What is a Niche? Flashcards
What is a niche?
The range of environmental temperatures in which a genotype can persist.
The niche of a fish is defined by:
- temperature
- salinity
- pH
- other species of fish
The thermal niche of a desert organism. . .
will differ from that of a polar organism.
The fact that one can find dish in both tropical and polar waters implies that . . .
different species of fish have adapted to different environmental conditions.
Which is the best description of the niche of a salmon?
salinities between 0 and 3000 ppm
True or False:
An enzyme maintains a rigid structure while catalyzing a reaction/
False
Which type of chemical bond will stabilize an enzyme’s structure the most?
Covalent
Organisms such as the Antarctic fish can swim at extremely low temperatures. Which mechanism best describes how they do this?
They modify their proteins to be more flexible
Which type of organisms should evolve the most rigid enzymes?
Desert organisms
True or False:
The enzymes of animals in old vents should be more flexible than those of animals in young vents.
True
True or False:
To replicate this experiment, researchers only needed one population of bacteria, because bacterial populations contain millions of individuals.
False
True or False:
To control for stress, the researchers should have frozen some bacteria at the end of the experiment and defrosted these descendants along with their ancestors before comparing their thermal niches.
True
True or False:
If adaptation occurred, genotypes remaining at the end of the experiment should have had more rigid enzymes than their ancestors had.
True
True or False:
If adaptation occurred, genotypes remaining at the end of the experiment should outcompete their ancestors at 37C and at 42C
False
True or False:
Assuming that the ancestral population and the evolved population were compared under the same environmental conditions, any difference in fitness at 42C would more likely resulted from adaptation than plasticity.
True
Plasticity is most adaptive when the environment changes ________ throughout an organism’s life.
slowly and predictably
True or False:
All individuals of a species express the same degree of plasticity.
False
Which of the following environmental factors can affect the phenotypes expressed by a genotype?
Atmospheric oxygen, diet, solar radiation, and humidity
The primary cost of tanning is_________.
the energy needed to produce melanin
Phenotypic plasticity occurs when one _____ produces multiple _______.
genotype / phenotypes
