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WorksheetsCategory 5 Assessment
Total questions: 15
Worksheet time: 12mins
Which role of protists has the most positive effect on maintaining the plant population in an ecosystem?
Protists are a major food source for animals.
Protists produce approximately 75 percent of the oxygen on Earth.
Protists decompose dead materials, returning nutrients to the soil.
Protists found in the gut of animals assist in digestion.
During secondary succession, which of these best describes why decomposing pioneer plants give way to larger, more complex plants species, such as hardwood trees?
Increased amounts of sunlight are able to reach the ground while the pioneer species are decomposing.
Increased soil temperatures from decomposing pioneer species help tree seeds germinate more quickly.
Increased amounts of decomposing pioneer species remove nutrients that tree seedlings need to grow and mature.
Increased amounts of soil from decomposing pioneer species allow plants with more extensive root systems to become established.
Grassland ecosystems in Texas have evolved to depend on periodic fires to return nutrients to the soil and encourage plant reproduction. Humans have prevented fires in many of these grassland areas, resulting in plant and animal communities with little diversity. Wildlife biologists often recommend purposefully starting fires called prescribed burns, which are monitored and controlled, in grassland ecosystems every 3 to 4 years. These biologists observe greater biodiversity in plant and animal life in the years following a prescribed burn. What natural process are the biologist attempting to imitate?
Biomagnification
Succession
Population bottleneck
Species extinction
The San Marcos salamander, Eurycea nana, is a light reddish-brown translucent salamander about 2-5cm in length. E. nana is found only in Spring Lake and a portion of the San Marcos River. Which human activity would MOST LIKELY DECREASE the ability of the salamanders to survive?
Increasing water consumption that decreases flow of clean water from the springs that feed the river
Public transportation that reduces the number of automobiles that contribute to pollution runoff into the river
Tourism that helps fund the educational programs related to river ecosystem conservation
The addition of a new food source into the river that limits competition for resources
The diagrams show a partial food web containing the Glyptapanteles wasp and the life cycle of this wasp. Based on the two diagrams, which list correctly identifies the relationships Glyptapanteles wasp larvae have with other organisms?
What would be the most likely effect of a wildfire that burned a large area of a forest?
More sugars and starches would be available for animals in the area.
The availability of fossil fuels for use by industries in the area would be reduced.
Less carbon dioxide would be removed from the atmosphere in the area by plants.
An increase in animal respiration would increase the release of carbon dioxide in the area.
The ocean sunfish (Mola mola) is a large, flat fish that spends most of its time in deep water feeding mainly on jellyfish. Sunfish often have many species of copepods, small crustaceans, that bury their heads into the soft tissue of the sunfish. Sunfish will swim to the surface of the water and lie sideways, allowing seabirds to eat the copepods from their skin.
Which list describes the types of relationships the sunfish has with other marine organisms?
Seabirds: mutualism
Jellyfish: predation
Copepods: parasitism
Seabirds: parasitism
Jellyfish: commensalism
Copepods: predation
Seabirds: predation
Jellyfish: mutualism
Copepods: commensalism
Seabirds: commensalism
Jellyfish: parasitism
Copepods: mutualism
Some species of millipedes will roll into a ball when threatened, while other species of millipedes can secrete noxious chemicals from their bodies. These adaptations allow them to-
survive in different temperatures
avoid different types of predators
conserve different amounts of energy
blend into different types of environments
The populations 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
Which statement provides the best explanation for the difference in biomass of organisms found at each trophic level?
organisms at higher trophic levels have less energy available to them than organisms at lower trophic levels.
Organisms at higher trophic levels require smaller habitats than organisms at lower trophic levels.
Organisms at lower trophic levels provide less energy than organisms at higher trophic levles
Organisms at lower trophic levels out compete organisms at higher trophic levels
What is lost to the environment at each trophic level of this ecosystem?
Nutrients from the soil
Living space for the organisms
Food sources
Heat
A research study shows that non-native fire ants win 80 percent of their battles with native fire ants. The Native ant species can survive and live with the non-native ant species in which of the following situations?
A decrease in the availability of a shared food resource
An increase in the number of predators that eat ants
A decrease in a parasite that kills the predators of ants
An increase in the supply of shared food resource.
Which food chain correctly illustrates the direction in which energy flows through an ecosystem?
A
B
C
D
In the dry desert areas, poor drainage can lead to a buildup of salt in water supplies. A student performed an investigation to study the effects of salinity on the germination rates of seeds. The student placed seeds in several solutions containing 0% to 3% salt. The length of the radicle, which is the root of the germinating seed, ranged from 49 mm in the 0% salt solution to 0 mm in the 3% salt solution. The data from this investigation suggest that increased salinity in more areas may lead to a decrease in which of the following?
Air pollution
Food Production
Oceanic Evaporation
Nonrenewable Resources
