefit from their relationship with each other, the result is called

During ecological succession, the species composition of a plant community generally

One of the most worrisome results of the large-scale clearing and cultivation of land is

In a certain ecosystem, field mice are preyed on by snakes and hawks. The entry of wild dogs into the system adds another predator of the mice. The most likely short-term result of this addition is

About how much of the energy in the producers of an ecosystem will be available to secondary consumers in this ecosystem?

Which of the following represents a step in the nitrogen cycle?

In a hypothetical food chain consisting of grass, grasshoppers, sparrows, and hawks, the grasshoppers are

The flow of ________ into ecosystems occurs in one direction only, while ________ are recycled within the ecosystem itself.

Carbon mainly cycles between the biotic and abiotic worlds through the processes of

In an ecosystem, you would expect to find interspecific competition between

Within an ecosystem, a tree is a