Exam 1: The Nature of Ecology

At the ________ level, communities and ecosystems are linked through processes such as dispersal of organisms.

An ecologist who adds different amounts of nitrogen to specific plots of grasses uses a(n)________ to answer her research question.

When data are categorical, any value within an interval is possible.

An "educated guess" that a scientist poses to explain an observed phenomenon is referred to as a(n)________.

Whether abiotic or biotic, environmental factors fall into one of three categories

The biosphere is

A group of individuals of the same species occupying a given area is referred to as a(n)

Ecology is an interdisciplinary science that relies heavily on many different branches of science.

Define five types of data that can be used for quantitative analyses and give an example of each.

The ________ forms the basic unit in ecology.

A hypothesis is an integrated set of theories.

All populations of different species living and interacting within an ecosystem are referred to as a(n)________.

The biotic and abiotic components of the environment interacting together are referred to as a(n)________.

Describe a field experiment that you might use to test the hypothesis that water availability affects plant growth. Suggest one set of possible results and the implications of those results for the hypothesis.

The mechanism that allowed the science of ecology to go beyond just descriptive natural history and instead study the processes which control distribution and abundance of organisms is

Explain why ecology is inherently an interdisciplinary science. Give two examples of the ties between ecology and other branches of science.

A hypothesis refers to a(n)

If an ecologist wanted to illustrate whether a relationship exists between body length and body weight, he would probably produce a(n)________.

An ecologist conducts a greenhouse experiment to study the effect of nitrogen concentration on the productivity of Eucalyptus seedlings. What is the dependent variable in this experiment?

The number of seeds produced by a single flower affects the birth rate of that population of flowers.