课程名称︰生态学
课程性质︰必修
课程教师︰李培芬
开课学院：生命科学院
开课系所︰生命科学系
考试日期（年月日）︰2017/6/19
考试时限（分钟）：120
试题 :
A. Term explanation (20%, select 4)
1. Fynbos
2. ENSO
3. The Montreal Protocol
4. Invasive species
5. Restoration ecology
B. Short essay (10%, select 1)
1. Discuss the trophic cascade hypothesis and use example to explain.
2. Discuss the factors affecting primary production in terrestrial and
aquatic ecosystems.
3. Why secondary production is always smaller than primary production?
C. Long essay (30%, select 2)
1. Ecologists used many reasearch approaches to study ecological questions.
Discuss these approaches and cite one example from the textbook for each
approach.
2. Discuss the six hypotheses proposed by James H.Brown in 1988 to explain
the latitude gradients of species richness.
3. How does the spatial arrangement of habitat influence the presence and
abundance of species?
D. Multiple Choice Questions (40%)
1. Which of the following gases contribute to warming of the Earth's surface
through the greenhouse effect?
A. carbone dioxide
B. methane
C. water vapor
D. nitrous oxide
E. All of the above.
2. The number of trophic levels in an ecosystem is limited by
A. the number of tertiary consumers.
B. the loss of energy with each transfer between trophic levels.
C. the gain of energy with each transfer between trophic levels.
D. the rate at which organisms can recycle energy within the ecosystem.
E. the rate at which secondary consumers consume their prey.
3. Ozone plays an important role in shaping the environment for life on Earth
beacuse it
A. absorbs visible radiation.
B. emits ultraviolet radiation.
C. absorbs ultraviolet radiation.
D. reflects visible radiation.
E. dissolves more readily than oxygen gas in seawater.
4. Birds on oceanic islands have highest diversity on
A. small islands of recent geologic origin.
B. large islands far from the mainland.
C. small islands close to the mainland.
D. small islands far from the mainland.
E. large islands close to the mainland.
5. For most groups, species diversity most often
A. is low at the equator and the poles, and peaks at temperate latitudes.
B. is high at the equator and the poles, and lowest at temperate latitudes.
C. increases from the tropic to the poles.
D. increases from the poles to the tropics.
E. shows no clear relationship with latitude.
6. The "trophic cascade hypothesis" emphasizes the role of
A. nutrients in controlling primary productivity.
B. nutrients in controlling primary consumption.
C. consumers in controlling primary productivity.
D. grazing by herbivores in controlling ecosysten nutrient levels.
E. primary productivity in controlling primary and secondary consumption.
7. When measuring the coastline of Taiwan, which of these rulers would give
you the longest estimate of coastline length?
A. 1 cm
B. 10 cm
C. 1 m
D. 10 m
E. 1 km
8. According to the facilitation hypothesis, pioneer species modify the
environment in ways that
A. make it more suitable for their own survival, and less suitable for
other species.
B. make it less suitable for their own survival, but more suitable for
survival of other pioneer species.
C. make it less suitable for their own survival, but more suitable for
survival of late-successional species.
D. make it less suitable for surviavl of all species.
E. make it more suitable for survival of all species.
9. The rate of decomposition of leaf litter in woodlands can be strongly
influenced by
A. moisture.
B. nitrogen content.
C. leaf toughness.
D. All of the choices are correct.
E. None of the choices are correct.
10. The terrestrial ecosystems with highest primary production are usually
those that are
A. warm and wet.
B. warm and dry.
C. cool and wet.
D. cool and dry.
E. intermediate in both temperature and moisture.
11. The rate of primary production on the Serengeti grassland is positively
correlated with
A. rainfall.
B. moderate grazing.
C. high-intensity grazing.
D. both rainfall and moderate grazing.
E. both rainfall and high-intensity grazing.
12. The largest reservoir of phosphorus in most ecosystems is phosphorus
A. in the atmosphere.
B. dissolved in water.
C. in rocks and sediments.
D. bound in animal tissues.
E. bound in plant tissues.
13. "Nitrogen fixation" refers to the conversion of
A. carbon compounds to nitrogen compounds.
B. nitrogen gas (N2) to ammonia.
C. ammonium to nitrate.
D. ammonium to nitrate.
E. ammonium to nitrate.
14. A major perturbation of the carbon cycle by human activity is associated
with
A. release of carbon from carbonate rocks.
B. release of carbon from fossil fuel deposits.
C. removal of carbon from the atmosphere in the industrial production of
fertilizers.
D. accelerated removal of carbon from the atmosphere by forests.
E. respiratory production of CO2 by the large human population.
15. In aquatic ecosystems, the major agents of decomposition are
A. aquatic fungi.
B. bacteria.
C. algae.
D. detrivorous fish.
E. piscivorous fish.
16. A community in which secondary succession is very rapid has
A. high resistance.
B. low resistance.
C. high resilience.
D. low resilience.
E. high replication.
17. "Primary succession" is succession that
A. involves establishment of primary producers where there were none.
B. leads to establishment of a climax community dominated by primary
producers.
C. occurs on newly exposed geologic substrates, not organic soil.
D. occurs where organic soils have been exposed but not destroyed by
disturbance.
E. occurs after fire or agricultural abandonment.
18. In the "trandition phase" of forest succession,
A. biomass increases rapidly as the community reorganizes.
B. biomass declines from and earlier peak.
C. biomass stays constant, but species composition turns over rapidly.
D. nutrient export increases damatically and soils become depleted.
E. one climax community gives way to another.
19. According to the inhibition hypothesis, pioneer species modify the
environment in ways that
A. make it less suitable for other species.
B. make it less suitalbe for their own survival, but more suitable for
survival of other pioneer species.
C. make it less suitable for their own survival, but more suitable for
survival of late-successional species.
D. make it more suitable for survival of all species.
E. in this model, pioneer species do not modify the environment.
20. _______ is the ability of a community or ecosystem to maintain structure
in the face of potential disturbance.
A. Resilience
B. Elasticitiy
C. Resistance
D. Plasticity
E. Flexibitiy