Chapter 18 Flashcards
Which of the following concepts of community organization suggests that a community is much
more than the sum of its individual parts?
A) holistic concept B) individualistic concept C) neither of the above
A) holistic concept
Which of the following concepts of community organization suggests that a community is
merely a fortuitous association of species whose adaptations and requirements enable them to
live together under the physical and biological conditions of a particular place?
A) holistic concept B) individualistic concept C) neither of the above
B) individualistic concept
Identify the following statement with one of the following concepts of community organization:
“Each population within a community responds to evolutionary pressures with adaptations that
maximize the reproductive success of its individual members, regardless of any benefits to the
community as a whole.”
A) holistic concept B) individualistic concept C) neither of the above
B) individualistic concept
Many European ecologists use a complex taxonomy of communities, based on a rigidly defined
method of sampling plant species composition, which places each community in a hierarchy of
types organized by their similarity. After whom is this system named?
A) R. H. Whittaker B) H. A. Gleason C) F. E. Clements D) J. Braun‐Blanquet
D) J. Braun‐Blanquet
As discussed in the previous question, much effort has been devoted to classification of natural
communities, and this effort continues today. Which American ecologist would have found the
“pigeonholing” of natural communities into discrete classes most satisfying from a philosophical
perspective?
A) R. H. Whittaker B) H. A. Gleason C) F. E. Clements D) J. Braun‐Blanquet
C) F. E. Clements
Which of the following correctly pairs related concepts?
A) holistic concept, open community
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B) holistic concept, closed community
C) individualistic concept, open community
D) individualistic concept, closed community
E) both A and D
F) both B and C
F) both B and C
Which of the following factors exhibits one of the most striking changes as one crosses the
ecotone between communities on serpentine and nonserpentine soils in southwestern
Oregon?
A) soil depth B) soil temperature C) soil chromium D) soil moisture
C) soil chromium
Examine Figure 18.5. Which of the following species would you characterize as seemingly
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unresponsive to changes in soil conditions across the ecotone between serpentine and
nonserpentine soils in southwestern Oregon?
A) black oak B) hawkweed C) ragwort D) fireweed
B) hawkweed
Examine Figure 18.5. Which of the following species would you characterize as restricted to
nonserpentine soils in southwestern Oregon?
A) black oak B) hawkweed C) ragwort D) fireweed
A) black oak
Examine Figure 18.5. Which of the following species would you characterize as restricted to
serpentine soils in southwestern Oregon?
A) black oak B) hawkweed C) ragwort D) fireweed
D) fireweed
Examine Figure 18.5. Which of the following species would you characterize as restricted to the
ecotone between serpentine and nonserpentine soils in southwestern Oregon?
A) black oak B) hawkweed C) ragwort D) fireweed
C) ragwort
Which of the following factors may be directly responsible for maintaining a sharp edge
between prairies and forests in the midwestern United States?
A) summer drought B) low winter temperatures C) tornadoes D) fire
D) fire
The broadleaved deciduous forests of eastern North America contain many species of trees.
Which of the following statements best describes the geographic distributions of these species?
A) Groups of species found in any part of this region have very similar distributions.
B) Each species occupies a small geographic area from which all other species are excluded.
C) Each species has a different geographic range, but these ranges overlap to some extent.
D) none of the above
C) Each species has a different geographic range, but these ranges overlap to some extent.
The tendency of certain forest species to occur in certain habitats (ridge tops or moist river
bottoms, for example) is convincing evidence for the closed community concept.
A) True B) False
B) False
An animal ecologist interested in gradient analysis would:
A) measure the abundance of animal species and physical conditions at a number of locations
and then plot the abundance of each species as a function of one or more physical
conditions.
B) perform controlled crosses among all animal species within a community to determine the
extent to which the species are reproductively isolated.
C) compare the relative concentrations of all essential elements found in tissue samples taken
from all animal species within a community.
D) characterize the trophic structure of the community by determining “who eats whom.”
A) measure the abundance of animal species and physical conditions at a number of locations
and then plot the abundance of each species as a function of one or more physical
conditions.
Robert H. Whittaker, in a study of plant distributions in Great Smoky Mountains National Park,
provided considerable support for:
A) the concept of open communities.
B) the concept of closed communities.
C) a novel concept that transcended the concepts of both closed and open communities.
A) the concept of open communities.
Under which conditions in Great Smoky Mountains National Park would you seek communities
containing red oak, white oak, and beech? Refer to Figure 18.8.
A) low elevation, moist C) high elevation, moist
B) low elevation, dry D) high elevation, dry
D) high elevation, dry
Biologists have catalogued all the species on earth, except for a few rare species in remote
tropical areas.
A) True B) False
B) False
You are walking through a forest, and you soon discover that every other individual tree
belongs to a different species. Based on this fact alone, in which of the following countries are
you likely to be walking?
A) Ecuador B) United States C) Canada D) Sweden E) Poland
A) Ecuador
You have been maintaining a list of the bird species that frequent your property. At the end of
the year you have tallied eight seed eaters, one nectar sipper, three woodpeckers, six
insectivores, two frugivores, four predators, and one carrion feeder. Which term best describes
each of the categories you have used in your tally?
A) community B) guild C) population D) habitat
B) guild
Which of the following food web properties is independent of the species richness of the
community?
A) number of feeding links per species
B) number of trophic levels
C) number of guilds within trophic levels
D) overall food web complexity
A) number of feeding links per species
Robert Paine conducted studies of rocky intertidal communities on the coast of Washington
and in the Gulf of California. Paine showed that removal of __________ consumers could result
in reduction of the number of their resource species.
A) predator B) herbivore C) both predator and herbivore
C) both predator and herbivore
In the construction of food webs, much information can be obtained through simple
observation of feeding relationships within communities. Which of the following types of food
web could you construct from such observations, without further measurement or
experimentation?
A) connectedness web B) energy flow web C) functional web
A) connectedness web
Constructing which of the following types of food web would require an experimental
approach?
A) connectedness web B) energy flow web C) functional web
C) functional web
