Exam 53: The Physical Environment and Biogeography of Life

A species of hawk nests in a forest, hunts in fields and grasslands surrounding the forest, and drinks from a stream in the same area.This hawk is functioning at which spatial scale?

Which topic would be categorized as environmentalism, rather than ecology?

Suppose a forest is cut down and replaced with cornfields.How would evapotranspiration rates be likely to change in this situation, if at all?

A region has a relatively small area and a climate with extreme wet and dry cycles during the year.As climate change progresses, the dry cycles are becoming longer, with essentially no wet cycle during some years.Based on the species diversification rate hypothesis, what future trend might be expected in the processes of speciation and extinction?

Beyond the intertidal zone, the ocean floor gradually slopes down until it drops off abruptly.This gradual slope, much of which is in the photic zone and is thus able to support attached photosynthesizing organisms, is called the _______.

Refer to the figure, showing Earth's biogeographic regions.(Red arrows show time, in millions of years, since land masses came together.Black arrows show time since two land masses separated.) Based on the map, which pair of continents came together most recently?

Refer to the figure below. The biome represented by the red areas is likely to have what type of primary vegetation?

In the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru, winds are pushing warm surface water away from the shore and allowing cold, nutrient-rich water to reach the surface, resulting in a surge of productivity and a very rich season for sardine fishermen.This region of the ocean is experiencing

Tropical latitudes have not experienced the large number of ice ages experienced at higher latitudes.Instead, their climates have remained moderate and stable.This provides evidence for which hypothesis related to latitudinal species diversity patterns?

The major difference between ecology and environmentalism is that environmentalism always includes issues that involve _______.

A city in Canada has an average annual temperature approximately 2°C warmer than a city in Argentina at approximately the same latitude.What might explain this difference?

Which of the following is an identifying characteristic of Arctic tundra?

A whale in the open ocean dives from the surface to a depth of several thousand feet.Of the factors that define ocean waters, which would not occur as the whale descends?

As early explorers traveled the oceans and observed the distribution of plant and animal species on different continents, the pattern of species diversity was generally

The short-term state of the temperature and atmospheric conditions in a given locality is referred to as its _______.

In contrast to the pattern of distribution of most plant and animal groups, the species diversity of seabirds correlates most strongly with

Earth's spherical shape determines the angle at which sunlight strikes the Earth at different latitudes.Thus, the amount of sunlight reaching a specific latitude would have the greatest effect on

Biogeographers classify biomes in terms of their basic climatic conditions, especially temperature and precipitation.Ecologists often classify them in terms of their major plant life.Why do plants represent a good method of biome classification?

Following the pattern first observed by Humboldt and other explorers, a traveler today would expect to see which pattern of species distribution at different latitudes around the world?

Refer to the diagrams below. Of these two climate diagrams, which biome has the longer growing season?