BEFORE YOU BEGIN: Make sure you have 6 different pages of questions.  Put your name of the first page and your SSN on each other page.

BRIEF ANSWER: Answer short and fill-in questions with a short phrase (you should not need more than about 10 words) or definition.  For multiple choice questions, circle the one best answer.  Draw any required graphs clearly so the pattern shown is obvious.  3 pts. each

Answer questions 1-5 based on the following situation:

You are studying the number of surviving offspring of a species of salamander at different elevations in the mountains.  You study survival offspring of 35 randomly chosen egg masses (each produced by a different pair of salamanders) at each of the following sites: one low elevation site, one medium elevation site, and one high elevation site.

1. What is the dependent variable being studied?

2. The appropriate statistical test to use to see whether the average offspring survival differs between the three sites is:

3. What problem is avoided by choosing the egg masses at random?

4. The fact that you studied 35 egg masses at each site means:
a. you have low statistical power
b. you will detect significant trends even if there are no real differences among sites
c. your chance of detecting trends that exist is low
d. if you find no statistically significant trend, you can be reasonably confident that no differences exist in offspring survival between the three sites
e. your results are unbiased because studying a large sample allows you to avoid systematic error

5.  Conducting laboratory studies in ecology
a. allows ecologists to evaluate the impact of one factor at a time on an ecological system more easily than is typically possible in field studies
b. is generally more likely to result in identification of important factors affecting distribution and abundance than are field studies since laboratory conditions are controlled
c. is never done, since we can not transport every factor in an ecosystem into a laboratory
d. two of the above
e. all the above

 6. If you find that salamander offspring survival is significantly higher at the low elevation site than at the medium or high elevation sites, you:
a. can conclude with at least 95% certainty that there is higher offspring survival at the low elevation  at the other sites, but can not conclude that the difference in elevation is the cause of the difference
b. can not conclude that there is a real difference between elevations because sampling only one site at each elevation does not give adequate statistical power to detect a trend
c. can conclude that you are at least 95% sure that higher survival in these salamanders at low elevation than at high elevation, since you have conducted an unbiased study of offspring survival at different elevations
d. can not conclude that there is a real difference between the different sites because the random sampling method used would have caused random error

7.  The appropriate statistical test to use to determine whether the frequency of observations within one categorical variable depends on the frequency of observations in another categorical variable is:

8.  In general, increasing sample size
a. increases statistical power
b. decreases systematic error
c. decreases random error
d. two of the above
e. all of the above

9.  You conduct a capture-recapture study of a population of darters (fish) by netting them and tying a bead through one of their fins as a mark, then releasing them.  You initially mark 83 darters.  When you recapture, you get a total sample of 91 darters; out of them, 17 are marked.  What is your population estimate? Show the formula you use, and leave your answer as a fraction showing what the estimate T is equal to:
 
 

10.  In the study described above, suppose that having a bead through the fin makes the darters less able to swim and therefore less able to escape when you net them; as a result, marked individuals are easier to recapture than are unmarked individuals.  Will this make your estimate of total population size too large or too small? (answer with one of the underlined words) ____________________
 

11. An estimates such as the capture-recapture method or a direct count that attempts to determine the actual number of individuals in a population is called a(n) _______________________

12. The statement that the population size of a species will be limited by the factor in shortest supply relative to the requirements of that species is called:

13. On the axes provided, draw the expected line or curve for a species that conforms for body salinity.

14. - 16. The ranges of all abiotic factors and resource availabilities within which a species could theoretically maintain a population is called the (14) _____________________ of that species.  The range of conditions within which the species actually does maintain a population is called the (15)  _________________________ of that species.  The range of conditions within which a species actually does maintain populations is typically smaller than the range of abiotic factors and resources within which it could maintain a population; briefly state why this is. (16) _________________________________________
 

17.-19. You discover a new species of animal and study its physiological ecology.  First, you take its body temperature at various different environmental temperatures and discover that body temperature is always the same, regardless of environmental temperature.  From this information you know that the animal is (17)_________________________ (use the term that relates to temperature).  You also discover from observing it that it can survive over a very broad range of temperatures; this means it is (18)____________-thermal (enter the correct prefix to indicate tolerance to a broad range of a factor).  Finally, you discover that it uses its own metabolically produced heat to regulate body temperature, so it is a(n):
(19)__________________.

20.  Some endotherms save energy by allowing their body temperature to drop by a large amount over night.  This is called:
 LONGER ESSAY QUESTIONS:

21. (10) You observe butterflies of a particular species only occur in some fields in Weakley County, not in all fields, even though it appears that they could fly to any of these fields.  State two plausible ecological hypotheses that could explain this pattern of distribution,; the different hypotheses should be based on different biotic or abiotic factors. State a prediction of each hypothesis; make it clear in your answer which is the hypothesis and which is the prediction.  Briefly state a way you could test these hypotheses based on these predictions, and state possible results that would support one hypothesis but NOT the other (do not worry about sampling methods, samples size, or statistics in your description.)

22. You are comparing thermoregulation in Galapagos tortoises, which are very large, gopher tortoises, which are much smaller.  Both maintain constant body temperatures behaviorally.

(a) (6) State one way that these tortoises can warm their bodies to above the temperature in the air around them AND one way in which they could cool their bodies to below the temperature of the air around them; make it clear how each of these is based on one of the main physical processes through which animals can heat or cool (radiation, conduction, convection, evaporation)

(b) (6) Which species of tortoise would you expect to cool off more quickly under the same environmental conditions?  Clearly explain why, based on the body size difference; be sure to completely explain this based on fundamental geometric principles.

23. (8) Explain the main cost to being a conformer.  Explain what acclimation is, how it occurs in conformers, and how it helps avoid some of the main cost of being a conformer.

24. (10) Explain what transects, point counts, and radio telemetry are.  Give one advantage of point counts over transects.  Now suppose you are studying an animal for which it is possible to do either point counts or radio telemetry. Describe a kind of ecological question you could be studying for which point counts would be more appropriate, and explain why they would be more appropriate.  Next, describe a kind of ecological question you could be studying for which radio telemetry would be more appropriate, and explain why it would be more appropriate.