Exam 6: Evolution and Ecology

Refer to the figure. The figure shows the mortality rate for female red deer of different ages that reproduced (blue curve) or did not reproduce (red curve). Describe the patterns you see and suggest likely explanations for the general shapes of these two curves.

Carroll's studies showed that the beaks of soapberry bugs

The mutation rate of a gene involved in glucose metabolism is five mutations per million copies of the gene per generation. Suppose there are two million individuals in a population of a species of snake, each with two copies of this gene (i.e., they are diploid). In this snake population, how many new mutations would we expect of this gene in each generation?

What factor is important in minimizing the impacts of genetic drift?

You are studying two species of tree frog. The two species are found on two different islands, separated by 200 km of ocean water. Species A lives on very light-colored rocks and species B lives on dark-colored trees. Which process is least likely to affect allele frequencies in the population?

Which of the following is not a reason why natural selection tends to be more effective in large populations than in small populations?

Which process is least likely to be the direct cause of appreciable change in allele frequencies over short periods of time?

Refer to the figure. The figures show the distribution of beak sizes in Galápagos medium ground finches (Geospiza fortis) before and after a year of extreme drought that reduced the availability of seed types most easily accessed by birds with pre-drought bills. Which of the following statements is true?

Which process changes allele frequencies by chance alone?

Refer to the figure. - The figure shows the frequency of the Adh^s allele at different latitudes in Australia taken in 1979?1982, and again in 2002?2004. Consider 1981 as the baseline for the 1979?1982 data, and 2003 as the baseline for the 2002?2004 data. Based on these data, the cline is shifting _______ per year toward the _______.

If a plant population evolves the ability to grow on soils with a chemical composition that most plants cannot tolerate, which of the following statements is false?

Which of the following is not a possible reason for why adaptations are not perfect?

If two plant species with different habitat associations, Species X and Species Y, hybridize, and the resulting progeny are well adapted to living and reproducing only in a novel habitat in which neither parental species can live, which of the following is least likely to be true?

Refer to the phylogenetic tree. Based on the phylogenetic tree, which of the following statements is true?

Refer to the figure. - You are studying a remote island before and after a volcanic eruption. Data at Time 1 were collected one month before the eruption, and data at Time 2 were collected one month after the eruption. All of the species on the island are endemic. The island is 100 km across. Each animal icon represents 20 individuals. Species A and B (the two snail species) generally move a distance of only 2 m a day. Species C (the bird) often covers 20 km a day in search of food. After the eruption, the lava flow hardens, and the island is divided by a 20-km strip of bare rock with few if any resources these animals need to survive. Deaths of individuals due to the volcanic eruption could change the frequency of alleles in these very small island populations. Unfortunately, however, you do not have data on the allele frequencies before and after the eruption for any of these species. Based on your understanding of genetic change in populations, do you expect that these three species would be affected by increased genetic drift after the eruption? Why or why not?

Which of the following cannot be an example of evolution?

Which statement about soapberry bug beaks is true?

Which of the following evolutionary innovations is least likely to have been a key feature driving adaptive radiation?

If the long-term extinction rate within lineage A is higher than that in lineage B and the long-term speciation rate in lineage B is higher than in lineage A, then we can conclude that

The studies by Rieseberg and colleagues on sunflowers showed that hybrids between two species