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AP Environmental Science Ecology and the Biosphere — practice questions

Explore 22 free Ecology and the Biosphere questions in AP Environmental Science Biology. Open each question or exercise to read its content, reference answers and available explanation.

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Ecology and the Biosphere questions and exercises with answers

Showing questions 1–22 of 22.

Ecologists work at four specific levels of study. What are those four?Read the answer and worked solution →What does an ecologist mean by a population?Read the answer and worked solution →Ants tend Karner blue butterfly larvae, and those larvae secrete a carbohydrate rich food for the ants. What is this relationship?Read the answer and worked solution →The Venus flytrap grows naturally only in a small part of North and South Carolina. What is such a species called?Read the answer and worked solution →Prevailing winds push surface water away from a coastline. What replaces the water that leaves?Read the answer and worked solution →Why does a northern lake turn over in the spring?Read the answer and worked solution →An animal hibernates through a cold winter. Which state has it entered?Read the answer and worked solution →Aboveground biomass is used to estimate productivity on land. What does that measurement leave out?Read the answer and worked solution →How is net primary productivity calculated?Read the answer and worked solution →Which two measurements distinguish the eight major land biomes from one another?Read the answer and worked solution →Savanna plants regrow quickly after a fire sweeps through. Which adaptation makes that possible?Read the answer and worked solution →Arctic tundra soil holds a permanently frozen layer. What two effects does that permafrost have?Read the answer and worked solution →Boreal forest soils are acidic and short of nitrogen. Why does that favor conifers over broadleaved trees?Read the answer and worked solution →Below roughly 200 m in the ocean, what changes for photosynthesis?Read the answer and worked solution →Which ocean zone begins at a depth of 4000 m?Read the answer and worked solution →Sea water around a coral reef warms well above its usual range. What happens to the corals?Read the answer and worked solution →Fertilizer runoff triggers a heavy algal bloom in a lake. Why do fish then die?Read the answer and worked solution →A single very cool week in June is reported for one region. Is that climate or weather?Read the answer and worked solution →Across the past 400,000 years, between which values did atmospheric carbon dioxide cycle?Read the answer and worked solution →Which of these is named among the greenhouse gases that affect Earth?Read the answer and worked solution →Drag each clue to its ocean zoneRead the answer and worked solution →Tap the wetter biome each timeRead the answer and worked solution →

Worked practice questions

Ecologists work at four specific levels of study. What are those four?

  1. Organism, population, biome, ecosystem
  2. Cell, organism, population, community
  3. Population, community, biome, biosphere
  4. Organism, population, community, ecosystem
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Correct answer: D. Organism, population, community, ecosystem

1. The smallest level looks at one individual and how it fits its habitat. 2. Above that sits the population, all individuals of one species in one place. 3. Above that sits the community, the different species in an area and their interactions. 4. The widest level is the ecosystem, which adds the nonliving surroundings to the community. _Source: OpenStax Biology 1e (CC BY 4.0), Chs 44 and 46, section 44.1 The Scope of Ecology_

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What does an ecologist mean by a population?

  1. All species living in one habitat
  2. One species interbreeding in one area
  3. One species spread across the globe
  4. All animals feeding on one plant
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Correct answer: B. One species interbreeding in one area

1. A population is limited to a single species. 2. Its members live in the same area at the same time and can interbreed. 3. The boundaries may be natural, such as a river, or artificial, such as a road. 4. All the different species in an area together make a community, not a population. _Source: OpenStax Biology 1e (CC BY 4.0), Chs 44 and 46, section 44.1 The Scope of Ecology_

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Ants tend Karner blue butterfly larvae, and those larvae secrete a carbohydrate rich food for the ants. What is this relationship?

  1. Predation
  2. Parasitism
  3. Mutualism
  4. Competition
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Correct answer: C. Mutualism

1. Work out what each partner gets out of the arrangement. 2. The larvae survive better when ants tend them, so the larvae gain. 3. The ants receive a carbohydrate rich secretion, so the ants gain as well. 4. A long term coevolved relationship where both species benefit is mutualism. 5. In predation and parasitism only one partner gains, so neither name fits here. _Source: OpenStax Biology 1e (CC BY 4.0), Chs 44 and 46, section 44.1 The Scope of Ecology_

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