UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH BIOSC 0370 ECOLOGY | COMPREHENSIVE STUDY GUIDE,
PRACTICE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 2026/2027
Predators - ANS ✔✔catch individuals and consume them, removing them from the prey
population
Parasites - ANS ✔✔consume parts of a living prey organism or host; may be external or internal;
may negatively affect the host but does not directly remove it from the population
Parasitoids - ANS ✔✔consume the living tissues of their host, eventually killing them or they are
the real aliens; combine traits of predators and parasites
Herbivores - ANS ✔✔eat whole plants or part of a plant
Grazers - ANS ✔✔eat grasses and herbaceous vegetation
Browsers - ANS ✔✔eat woody vegetation
Detrivores - ANS ✔✔consume dead organic material and the waste of other species; ex. fungi,
bacteria, earthworms, and insects
Why are bobcats an effective predator of deer in Georgia but not Pennsylvania? - ANS
✔✔consequences of Bergmann's rule
What are some adaptations of predators? - ANS ✔✔forelegs for many vertebrate, feet and
hooked bills for many birds, distensible jaws in snakes, digestive tracts
What are some adaptations of prey? - ANS ✔✔swift, capability of early predator detection,
hiding, active defense
, What are some adaptations of plants? - ANS ✔✔low nutritional content, toxic compounds,
structural defenses
Why are some clades of insect herbivores so species rich? - ANS ✔✔Digestibility
Constitutive chemical defenses - ANS ✔✔are maintained at high levels in the plant at all times.
Induced chemical defenses - ANS ✔✔increase dramatically following an attack
crypsis - ANS ✔✔animals blend with their backgrounds
Unpalatable animals - ANS ✔✔may acquire noxious chemicals from food or manufacture these
chemicals themselves
Müllerian mimicry - ANS ✔✔many species may be involved
each species is both model and mimic
process is efficient because learning by predator with any model
benefits all other members of the mimicry complex
certain aposematic colors/patterns may be widespread within a
particular region
Resource concentration hypothesis - ANS ✔✔insects immigrate into and
stay longer in greater concentrations (monocultures) of their
preferred resource (host plant).
Enemies hypothesis: - ANS ✔✔diversity of neighbor plant species may
PRACTICE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 2026/2027
Predators - ANS ✔✔catch individuals and consume them, removing them from the prey
population
Parasites - ANS ✔✔consume parts of a living prey organism or host; may be external or internal;
may negatively affect the host but does not directly remove it from the population
Parasitoids - ANS ✔✔consume the living tissues of their host, eventually killing them or they are
the real aliens; combine traits of predators and parasites
Herbivores - ANS ✔✔eat whole plants or part of a plant
Grazers - ANS ✔✔eat grasses and herbaceous vegetation
Browsers - ANS ✔✔eat woody vegetation
Detrivores - ANS ✔✔consume dead organic material and the waste of other species; ex. fungi,
bacteria, earthworms, and insects
Why are bobcats an effective predator of deer in Georgia but not Pennsylvania? - ANS
✔✔consequences of Bergmann's rule
What are some adaptations of predators? - ANS ✔✔forelegs for many vertebrate, feet and
hooked bills for many birds, distensible jaws in snakes, digestive tracts
What are some adaptations of prey? - ANS ✔✔swift, capability of early predator detection,
hiding, active defense
, What are some adaptations of plants? - ANS ✔✔low nutritional content, toxic compounds,
structural defenses
Why are some clades of insect herbivores so species rich? - ANS ✔✔Digestibility
Constitutive chemical defenses - ANS ✔✔are maintained at high levels in the plant at all times.
Induced chemical defenses - ANS ✔✔increase dramatically following an attack
crypsis - ANS ✔✔animals blend with their backgrounds
Unpalatable animals - ANS ✔✔may acquire noxious chemicals from food or manufacture these
chemicals themselves
Müllerian mimicry - ANS ✔✔many species may be involved
each species is both model and mimic
process is efficient because learning by predator with any model
benefits all other members of the mimicry complex
certain aposematic colors/patterns may be widespread within a
particular region
Resource concentration hypothesis - ANS ✔✔insects immigrate into and
stay longer in greater concentrations (monocultures) of their
preferred resource (host plant).
Enemies hypothesis: - ANS ✔✔diversity of neighbor plant species may
