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Midterm Exam
Principles of Ecology Lab Summer Semester 2026
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Ecology | the study of organisms and their interaction with their environment and each other |
| List and describe examples of tools for effective communication | audience appropriate language, graphs, tables, charts, presentations, posters, figures, scientific papers with the purpose of communicating information clearly and accurately to different audiences |
| Describe the difference between a null and alternative hypotheses | null= does not cause, alternative= does H0= Height in a person is not affected by nutritional value in food Ha= Height in a person is affected by the nutritional value in food |
| What is an example of a descriptive statistic that measures shape? What about spread? Why are both important? | Shape= skewness, symmetry, distribution pattern, spread= range, variance, standard deviation Shows how data are distributed, shows how variable and dispersed the data are |
| What is a p-value and how is it used in hypothesis testing? | P-value= probability of obtaining results as extreme as those observed if the null hypothesis is true If it is less than 0.05 (or 5%) the null is rejected |
| Provide different definitions of evolution for a) a scientist and b) a non-scientist | Evolution is the change in allele frequency Evolution is the change in a population |
| List and describe mechanisms of evolutionary change. | Natural Selection Genetic Drift Gene Flow Mutation Non-random Mating (Sexual Selection) |
| Natural selection | Individuals with advantageous traits leave more offspring. |
| Genetic Drift | Random changes in allele frequencies, especially in small populations. |
| Gene Flow | Movement of alleles between populations through migration. |
| Mutation | Random changes in DNA that create new genetic variation. |
| Non-random Mating (Sexual Selection) | Certain individuals are more likely to reproduce than others. |
| Explain the connection between evolution and climate change | As climate change increases populations are having to relocate and creating new selective pressures thus changing allele frequencies, population distribution, and predation techniques |
| According to Wilson (1991) what is the primary cause of death in the gopher tortoises she studies? | Predators |
| Is the cause of death due to density-independent or density-dependent factors? Explain the difference between those two factors. | Density-dependent factors: effects increase as population density increases i.e., predation, competition, disease, parasitism Density-independent factors: affect populations regardless of density i.e., hurricanes, floods |
| What is carrying capacity and why is it important? | Carrying capacity is the amount of population that an area can handle If a population goes over the carrying capacity then it will rapidly decline due to the decrease in resources |
| Species differ in the time it takes them to reach sexual maturity and produce their first offspring. What are the advantages and disadvantages of reproducing early versus late? | RE: Good: More opportunities to produce offspring; Bad: less parental care, fewer resources available for offspring. RL: Good: Larger body size, often higher offspring survival; Bad: risk of dying before reproducing, fewer reproductive opportunities |
| Draw the three possible types of life history strategies and label them with example species that exhibit each type. | Type I: High survival until old age, then mortality increases. (ex. humans) Type II: Constant mortality throughout life. (ex. Birds, squirrels) Type III: Very high juvenile mortality, many offspring with little parental care (ex. fish) |
| What does a net reproductive rate (R0) value of 0.85 mean? What about 1.00? Or 1.45? | 0.85= population decreasing, each generation is smaller than the previous one 1.00= population is stable, no overall growth or decline 1.45= population is increasing, each generation is larger than the previous one |
| What do Franks et al. (2007) predict will happen to flowering time in the drought versus non-drought populations of field mustard plants? What evolutionary mechanism is creating differences among the populations? | Drought populations evolved to flower earlier than non-drought populations. Earlier flowering allows plants to complete their life cycle before drought conditions become severe, increasing their chances of reproducing successfully |
Created by:
KristenR2025