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Environmental Science: A Global Concern, 7/e
William P. Cunningham, University of Minnesota
Mary Ann Cunningham, Vassar College
Barbara Woodworth Saigo, St. Cloud State University

Biological Communities and Species Interaction

Practice Quizzing



1

An organism’s absence from a particular environment can be caused by
A)a single critical factor that exceeds the organism’s tolerance limits.
B)absence of an essential resource.
C)a combination of different factors working in concert.
D)more than one of the above.
2

Natural selection involves all of these EXCEPT
A)there is variation in traits within a population.
B)those individuals with more beneficial traits have a greater chance of surviving than other individuals.
C)individuals with a greater chance of surviving have a greater chance of having offspring than others.
D)all individuals in a population have the same likelihood of dying over a given period of time.
3

Factors capable of driving natural selection include
A)competition with other members of the species.
B)disease-causing organisms.
C)extreme temperatures.
D)all of the above.
4

Selection works on ______ and evolution works on ______.
A)plants, animals
B)individuals, individuals
C)individuals, populations
D)populations, individuals
5

An organism’s ______ includes its ______.
A)ecological niche, habitat
B)habitat, ecological niche
6

Which of the following would be included in a species ecological niche?
A)what it eats
B)what eats it
C)how it escapes predators
D)all of the above are parts of the niche
7

Attributes of a broad niche could include an organism having
A)a wide range of foods eaten.
B)activity periods extending over much of the day and evening.
C)tolerance of a wide range of temperatures.
D)all of the above.
8

If two species with extremely similar niches came to occupy the same geographical area, which of the following would be expected to occur?
A)as time passes their niche requirements would tend to become more similar.
B)one species might become more specialized in some aspects of its niche than the other.
C)as time passes the species would tend toward greater cooperation and sharing.
D)more than one of the above would be expected to occur.
9

Which of the following would NOT be an act of predation?
A)a moose nibbling on aspen shoots
B)a crow feeding on a road-kill rabbit
C)a black bear eating blueberries
D)disease-causing bacteria invading human lung tissue
10

Mimicry
A)arises as an organism tries to copy a trait of a more successful species.
B)could not have arisen absent variation in an ancestral population.
C)allows two species to occupy the same niche at the same time.
D)is associated with each of the above.
11

Co-evolution is illustrated by
A)an insect species becoming immune to a toxic substance produced by rhubarb to foil herbivory.
B)development of greater speed by gazelles in response to prior development of greater speed by leopards, a gazelle predator.
C)development of greater root depth in a plant species in response to increased competition for water with another species.
D)all of the above.
12

A keystone species is one that
A)has a broad impact, directly or indirectly influencing the success of a significant number of other species in a ecosystem.
B)is the most numerous in an ecosystem.
C)serves as the top predator in a food chain.
D)produces the greatest amount of biomass in a system.
13

Red winged blackbirds chase away other red wings from the area around their nests. This behavior is called ______ and is an example of _____ competition.
A)co-evolution, intraspecific
B)territoriality, intraspecific
C)commensalism, intraspecific
D)territoriality, interspecific
14

Symbiosis is defined as
A)a situation where one species depends on another for food.
B)any direct interaction between two or more species.
C)members of two or more species living intimately together.
D)a mutualistic relationship between individuals of different species wherein each species derives benefit.
15

An example of primary productivity would be
A)a wild raspberry plant growing 30 grams of new leaf mass during a day of photosynthesis.
B)a young oriole growing 10 more grams of muscle during a feeding trip to a raspberry bush.
C)a young hawk growing 10 more grams of body mass by killing and eating a young oriole.
D)more than one of the above.
16

The measure of the diversity of an ecosystem includes
A)the number of different species present.
B)the number of different ecological niches occupied.
C)the degree of variation in traits within the various populations in an area.
D)all of the above.
17

The complexity of a community is a function of
A)the diversity of the trophic structure.
B)the species diversity within the various trophic levels.
C)the number of trophic levels present.
D)more than one of the above.
18

The stability of a community refers to all of these EXCEPT
A)life spans of individuals.
B)ability of the system to re-establish itself following disturbance.
C)ability to weather perturbations without being changed.
D)absence of fluctuations in functions and/or species present over substantial periods of time.
19

Primary productivity is the direct result of
A)photosynthesis.
B)respiration.
C)grazers feeding on plants.
D)net primary productivity.
20

An ecotone is
A)the space occupied by primary producers.
B)the edge where one ecosystem meets another.
C)a method by which primary production of an ecosystem is determined.
D)a threshold level of diversity in a community.
21

In ecology tolerance limits refer to the maximum amount of hassling an individual organism will take before it strikes back.
A)True
B)False
22

An environmental indicator is a species or condition whose presence or absence from an area reveals some environmental reality.
A)True
B)False
23

Organisms commonly develop new traits because they need them.
A)True
B)False
24

A species' niche includes its behavior patterns.
A)True
B)False
25

The process by which organisms gradually change the soil, degree of shade, available moisture, and other factors producing changes in species membership of a community is called succession.
A)True
B)False
26

The process by which unrelated organisms come to resemble each other over many generations is called convergent evolution.
A)True
B)False
27

Development of an ecological community on a site previously devoid of life is called secondary succession.
A)True
B)False
28

The ecological community that may develop on a site that resists further change is called a climax community.
A)True
B)False
29

Some communities are prevented from reaching a true climax stage by periodic disruption by events such as fire.
A)True
B)False
30

Presence of an environmental indicator species in an area predicts the presence of some less obvious characteristic of the site.
A)True
B)False