BIOLOGY FORM 4 ASSESSMENT

Name: __________________________________________ Scores: ______________________

Instruction: Answer all questions in the foolscap papers provided.

1. Figure 1 shows the energy flow through a food chain which consists of four organisms. The total energy in the
tissues of the plant is shown in the box.

50 000 kJ (a) (b) (c)

Plant Primary Secondary Tertiary

consumer consumer consumer
FIGURE 1
a) If 90 % of energy is lost at each stage in the food chain, calculate the total energy in the tissues of each of
the consumers. [3 marks]
b) State two processes which result in a loss of energy from one trophic level to the next. [2 marks]
c) State the source from which the producer obtain its energy. [1 mark]
d) Explain why a food chain rarely consists of more than four trophic levels. [2 marks]
e) State the differences between a food web and a food chain. [2 marks]

2. An experiment was carried out to investigate competition between two different species of flour beetles,
Tribolium castaneum and Tribolium confusum. 10 beetles of each species were kept in a specimen bottle, which
contained 20 g of flour. The numbers of male and female insects are the same for both species. The bottle was
closed and tied with a rubber band, as shown in Figure 2. The bottle was left under room temperature for two
weeks. After two weeks, the number of each species of beetles was determined and recorded. The old flour was
replaced with new flour. This step is repeated every two weeks for ten weeks. The results are tabulated in Table
1.

FIGURE 2

The number of flour beetles

Time (weeks) Tribolium Tribolium
castaneum confusum
0 10 10
2 200 35
4 335 54
6 384 60
8 395 48
10 395 28
TABLE 1
a) How do the flour beetles obtain water? [1 mark]
b) Plot a graph of the number of flour beetles against time for both species on a sheet of graph paper. [3
marks]
i. Based on the graph, state the differences between the population curves of both species. [1 mark]
ii. Explain why these differences exist. [1 mark]
c) Suggest two reasons why Tribolium castaneum is more successful in this competition, if the prey-predator
relationship does not exist between the species. [2 marks]
d) If this experiment is continued for another four weeks, explain what will happen to the population size of
the Tribolium confusum. [1 mark]