Ecology HW A

The mouse in this food web would be considered a:

• Primary Consumer
• Producer
• Tertiary Consumer
• Secondary Consumer

When fertilizers run off farmland into streams and ponds, the nitrogen content of the water increases. This can lead to rapid growth of algae in a process called eutrophication. How can this process affect other organisms in the water?

• Oxygen is used up as algae is decomposed, reducing the amount available to other organisms.
•  The water becomes better able to support aerobic organisms.
•  The algae provide food for fishes and other organisms, leading to decreased algae populations.
• The extra nitrogen provides additional food for the other organisms, increasing their population.

A strip mining company wants to lease some land that is currently part of a national park. They promise to reclaim the land should any minerals be mined from the area, and they are willing to pay top dollar for the rights. As an ecologist, what factors would you raise with the local government?

•  the threat to local biodiversity
• management of the land after the company leaves
•  the new jobs that would be created
•  the increased traffic in the area

 If worldwide deforestation (removal of forests) is not regulated, what could most likely result?  

• Acid rain could lower the pH of rivers and lakes to dangerous levels for aquatic life
•   CO2 levels in the atmosphere could increase and contribute to global warming problems
• Plants and animals could become better adapted to living in desert conditions.
• Future generations of humans could have an excess of wood and paper products.

In lakes  that are exposed to acid rain, fish populations are declining.
  This is primarily due to changes in which lake condition?

• size
• pH
• temperature
• location

All the LIVING (biotic) PLUS the NON LIVING (abiotic) things in an area makes up the

• population

• community

• ecosystem

• organism

When there is a lack of resources such as food, water, space, and sunlight, this is often called a

• limiting factor

• big hot mess

• healthy ecosystem

• population grower

Food is a limiting factor. What would happen to a snake population if all their food was killed off.

• the snake population would increase (go up)

• the snake population would stay the same

• the snake population would decrease

• there would be no change

When a population grows past the ecosystem's carrying capacity, what will most likely happen to the population?

• continues to grow

• population will go extinct

• population starts to die and return to carrying capacity

• population continues to grow exponentially

What is deforestation?

• planting more trees

• moving new animals to an area

• removing many trees in an area

• moving new plant species to a new area