Ecological Relationships

The population of which organisms will most likely increase as a result of a disease that suddenly reduced the population of Texas horned lizards?

• Grasses and ants

• Ants and grasshoppers

• Grasshoppers and Texas cottonmouths

• Texas cottonmouths and red-shouldered hawks

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Which of the following is the ultimate source of energy for the pyramid shown?

• grasses

• heat

• water

• sunlight

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How many steps are found in a Food Chain?

• There are always 3 steps.

• There are never more than 2 steps.

• There are a variety of steps depending on the ecosystem.

• There are never fewer than 4 steps.

Which of the following models would best show many different interconnected feeding relationships among organisms in an ecosystem?

• Energy cycle

• biomass pyramid

• food chain

• food web

The dense needles of Douglaas fir trees can prevent most light from reaching the forest floor. This would have an immediate effect on which group?

• producers

• carnivores

• herbivores

• decomposers

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Which habitat would most likely hold autotrophs that derive their energy from chemical compounds?

• swamp sediments

• grassland soil surface

• antarctic pools

• desert rocks

Select the organism most affected by the romoval of the mice.

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The oak mistletoe is green, leafy plant that grows on trees and has white berries. Mistletoe sees are spreadd to other trees through the waste of birds that feed on the berries. The misteltoe seedlings grow into the tree to obtain water and nutrients. Which answer choice correctly identfies a relationship between two of these organisms?

• the tree and the mistletoe is commensalism

• the bird and the trees is predator-prey

• the birds and the trees is mutualism

• the tree and the mistletoe is parasitsm

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Spores of the fungus Ustilango maydis land and grow on sweet corn. The fungus then infects the plant tissue, extracting nutrients from the plant's cells. The relationship between the sweet corn and Ustilago maydis can best be described as --

• competition

• commensalism

• predation

• parasitism

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Leaf cutter ants harvest leaves and carry them to fungi that covert plant material into a usable form for the ants to digest. The fungi depend on the leaves for nutrients. The ants also produce an antibiotic on their bodies that helps protect the fungi from harmful bacteria. Which of these explains the relationship between the leaf cutter ants and the fungi?

• Predation, because the ants feed on the fungi

• Mutualism, because the ants and the fungi benefit from each other.

• Competition, because both organisms consume the same resources for energy.

• Commensalism, because the ants receive energy from the fungi and the fungi are unaffected

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