Exam 34: The Biosphere: an Introduction to Earths Diverse Environments

-If process D is decreased, what impact will that likely have on the surrounding area?

Which is a correct pairing of a biome and its characteristics?

Most of the world's deserts are located at latitudes where

-If ocean waters in one area are radioactively contaminated, which processes would cause that radioactivity to show up in plant crops at some distance from the contamination?

Which factor is fundamentally responsible for the character of arctic tundra soils?

The largest estuary in the United States is the Chesapeake Bay, which extends through six states. The Bay is one of the most productive natural areas in the world. It is home to thousands of plants and animals, including many commercially important species. The water of the Bay is relatively shallow. Many areas are no more than 10 feet deep, with an average depth of 30 feet. Light penetrates the shallow water and supports submerged plants that provide food and shelter for the many species living in the bay ecosystem. However, like many estuaries, the Bay receives large amounts of fertilizer runoff from farms, lawns, and wastewater treatment facilities. -Fertilizer runoff contains ________, which are the most important limiting factors for phytoplankton growth.

Most of the best agricultural soils in the United States are found in areas that were formerly

All parts of the biosphere are linked by

California condors, large, predatory birds that were previously on the edge of extinction, have benefited from a program that raises birds in captivity and then releases them into the wild. The reintroduction program, however, is having variable success. -If it were determined that condor reproduction along the coast is being harmed by DDT in the condors' foods, which action would be most useful to improve the situation?

Species in widely separated but similar biomes often appear to display similar characteristics because of

Which characteristic belongs to the chaparral biome?

Factors that help to limit growth of woody plants in temperate grasslands include

The immediate results of the widespread use of pesticides and fertilizers included ________, but long-term results included ________.

California condors, large, predatory birds that were previously on the edge of extinction, have benefited from a program that raises birds in captivity and then releases them into the wild. The reintroduction program, however, is having variable success. -Scientists suspected that the condors eating marine mammals were ingesting DDT, causing the kind of shell fragility found in the middle part of the last century before DDT was banned. Which action would provide the best evidence that poor egg quality rather than predation or some other factor was the cause of failed condor reproduction?

The questions of how chemicals flow and energy cycles between organisms and their surroundings are addressed in the study of which level of ecological organization?

Living things that live in the polar ice biome include

Which ocean zone describes the interface between ocean and land?

Which environmental factor has a direct effect on an organism's rate of water loss by evaporation?

A sperm whale in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean is in which oceanic zone?

California condors, large, predatory birds that were previously on the edge of extinction, have benefited from a program that raises birds in captivity and then releases them into the wild. The reintroduction program, however, is having variable success. -Which finding could best explain how condor reproduction along the coast is being harmed by DDT in the condors' foods now, even though DDT was banned in 1972?