ECOLOGY
CONCEPTS AND APPLICATIONS
5TH CANADIAN EDITION
CHAPTER NO. 1: INTRODUCTION TO ECOLOGY
TRUE / FALSE QUESTIONS
1. Most organisms are indiscriminate towards which isotope of an element they use.
FALSE
Organisms that carry out specific processes may preferentially use one isotope versus another.
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Ecologists design their studies based on their research questions, the temporal and spatial scale of their studies,
and available research tools.
Topic: 01-03 Ecology of Warblers across Spatial Scales: Direct Observation and Stable Isotopes
2. Techniques such as reverse-transcription PCR (rt-PCR) can be used to identify DNA in the
environment.
FALSE
The PCR has become the workhorse of molecular biology, spawning new techniques, such as
reverse-transcription PCR (rt-PCR) to identify RNA in the environment.
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Ecologists design their studies based on their research questions, the temporal and spatial scale of their studies,
and available research tools.
Topic: 01-06 Tools of Molecular Ecology
3. Natural history is the knowledge of the history of a biome.
FALSE
,Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-01 Ecologists study environmental relationships ranging from those of individual organisms to factors influencing
global-scale processes.
Topic: 01-01 Overview of Ecology
4. MacArthur observed that warblers utilize resources differently between seasons.
FALSE
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Ecologists design their studies based on their research questions, the temporal and spatial scale of their studies,
and available research tools.
Topic: 01-03 Ecology of Warblers across Spatial Scales: Direct Observation and Stable Isotopes
5. Ecologists study environmental systems at the ecosystem level.
FALSE
Ecologists examine relationships over a large range of temporal and spatial scales using a
wide variety of approaches.
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Ecologists design their studies based on their research questions, the temporal and spatial scale of their studies,
and available research tools.
Topic: 01-07 The Scope of Ecology
6. The word ecology comes from the Greek word for world.
FALSE
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-01 Ecologists study environmental relationships ranging from those of individual organisms to factors influencing
global-scale processes.
Topic: 01-01 Overview of Ecology
,7. Stable isotopes decay exponentially.
FALSE
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Ecologists design their studies based on their research questions, the temporal and spatial scale of their studies,
and available research tools.
Topic: 01-03 Ecology of Warblers across Spatial Scales: Direct Observation and Stable Isotopes
8. Margaret Davis' studies on lake pollen sediments indicate that the forests of eastern North
America did not change with the changing climate during the last glaciation.
FALSE
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Ecologists design their studies based on their research questions, the temporal and spatial scale of their studies,
and available research tools.
Topic: 01-05 Going Big: Tools for Studying Changes over Long Time Periods and Large Spatial Scales
9. The scientific method is used to prove a hypothesis.
FALSE
The scientific method is used to test a hypothesis - the hypothesis may be incorrect.
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-02 Ecologists design their studies based on their research questions, the temporal and spatial scale of their studies,
and available research tools.
Topic: 01-07 The Scope of Ecology
10. The scientific method deals with absolute truths.
FALSE
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Ecologists design their studies based on their research questions, the temporal and spatial scale of their studies,
and available research tools.
Topic: 01-07 The Scope of Ecology
, 11. Ecology can be defined as the study of the impact of human activity on the environment.
FALSE
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: Medium
Learning Objective: 01-01 Ecologists study environmental relationships ranging from those of individual organisms to factors influencing
global-scale processes.
Topic: 01-01 Overview of Ecology
12. The Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) is a real-world laboratory where the natural system
can be manipulated.
TRUE
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Ecologists design their studies based on their research questions, the temporal and spatial scale of their studies,
and available research tools.
Topic: 01-04 Understanding Ecosystem Controls through Whole Ecosystem Manipulations
13. Quantitative ecological studies are often preceded by qualitative natural history
observations.
TRUE
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Understand
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Ecologists design their studies based on their research questions, the temporal and spatial scale of their studies,
and available research tools.
Topic: 01-07 The Scope of Ecology
14. David Schindler showed that human wastewater often affects the functioning of natural
lakes by removing necessary nutrients.
FALSE
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation
Blooms: Remember
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: 01-02 Ecologists design their studies based on their research questions, the temporal and spatial scale of their studies,
and available research tools.
Topic: 01-04 Understanding Ecosystem Controls through Whole Ecosystem Manipulations