These are practice questions for Bolker’s section of midterm 2.

Some sections,
especially the last two behavioural ecology lectures, are not well represented; I will
provide additional questions covering that material soon ...

1. Which of the following areas of ecology would be most concerned with the
physiology of individual organisms and their ability to respond to the physical
environment?

A. community ecology
B. organismal ecology
C. behavioural ecology
D. population ecology
E. ecosystem ecology

2. Which of the following factors controls variation in the amount of biomass among
all biomes on earth?

A. water availability
B. light availability
C. carbon availability
D. whichever resource is most limited
E. photosynthesis

3.Which of the following descriptions is generally true of benthic (bottom) regions

of marine ecosystems?

A. They have high oxygen concentrations

B. Their productivity is limited by nutrients
C. Their productivity is limited by light availability
D. They have high temperatures
E. They have low salinity

4. Which of the following is not generally true of terrestrial ecosystems?

A. ecosystems of extremely dry regions look very similar, regardless of temperature

B. ecosystems of extremely cold regions look very similar, regardless of annual
precipitation
C. increasing altitude has similar effects as moving away from the equator
(increasing latitude in the northern hemispheres)
D. forests are generally similar regardless of temperature and precipitation
E. ecosystems can be controlled by both bottom-up (resource) and top-down
(predation/fire) factors

5. Why do seasonal overturning in temperate freshwater lakes and upwelling in

marine environments have similar effects on ecosystems?
A. both bring light down to lower levels in the water column
B. both mix nutrient-rich water from lower layers into well-lighted upper layers
C. they don’t have similar effects
D. both provide additional levels of iron, a limiting nutrient in both freshwater and
marine ecosystems
E. both change the pH of ecosystems

6. Which of the following statements is not usually true in biological populations?

A. per capita fecundity increases with age

B. per capita mortality decreases with age
C. per capita fecundity increases with population density
D. per capita mortality increases with population density
E. absolute fecundity is unrelated to per capita fecundity

7. What is a characteristic difference between human survivorship curves in the

environment of evolutionary adaptation (EEA) vs. in modern societies with well-
developed medical care? (Type I=high juvenile mortality, low & constant adult
mortality; Type II=constant mortality; Type III=low mortality for most of life,
followed by senescence (increase in mortality rate late in life)

A. in the EEA survivorship curves are type III, in modern societies they are type II
B. in the EAA survivorship curves are type II, in modern societies they are type III
C. survivorship curves are approximately type III in both cases, but juvenile
mortality is higher in the EAA
D. survivorship curves are type I in both cases
E. sexual maturity was earlier in the EAA

8. Which of the following organisms have been shown to experience senescence

(increasing mortality late in life?)
A. crocodilians
B. songbirds
C. some species of dinosaur
D. bacteria
E. zooplankton

9. What would always happen in a population with constant birth and death rates
(and no immigration or emigration)?

A. The population grows linearly

B. The population stays constant
C. The per capita population growth rate stays constant
D. The absolute growth rate stays constant
E. The per capita population growth rate shrinks exponentially

10. For which population would the exponential model be least appropriate?
A. An endangered species of squirrel
B. The beginning of an Ebola outbreak
C. The population of humans just after it crossed the Bering land bridge into North
America
D. Invading Asian carp in the Great Lakes
E. A large, stable population of Indian elephants

11. Which of the following is true of the logistic model?

A. The absolute population growth rate is highest when the population is equal to
half its carrying capacity
B. The per capita population growth rate is highest when the population is equal to
half its carrying capacity
C. The per capita population growth rate decreases quadratically with density
D. The per capita population growth rate increases linearly with density
E. The absolute population growth rate decreases linearly with density

12. According to the logistic equation, what do we expect to happen if r>0 and the
initial population size is larger than the carrying capacity?

A. The population will initially grow exponentially, then it will level off at the
carrying capacity
B. The population will shrink exponentially toward its carrying capacity
C. The population will shrink exponentially toward zero
D. The population will grow arbitrarily large
E. The population will cycle around its carrying capacity

13. Which of the following does not contribute to population cycles?

A. Predator-prey interactions
B. Environmental variation
C. Ability of organisms to disperse
D. Strong density dependence
E. Time lags

14. Under the standard model for predator-prey cycles, what do we expect to
happen when predator and prey populations are both large?

A. The predator and prey populations will both increase

B. The predator population will increase while the prey population decreases
C. The predator and prey populations will both decrease
D. The predator and prey populations will remain constant
E. The predator population will decrease while the prey population increases
15. Suppose we do an experiment with the lynx-hare cycle where we set up
experimental 1 km2 plots in the boreal forest. We leave two control plots alone; put
an electric fence around two plots to exclude lynx; and add rabbit food to two plots.
If the lynx and hare populations in the fenced plots are similar to those in the
control plots, but the lynx and hare populations in the food-augmented plots remain
high over the course of an entire cycle, what is the best conclusion?

A. The lynx-hare cycle is primarily driven by interactions between hares and their
resources (food)
B. The lynx-hare cycle is primary driven by direct interactions between hares and
lynx
C. Lynx and hares are part of a complex ecological community
D. The results are confusing
E. The lynx-hare cycle is driven jointly by lynx-hare and hare-vegetation interactions

16. Which of the following is not expected to happen as the density of a population
increases?

A. The per capita fecundity increases

B. The per capita mortality increases
C. The per capita fecundity decreases
D. Fewer resources per individual will be available
E. The population may attract more predators, or be more susceptible to diseases

17. Which of the following life history traits is not typically associated with long life
spans?

A. Large body size

B. Late age at maturity
C. Large offspring body size
D. Low juvenile mortality
E. Short generation time

18. Which of the following patterns is not consistent with the logistic growth model?

A. Accelerating, approximately exponential growth when the population density is

low
B. Exponential decrease toward zero when the maximum per capita population
growth rate r is less than zero
C. Recovery back to the carrying capacity when a disturbance suddenly lowers the
population density
D. Exponential growth followed by a sudden crash to low population density
E. Exponential decrease toward the carrying capacity when the population density
starts above the carrying capacity
19. Which of the following phenomena can lead to “top-heavy” population pyramids
with more individuals in some older age classes than in the youngest age classes?

A. Growing populations
B. Shrinking populations
C. Temporary decreases in fecundity
D. Senescence
E. Temporary increases in mortality of middle-aged individuals

20. In the logistic growth equation, when is the per capita population growth rate
highest?

A. When the population density is very low

B. When the population density is half of the carrying capacity
C. When the population density is equal to the carrying capacity.
D. When the absolute growth rate is highest
E. When the population density is greater than the carrying capacity

21. Consider two populations A and B with the following characteristics:

 Both populations start out with positive population sizes, but A is initially
larger than B:
NA(0) > NB(0) > 0
 both populations are exponentially increasing but B has a larger per capita
growth rate:
rB > rA > 0
Which of the following statements is necessarily true?
A. population B will eventually be larger than population A
B. population A will always be larger than population B
C. population B's initial absolute growth rate will be larger than population A's
(dNB/dt(0) > dNA/dt (0))
D. . population A's initial absolute growth rate will be larger than population B's
(dNA/dt(0) > dNB/dt (0))
E. the two populations will grow at the same rate

22. Which of the following will not reduce a forager’s probability of choosing a food
item?

A. High handling time

B. Low energy content
C. Presence of secondary compounds
D. Low handling time
E. Ease of finding preferred food items

23. The stomach of a bird contains 60% small insects and 40% large insects. A
simultaneous environmental study finds that 70% of the insects in the environment
are small (30% large). Considering short-term preferences only, would you
conclude:

A. birds prefer small insects, because the stomach contains more than 50% small
insects
B. birds prefer small insects, because the environment contains more than 50%
small insects
C. birds don’t have a preference
D. it’s impossible to tell about bird preference from these data
E. birds prefer large insects, because the proportion in the stomach is higher than
the proportion in the environment

24. Which of the following will make prey less attractive to foragers?

A. High density, i.e. short searching time

B. Short handling time
C. High energy content
D. Co-occurrence with a dangerous predator
E. Absence of toxins