AP Environmental Science Unit 2 Test Ch. 3 & 4
Do NOT write on the test
49) Which statement describes the result of the second law of thermodynamics?
A. In any isolated system entropy tends to increase spontaneously.
B. Heat energy always flows spontaneously from hot to cold.
C. Energy can not be created or destroyed.
D. Energy input always equals energy output.
50) The energy available to the tertiary consumers (top carnivores) in a particular ecosystem is 10 kJ m −2 y−1.
How much energy (in kJ m−2 y−1 ) is likely to be passed on by the producers to the primary consumers?
A. 1
B. 10
C. 100
D. 1000
E. 10,000
51) How is the net productivity of the producers in an ecosystem defined?
A. Energy fixed by biomass per unit time plus respiratory losses
B. Energy fixed by biomass per unit time minus respiratory losses
C. Biomass gained by heterotrophic organisms per unit time
D. Gain in biomass per unit time minus fecal losses
52) Which of the following are important reservoirs of phosphorus?
I. Atmosphere
II. Soils
III. Oceans
A. I and II only
B. I and III only
C. II and III only
D. I, II and III
53) Which of the following statements about succession is/are correct?
I. It is initiated by pioneer species.
II. It often involves organisms changing the environment so that they are replaced
by others.
III. It generally results in more complex communities.
A. I only
B. I and III only
C. II and III only
D. I, II, and III
E. none are true
54) [ __________ ] species reproduce and disperse rapidly, and changing, unstable environmental conditions often
cause such populations to [ ____________].
Which of the following provides the correct words to be inserted in the sentence above?
A. r-strategist….crash
B. K-strategist….increase
C. K-strategist….crash
D. r-strategist…increase
55) What is an ecological niche?
A. The role each species plays within its ecosystem; its way of life
B. The biome where an organism lives.
C. It is simply the description of an individual’s habitat.
D. A group of populations living and interacting with each other in a common habitat
56) What is the name of an interaction in which one organism feeds on another by living on or in it and
harming it?
A. Competition
B. Parasitism
C. Mutualism
D. Predation
57) Which statement about K-strategists is correct?
A. They are less adaptable than r-strategists.
B. They have high genetic diversity.
C. They exhibit fast rates of evolution.
D. They live well in a rapidly changing environment.
58) Which of the following does NOT have the correct definition matched with the term preceding it?
A. Gene – a segment of DNA that codes for a particular protein
B. Gene pool of a population – all the genes in a population
C. Artificial selection in dog breeding – the natural modification of the gene pool due to selective pressure
D. Environmental resistance – all biotic and abiotic factors that can limit population growth
E. Biotic Potential – the number of possible offspring produced under optimal conditions
59) According to the Endangered Species Act, and in accordance to the rules set forth by the US Fish and Wildlife
Service, which of the following lists has the terms in order of increasing risk of species’ extinction (low to high risk)?
A. threatened species, endangered species, species of concern
B. species of concern, threatened species, endangered species
C. climax species, endangered species, critical species
D. endangered species, threatened species, species of concern
E. keystone species, indicator species, endangered species
60) Species whose roles in an ecosystem are much more important that their abundance or biomass would suggest
are known as:
A. dynamic species
B. indicator species
C. keystone species
D. riparian species
E. mutualist species
61) Which of the following is true about CO2 ?
A. CO2 is produced by plants during photosynthesis
B. CO2 is a common gas released from the use of plant fertilizers
C. CO2 makes up about 4% of our lower atmospheric composition along with N 2 and O2
D. CO2 is absorbed by animals when eating plants and broken down to form organic molecules
E. CO2 concentrations in the Earth’s atmosphere have risen about 100ppm from the year 1900 to 2000
62) In which of the following molecules is phosphorus not an important component?
A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
DNA
Phospholipids
ATP
RNA
H20
63) Which statements correctly describe the food chain below?
flowering plant → insect larvae → snake → hawk
I. The snake is a primary consumer.
II. The arrows point in the direction of energy flow.
III. There are four different trophic levels.
IV. Flowering plants are producers.
A. III and IV only
B. II, III, and IV only
C. I, III, and IV only
D. III and IV only
E. I, II, III, and IV
64) Ants live on Acacia trees and consume the sugar produced by the tree. The tree is protected by the ants, as they
attack any foreign insects that may harm the tree. This is an example of
A. parasitism.
B. mutualism.
C. predation.
D. commensalism.
E. intraspecies competition
65) Which of the following is a density dependent factor that could control the size of the population of eagles?
A. Unfavourable weather conditions
B. Abundance of food
C. Destruction of nesting sites by human activities
D. Increased use of pesticides
66) Evidence that supports the theory of continental drift has been provided by
A. atmospheric changes during the industrial revolution
B. changes in the rotation of Earth.
C. similar fossils found in South America and Africa.
D. the presence of mineral deposits in Southern Africa.
E. the direction of flow of the ocean currents.
67) Which of the following is an example of mutualism?
A. A tapeworm living inside a pig’s small intestine
B. Vultures feeding on a dead lion
C. Bats capturing mosquitoes using sonar to detect them
D. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria living on the roots of a bean plant
68) Which is the most abundant gas in the lower atmosphere (troposphere)?
A. Oxygen
B. Nitrogen
C. Carbon dioxide
D. Ozone
The graph to the right shows the population size of an herbivore
species from 1944 to 1966. Use this graph for Questions 69-71.
69) This graph can best be described as a(n)
A. S population curve
B. Z population curve
C. J population curve
D. climax ecosystem curve
E. secondary succession curve
70) All of the following phrases would be plausible explanations of
what may have caused what happened in the graph after 1963,
EXCEPT
A. Heavy predation on the herbivore species after 1963.
B. Rampant disease spread through the herbivore species
after 1963.
C. Increased rain in 1963 caused dramatic increase in primary producers near the herbivore species.
D. Overgrazing by the overpopulated herbivore during the approach to 1963.
71) The final herbivore population in 1966 was reduced to what percentage of the maximum population size reached?
A. 7%
B. 4.8%
C. 48 %
D. 0.7%
E. 70%
72) The five most abundant elements in living organisms are:
A. nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus
B. nitrogen, carbon, potassium, silicon, oxygen
C. carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, potassium, silicon
D. hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, aluminum, sodium
73) In what family of plants is nitrogen usually fixed?
A. coniferous trees
B. sea grass
C. wheat
D. legumes
E. deciduous trees
74) Excess fertilizer run off into streams and oceans can cause over feeding of algae to form large algal blooms. This
process is commonly known as
A. hypernutrification
B. disequitable overload
C. critical number overload
D. sterilization
E. eutrophication
75) Which of the following are true of the biogeochemical cycles?
I Denitrifying bacteria convert excess nitrates in the soil back to nitrogen gas in the atmosphere
II Nitrogen fixation (N fixing) is the process of atmospheric nitrogen being converted to useable
ammonia/ammonium by bacteria
III P2O3 (diphosphorus trioxide) gas is released into the atmosphere as part of the phosphorus cycles
A. I only
B. II only
C. I and II only
D. II and III only
E. I, II and III are all correct
76) Which statement is UNTRUE about the sulfur cycle?
A. Sulfur does not enter the atmosphere in any compound form (does not have a gas phase) in its cycle
B. Majority of the SO2 gas in the air comes from fossil fuel (coal) combustion and volcanoes
C. Sulfur is used by living organisms to build large biological molecules like proteins
D. SO2 and SO3 in the air mix with rain droplets to form acid rain (sulfuric and sulfurous acid)
AP Environmental Science Free Response Questions
Brood Size Effects on Parent Survival
1) Read the paragraph below and review the figure to the right to answer these
questions. Researchers in the Netherlands studied the effects of parental
caregiving in European Kestrels over 5 years. The researchers transferred
chicks among nests to artificially produce reduced broods (3 or 4 chicks),
normal broods (5 or 6), and enlarged broods (7 or 8). They then measured the
percentage of male and female parent Kestrels that survived the following
winter. Both males and females provide care for chicks.
a) 2 points Which of the following is a conclusion that can be drawn from this
graph? Only one is choice is correct.

Female survivability is more negatively affected by larger brood size
than is male survivability

Male survivability decreased by 50% between reduced and enlarged
breed treatments

There appears to be a negative correlation between brood enlargements and parental survivability

Chicks in reduced brood treatment received more food, weight gain, and reduced mortality.
Answer: Maximum 2 pts for 3rd option, 0 points for any other option either because incorrect based on the graph or
not enough data provided by the graph to make the conclusion listed
b) 2 points Explain a possible causes for the conclusion you made above. Base this on what you’ve learned in class.
Greater intraspecies competition for food, less available food, more energy wasted by parents foraging for
food more often, more opportunity for predators to eat parents while foraging, more noise and awareness of
larger broods attracting greater predator interest
Answer: 3 points possibl, but only 2 points available for internal maximum
2 points for one plausible cause (1 additional/extra point possible for a 2nd plausible reason)
c) 6 points Based upon the results and conclusions of this data, would you categorize kestrels as closer to an rstrategist or a K-strategist in regards to reproductive strategy? List any two general traits of this type of strategist. In
addition, explain why you feel that the Kestrel resembles this type of reproductive strategist.
Answer: 2 points for correct identification of K-strategist, 0 points if r-type is chosen
2 points for two general traits of K-strategists (2 points can also be earned for correct traits linked to an
r-strategist if their 1st answer for part c is incorrect)
2 points for a reason WHY the Kestrel resembles this type (2 points can be earned IF the student
adequately defends the r-type answer as well)
K-strategistgeneral traits include: care for their young, reproduce late (late breeding), low # of offspring, long
generational time, tend to succeed in stable ecosystems, tend to have big bodies, more prone to extinction or more long
term declines in population density…
Kestrels K-type behavior includes: lots of parental care for their young, seem to have greater evolutionary success
(fitness) with lower numbers of offspring
IF r-type is chosen: many small offspring, unprotected young, high intrinsic rate of population increase, short
generational period, reproduce early and often, tend to find more success in changing, unstable environments
Kestrels r-type behavior: “short generational period”, “small” offspring
2. Take question from 2005 APES Test Q 2 on oak tree food webs and tick controls