P&E Comprehensive Final Flashcards
This is the place where a population or an individual organism normally lives.
habitat
Four of the following are characteristics that make some species especially vulnerable to ecological and biological extinction. One of the following is not such a characteristic. Choose the one that is not a characteristic.
These are TRUE characteristics: big, slow, tasty, valuable parts SPECIALISTS live in one type of habitat specific food requirements limited range of new conditions narrow niche
Biodiversity is believed to be the result of the interaction between
speciation and extinction
The building blocks of proteins are
amino acids
Which of the following is NOT true of and r-selected species?
These are TRUE characteristics large number of offspring smaller offspring little parental care overcome massive loss of offspring algae, bacteria, insects
Which of the following is an example of a density-dependent population control?
parasitism, infectious disease, competition for resources
Biologists think there are four main reasons why we should work to prevent human activities from causing the extinction of other species. Which of the following is not one of these reasons?
These are TRUE reasons
Species are a vital part of earth’s life support system, most contribute to economic services (support economies), it takes 5-10 million years to rebuild biodiversity, species have right to exist
An endangered species
low reproductive rate, specialized niche, narrow distribution, feeds at high trophic levels, fixed migratory patterns, rare, commercially valuable, large territories
Which of the following would NOT be and abiotic factor in an ecosystem?
These are TRUE factors
air, water, nutrients, rocks, heat, solar energy
In a range of tolerance, each population has a point beyond which no member of the population can live. The area where most members are found
optimum range
Biological evolution by natural selection is when ___, Individuals ___, and populations ___.
mutate, are selected, evolve such that they are better adapted to survive and reproduce under existing environmental conditions
Which of the following is NOT one of the age structure categories of a population?
pre-reproductive, reproductive, post-reproductive
Which of the following is a reason for continued human population growth
humans developed the ability to expand into almost all of the climate zones and habitats, emergence of earth and modern agriculture allow more food growth per unit of land area, death rates dropped sharply because sanitation and healthcare and development of antibiotics and vaccines help prevent disease
Exponential growth followed by a steady decrease in population growth until the population size levels off and remains relatively constant is typical of
J-shaped curve
The greatest threat to wild species is
habitat destruction
“The maximum population of a species that a particular habitat can support” is the definition of
carrying capacity
The Endangered Species Act of 1973
(ESA) designed to identify and protect endangered species in the US and abroad, most far reaching law ever adopted
For natural selection to occur, an adaptive trait
must lead to differential reproduction (produce more)
Which of the following best describes a biological species?
group of organisms that have a unique set of characteristics that distinguish them from all other organisms and can mate and produce fertile offspring
All of the following are elements except
These are TRUE elements
gold, mercury, silver, iron, bromide
The most basic building block of matter is an
atom
Which of the following is NOT a renewable resource
These are TRUE renewable resources
forests, grasslands, fish population, fresh water, fresh air, fertile topsoil
A nucleotide of DNA contains
phosphate, 5 carbon sugar, deoxyribose, nucleotide base
The highest rate at which a renewable resource can be used to indefinitely without reducing its available supply is called
sustainable yield
An idea that has been tested widely, is supported by extensive evidence, and is accepted by most scientists in a particular field of study is called a
scientific theory
Which of the following is the fundamental structural and functional unit of life?
cell
Which of the following is the definition of a scientific hypothesis?
a possible explanation of what scientists observe in nature or in the result of their experiment
Using normally renewable resources faster than nature can renew them is called
environmental/natural capital degradation
The distinct piece of DNA containing instructions for making proteins is
genes
Which of the following is not a goal of environmental science?
These are the TRUE goals
learn how nature works, understand how we interact with the environment, and find ways to deal with environmental protection and live more sustainably
The biological macromolecules (polymers) that make up all living organisms are
complex carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids
Some individuals in a population have genetic traits that increases their ability to survive and reproduce over other organisms, this process is called
natural selection
Which of the following would exhibit primary succession of a community
bare rock exposed from retreating glacier,
newly cooled lava, abandoned highway or parking lot, or newly created pond or reservoir
For captive breeding programs to be successful in zoos
some or all of the wild individuals of a critically endangered species are collected to build up populations to where they can live, 100-500 individuals, need funding and space
Illegal hunting for profit is called
poaching
Which of the following is the usual order of applying the scientific process to a problem
identify a problem, find out what is known, ask a question to be investigated, perform experiment to answer the question and collect data, analyze data, propose a hypothesis to explain data, use hypothesis to make stable projections, perform an experiment to test projections, accept/revise
The biggest problem with invasive non-native species is that in the new location they
out-compete and reduce a communities’ native species
Which of the following is the correct sequence used in taxonomic classification of species?
Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species
A country with TFR (total fertility rate) that falls below 1.5 children per couple for a prolonged period will experience all of the following except
labor shortages, threaten economic growth, less government revenues with fewer workers, less entrepreneurship, and new businesses, less likelihood for new technology, increasing public deficits to fund health care, pensions cut and retirement age increase
Which of the following would NOT be organic molecules?
These are TRUE organic molecules
water, methane
Which of the following is NOT and example of an environmental threshold having been crossed?
These are TRUE crossed thresholds
soil erosion, nutrient loss, melting of polar ice, depletion of fish
Energy can be formally defined as
capacity to do work or transfer heat
K-selected species characteristics
fewer, larger offspring, high in parental care and offspring protection, later reproductive age, offspring survive to large adults, adapted to stable climate and environmental conditions, lower population growth rate, population size fairly stable and usually close to carrying capacity, specialist niche, high ability to compete, late successional species
The monomer for the protein polymer is the
amino acids
Scientists have identified several problems with relying primarily on pollution cleanup. Which of the following is not one of those problems?
These are all TRUE pollution cleanup problems
only a temporary bandage as long as population and consumption levels grow without corresponding improvements in technology, removes pollution from one place and puts in another, cost too much to reduce them
What is the primary difference between renewable and non renewable resources?
the time it takes for the earth to replenish them
An environmentally sustainable society
emphasizes preventing or minimizing environmental problems instead of letting them build to crises levels, use well-designed and carefully monitored marketplace solutions to help prevent or reduce impact of problems, cooperate and innovate to find win-win solutions or trade-offs to problems and injustices, be honest and objective
An ecological niche includes all of the following except
These are all TRUE things niches include
everything that affects a species survival and reproduction: how much water and sunlight it needs, space it requires, what it eats, what eats it, and temperature
This is the total of all the different species that live in a certain area
community
Natural Capital includes all of the following except
These are all TRUE things natural capital includes
natural resources and services that keeps us and other forms of life alive and support our human economies
Air, water, minerals, sun wind, biodiversity, soil, land, fossil fuels
