Deck 9: Environment and Adaptation

Question 1

What evidence did archaeologists find that the people at Çatalhöyük, Turkey, were sedentary and had food surpluses?

A) the number of animal bones found at the site
B) the size of their buildings
C) their houses had ovens and storage bins
D) food was left at sacrificial shrines

Answer 1

C

Question 2

What is the environment of the prehistoric past called?

A) geoarchaeology
B) ecosystem
C) paleoenvironment
D) paleoecology

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Archaeologists believe that the ancient people who lived ________ contributed to the ecological disaster that made their environment unliveable.

A) in the Sarah Desert
B) on Easter Island
C) in the Gobi Desert
D) on the Hawaiian island of Molokai

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Biotic and abiotic elements of the environment that operate within a system are called ________.

A) an ecozone
B) an ecotone
C) a biome
D) an ecosystem

Question 5

A distinct geographic area containing a specific group of interdependent living species is called ________.

A) an ecozone
B) an ecotone
C) a biome
D) an ecosystem

Question 6

What is the number of organisms that an environment can support at any one time called?

A) optimization model
B) subsistence limit
C) resource limit
D) carrying capacity

Question 7

During the last Ice Age, sea levels dropped ________.

A) 100 metres plus
B) 40,000 feet
C) 3.56 metres
D) by no change

Question 8

A region where two ecozones overlap is called ________.

A) a double ecozone
B) an ecotone
C) a biome
D) an ecosystem

Question 9

A commodity actually used by an organism is called ________.

A) a biome
B) a resource
C) a niche
D) a sustaining element

Question 10

A major source of information about paleoclimate has been long cylindrical plugs (cores) of material removed by hollow drills from ocean sediments or from ________.

A) rainforest soil
B) desert sand
C) glacial ice
D) artic tundra

Question 11

The geographic place where an organism lives is called ________.

A) a habitat
B) an ecosystem
C) a biome
D) an ecozone

Question 12

The study of how landforms change over time is called ________.

A) paleoecology
B) geoarchaeology
C) evolutionary ecology
D) geomorphology

Question 13

Palynology is the study of ________.

A) plant microfossils
B) past climate
C) pollen
D) past plants

Question 14

The long-term patterns of past temperatures and precipitation are called ________.

A) past weather
B) climate
C) evolutionary ecology
D) paleoclimate

Question 15

In the study of evolutionary ecology, ________ are used to explain aspects of behavior related to the use of resources.

A) optimization models
B) ecosystems
C) carrying capacities
D) subsistence practices

Question 16

Modern humans began to domesticate plants and animals ________.

A) after the last Ice Age
B) before the last Ice Age
C) about 200,000 years ago
D) about 50,000 years ago

Question 17

The herding and feeding of animals in captivity is called ________.

A) optimization
B) domestication
C) environmental manipulation
D) animal management

Question 18

Large-scale alteration and management of landscapes, such as building dams or cutting down forests is called ________.

A) geoecology
B) resource management
C) environmental manipulation
D) human ecology

Question 19

The oasis theory of the origin of agriculture theorized that ________.

A) population growth required a larger more stable food supply
B) drier climate forced people into closer contact with plants and animals
C) people in marginal areas were forced to manage food sources better
D) an overdependence on some resources created a need for domestication

Question 20

The hilly-flanks theory of the origin of agriculture focused on ________.

A) the Nile River in Egypt
B) the Yangtze River in China
C) the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley
D) the grassy hills of Europe

Question 21

Which of the following terms describes the transformation from a hunter-gatherer society to one in which animals and plants were domesticated?

A) evolutionary ecology
B) optimization
C) environmental manipulation
D) agricultural revolution

Question 22

Describe the differences between human ecology, paleoarchaeology, and geoarchaeology.

Question 23

How are optimization models used in the field of evolutionary ecology?

Question 24

How have humans used environmental manipulation and resource management to control their environments?

Question 25

There are many theories for the origins of agriculture. Compare and contrast two of these theories using evidence used by the theorists in your response.