Ecology AIRS Review

The largest number of individuals that an environment can support long term is...

• carrying capacity

• emigration

• immigration

• population density

What happens if a population grows past its carrying capacity?

• The population keeps growing

• The population starts to die off

• The entire species will go extinct

• The carrying capacity just increases

This may cause a population to increase

• increase of food supply

• removal of predators

• removal of disease

• all of these

Something that regulates the size of a population is called...

• a limiting measure

• a limiting factor

• carrying capacity

• biodiversity

What are factors that affect carrying capacity?

• Biotic only

• Biotic and abiotic

• Depends on the ecosystem

• Abiotic only

What is the carrying capacity of the graph?

• 1000

• 8000

• 800

• 600

What is the carrying capacity of the graph?

• around 500

• more than 800

• less than 300

• around 700

A scientist was studying a population of fish in a pond over a period of 10 years. He observed that the population increased each year for 3 years, and then remained nearly constant for the rest of the study. The best explanation for this observation is that the population had

• stopped reproducing

• reached carrying capacity

• mutated into a different species

• run out of food and all died

Biodiversity, aka biological diversity, usually refers to

• the same species in a general location

• the number of different species in a given area

• the number of animal species in a given area

• the number of plant species in a given area

Species that are clearly critical to the functioning of an ecosystem are known as

• biodiversity

• keystone species

• main species

• native species