team up questions Flashcards
Why does the Coriolis effect cause hurricanes to be deflected eastward as they move away from the Equator?
Earth’s surface moves fastest at the Equator. Air masses maintain this velocity as they move away from the Equator but the Earth’s velocity decreases.
Which of the following traits might we expect for a homeotherm living in a hot climate?
- A large body
- Long appendages with extensive blood vessels
- Counter-current exchange between blood vessels
- Sweat glands
2 and 4
A famous paper argues that “Mountains passes are higher in the tropics” (Janzen 1967); i.e., that tropical animals have a harder time crossing mountains than temperate animals. Why might this be the case?
Temperate animals experience and adapt to a wider range of temperatures. Therefore, they are better able to withstand both cool temperatures at high elevation and warm temperatures at low elevation.
Why do plants that grow faster lose more water?
Fast-growing plants keep their stomata open more to photosynthesize and they therefore lose more water via transpiration.
You find two red oak leaves but don’t know where they come from. One has smooth, wavy margins and the other has more jagged, tooth-like margins. What might explain the difference in shape between these two leaves?
The jagged leaf came from a region with a hotter climate than the smooth leaf
Which of the following are life history traits?
I. Number of offspring produced in a single individual’s breeding season (i.e., fecundity)
II. Traits that help an organism compete with other individuals, such as a plant’s height
III. How long an organism lives (i.e., lifespan)
IV. Traits that help organisms maintain a constant internal temperature
I & III
Why might inter-specific competition have a greater effect on the growth of one species (species 1) than another (species 2)? In other words, why might
be greater than
in a Lotka-Volterra model?
An additional individual of species 2 reduces the population growth of species 1 more than additional individual of species 1 reduces the population growth of species 2
Why does character displacement evolve?
Character displacement reduces inter-specific competition, increasing individual fitness
What resolves the paradox of the plankton? In other words, why do so many kinds of plankton that use similar resources co-exist?
Competitive exclusion does not go to completion because conditions change over time and other factors keep population sizes low
Why are predator-prey cycles rare in the real world?
- Real prey do not decline in abundance due to predation
- Real predators have multiple prey species
- Real prey have food sources that influence their abundance
- Real predators increase the population size of their prey
2 and 3
What does the “life-dinner principle” predict for evolutionary arms races?
Unequal selection pressures will lead one species to “race” faster than another (one is running for its life, the other is running for its dinner)
In Robert Paine’s experiment with Pisaster starfish, introduction of a predator increased species richness in an intertidal habitat. What aspects of the starfish’s biology increased species diversity?
The starfish was a specialist predator that reduced the abundance of a competitively superior mussel, facilitating competitive coexistence
Why are few mutualisms very specialized?
Most mutualisms involve horizontal transmission and many partners
Why is invasional meltdown predicted by a Lotka-Volterra model of mutualism?
A Lotka-Volterra model of mutualism predicts that positive feedback between partners will generate runaway population growth
Human activities often make it harder for animals to disperse among patches. Reduced dispersal in a metapopulation should result in:
Lower patch occupancy because of more local extinctions
