Question 1

You have assessed species richness in the tropics using 15 plots,each approximately 10 km by 10 km,spread over an entire region.Let us assume each plot is a community.Which of the following statements is likely correct?

Accepted Answer

A)   Productivity is high in the tropics. The alpha diversity of the 15 tropic plots should be low.
B)   Productivity is high in the tropics. The alpha diversity of the 15 tropic plots will be the same as the gamma diversity.
C)   Productivity is low in the tropics. The alpha diversity of the 15 tropic plots will be the same as the gamma diversity
D)   Productivity is high in the tropics. The alpha diversity of each of the 15 plots should be high. D

Question 2

You are interested in comparing diversity between two different regions each with many communities.Which term would you use to describe this?

Accepted Answer

A)   Beta diversity
B)   Gamma diversity
C)   Kappa diversity
D)   Alpha diversity B

Question 3

According to the predictions that make up the theory of island biogeography,how long does it take for species to reach equilibrium?

Accepted Answer

A)   The time to reach equilibrium is determined by the number of colonizers.
B)   The time to reach equilibrium is determined by the product of number of species and island area.
C)   There is no set time for an island to reach equilibrium.
D)   An island will always reach equilibrium within the first 30 days. C

Question 4

An organism has been discovered that appears to forego metabolizing phosphorous to instead metabolize arsenic.Phosphorous is essential to all living things.Why might this organism have evolved a way to metabolize arsenic in place of phosphorous?

Accepted Answer

A)   Because they differentiated and randomly mutated a way to exploit a resource all other organisms were not consuming.
B)   The organism experienced a bottleneck event.
C)   The organism evolved in a harsh environment that selected for this biochemical mechanism.
D)   It is a morphological trait that protects it from predators since many organisms will die if they eat arsenic.

Question 5

Diversity indices take into account

Accepted Answer

A)   Species competitive abilities.
B)   Species richness.
C)   Available energy.
D)   Evenness of species.

Question 6

According to the theory of island biogeography,how would the number of species found on a small island far from mainland compare to a larger island or a similar sized island that is closer to mainland?

Accepted Answer

A)   The number of species will be directly proportional to the size of the island and the number of colonizers that inhabit the island in the first 90 days.
B)   The theory of island biogeography makes no predictions about a relationship between number of species and size of island or its distance from mainland.
C)   The turnover rate will be positively associated with time to first colonization event, distance from mainland, number of competitors, and area of the island.
D)   The number of species will be less than a larger island and any similar sized island that is closer to the mainland.

Question 7

Deep sea communities of gastropods and bivalve mollusk species rely on which of the following as a resource?

Accepted Answer

A)   Particulate organic carbon
B)   Ultraviolet radiation
C)   Photosynthetic plants for habitat and coverage
D)   None of the above

Question 8

Species richness can be influenced by climatic factors that vary spatially.One hypothesis explains how environmental temperature may affect a community of organisms.Which hypothesis is this?

Accepted Answer

A)   The productivity hypothesis
B)   The growth differentiation balance hypothesis
C)   The intermediate disturbance hypothesis
D)   The energy hypothesis

Question 9

If a phylogenetic analysis shows that an assemblage of species is closely related,but only one of the species has evolved drastically different morphology that is known to be extremely costly,then why might this one species have evolved such a distinct trait?

Accepted Answer

A)   This organism mutated and differentiated quickly due to density-dependent selection.
B)   This organism likely speciated and evolved in a community where predator mediated coexistence was favored.
C)   Evolution is a mystery. Who knows?
D)   This organism likely evolved in a much more harsh environment.

Question 10

In which of the two examples of a community is species richness greater: A community with 100 species that can all be found equally within a 25 km radius of the area,or a community spread across the same area that has 100 species,in which 5% of the individuals are rare species.

Accepted Answer

A)   The community where species can be found equally.
B)   The species richness is the same.
C)   The community where species are not found equally.
D)   There is not enough information to answer this question.

Question 11

In theory,the number of plant species _____________ as the size of islands increases.

Accepted Answer

A)   Increases.
B)   Stays the same.
C)   Decreases.
D)   Fluctuates.

Question 12

Experiments performed in the rocky intertidal zone by Robert Paine showed that the experimental removal of a predator had dramatic consequences to the structure of the community.What was the ultimate conclusion of this study?

Accepted Answer

A)   That predators can prey so heavily that they eventually reduce species richness to nearly zero. As a result species richness is reduced.
B)   That prey need spatial and temporal fluctuations to coexist, otherwise the community structure will collapse. When fluctuations do not occur, then species richness is significantly reduced.
C)   That predators have no impact on the structure of lower trophic levels.
D)   That predators can mediate coexistence by reducing the number of individuals of a species in the community that tend to dominate and as a result increase species richness more than if they were not present.

Question 13

It would be most difficult for a species to invade a community where the resource utilization of current resident species ________________.

Accepted Answer

A)   Does not overlap.
B)   Overlaps.

Question 14

If you wanted to provide the most data for an audience about the species composition of a community and how it changes over time,which of the following would you use and why?

Accepted Answer

A)   Use species richness because it shows the audience one how many species are present in a community.
B)   Use a diversity index because it shows the audience the species present and how common or rare those species are in that community.
C)   Use niche breadth because it shows the audience how many niches are in use in a community and the number of species using them.
D)   Use a rank-abundance diagram because it shows the audience about relative abundances, changes to relative abundances, number of species, and how the number of species changes over time.

Question 15

Assume that resources for a community of species are available on a continuum.A common species of bird utilizes a particular portion of this continuum.What term defines the length of the portion of resources that this bird uses?

Accepted Answer

A)   Module
B)   Niche breadth
C)   H
D)   Pi

Question 16

You are comparing species richness across 10 square meter plots over an entire region of Indiana.Your data show that individual communities are not diverse and that the communities in the region do not differ.Of the following choices,which is the best conclusion?

Accepted Answer

A)   The beta diversity is extremely high
B)   The alpha diversity is extremely high
C)   You cannot conclude anything from these data
D)   The gamma diversity is extremely low

Question 17

Which of the following choices is a term that refers to diversity between communities?

Accepted Answer

A)   Alpha diversity
B)   Beta diversity
C)   Kappa diversity
D)   Gamma diversity

Question 18

Wildfires in Southern California occur much more frequently today than they did hundreds of years ago.This is thought to be decreasing local plant diversity.The theory that might best support this observation is ____________.

Accepted Answer

A)   Island biogeography.
B)   Intermediate disturbance.
C)   Trophic cascade.
D)   Exploiter-mediated.

Question 19

Species richness of fish in lakes:

Accepted Answer

A)   May be related to primary productivity.
B)   May be connected to phytoplankton.
C)   Is usually highest at shallow depths than intermediate depths.
D)   Is usually highest at the bottom of the lake.

Question 20

When looking at a simple model of species richness based on a single resource,species richness may be determined by?

Accepted Answer

A)   The range of available resource.
B)   The level of specialization of each species on the resource.
C)   The level of overlap of the usage of the resource by each species.
D)   The level of interspecific competition.

Exam 10: Patterns in Species Richness