POPULATION ECOLOGY PRACTICE QUIZ

Students,
The population ecology quiz will be extremely similar to this practice quiz. The format will be the same
with 12 multiple choice questions. You will be given 15 minutes to complete the quiz. It’s a good idea to try
completing this quiz within those same time constraints without looking at the answers. You can then go back and
concentrate your studying on areas where you were a little shaky. Remember! Sometimes, more than one answer
looks decent. Always pick the one that is most obviously correct (the best answer). Enjoy! –Ms. D

1. An ecologist recorded 12 white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, per square mile in one woodlot and 20
per square mile on another woodlot. What was the ecologist comparing?
a. Density
b. Dispersion
c. Carrying capacity
d. Quadrats
e. Range

2. Which of the following groups would be most likely to exhibit uniform dispersion?
a. red squirrels, who actively defend territories
b. cattails, which grow primarily at edges of lakes and streams
c. dwarf mistletoes, which parasitize particular species of forest tree
d. moths in a city at night
e. lake trout, which seek out deep water

Use the survivorship curves in Figure 53.1 to answer the following questions #3-4.

3. Which curve best describes survivorship that is independent of age (i.e. the rate of death in the population
is independent of age)?

4. Which curve best describes survivorship in elephants?

 The following question, #5, refers to Figure 53.3, which depicts the age structure of three populations.

Figure 53.3

5. Which population is in the process of decreasing?

a. I
b. II
c. III
d. I and II
e. II and III

6. Which of the following graphs illustrates the population growth curve of single bacterium growing in a
large flask of ideal medium at optimum temperature over a 24-hour period?
a. d.

b.
e.

c.

7. Scientific study of the population cycles of the snowshoe hare and its predator, the lynx, has revealed that
a. the prey population is controlled by predators alone
b. hares and lynx are so mutually dependent that each species cannot survive without the other.
c. multiple biotic and abiotic factors contribute to the cycling of hare and lynx populations
d. both hare and lynx populations are regulated mainly by abiotic factors
e. the hare population is r-selected and the lynx population is K-selected
8. During exponential growth, a population always
a. grows by thousands of individuals
b. grows at its maximum per capita rate
c. quickly reaches its carrying capacity
d. cycles through time
e. loses some individuals to emigration

9. Why is territoriality an adaptive behavior for songbirds maintaining populations at or near their carrying
capacity?
a. Songbirds expend a tremendous amount of energy defending territories so that they spend less
time feeding their young and fledgling mortality increases
b. Only the fittest males defend territories and they attract the fittest females so the best genes are
conveyed to the next generation
c. Songbird males defend territories commensurate with the size from which they can derive
adequate resources for themselves, their mate, and their chicks
d. Many individuals are killed in the ritualistic conflicts that go along with territorial defense
e. Songbirds make improvements to the territories they inhabit so that they can all enjoy larger
clutches and successfully fledged chicks.

10. Consider several human populations of equal size and net reproductive rate, but different in age structure.
The population that is likely to grow the most during the next 30 years is the one with the greatest fraction
of people in which age range?
a. 50 to 60 years
b. 40 to 50 years
c. 30 to 40 years
d. 20 to 30 years
e. 10 to 20 years

11. Which of the following is an incorrect statement about the regulation of populations?
a. The logistic equation reflects the effect of density-dependent factors, which can ultimately
stabilize populations around the carrying capacity
b. Density-independent factors have an increasingly greater effect as a population's density
increases
c. High densities in a population may cause physiological changes that inhibit reproduction
d. Because of the overlapping nature of population-regulating factors, it is often difficult to
precisely determine their cause-and-effect relationships
e. The occurrence of population cycles in some populations may be the result of crowding or lag
times in the response to density-dependent factors

12. Carrying capacity is

a. seldom reached by marine producers and consumers because of the vast resources of the ocean
b. the maximum population size that a particular environment can support
c. fixed for most species over most of their range most of the time
d. determined by density and dispersion data.
e. the term used to describe the stress a population undergoes due to limited resources.
ANSWERS

1. A
2. A
3. C
4. A
5. B
6. C
7. C
8. B
9. C
10. E
11. B
12. B