Question: Population ecologists are primarily interested in

Answer: Understanding how biotic and abiotic factors influence the density, distribution, size, and age structure of populations.

Question: A population is correctly defined as having which of the following characteristics?

1. inhabiting the same general area

2. II. belonging to the same species

3. III. possessing a constant and uniform density and dispersion

4. Answer: I and II only

5. Question: An ecologist recorder 12 white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, per square mile in one woodlot and 20 per square mile in another woodlot. What was the ecologist comparing?

6. Answer: Density

7. (# of individuals per unit area or volume)

8. Question: During the spring, you are studying the mice that live in a field near your home. The population density is high, but you realize that you rarely observe any reproductive female mice. This most likely indicates

9. Answer: that you are observing immigrant mice

10. Question: Uniform spacing patterns in plants such as the creosote bush are most often associated with

11. Answer: competitive interaction between individuals of the same population

12. Question:

13. Answer: a) red squirrels, who actively defend territories

14. Question:

15. Answer: c) keep track of the females in an cohort

16. *cohort: a group of individuals of the same age

17. Question: Which of the following examples would MOST accurately measure the density of the population being studied?

18. Answer: counting the number of zebras from airplane census observations

19. Question:

20. Answer: I, II, and III

21. Question: Long-term studies of Belding’s ground squirrels show that immigrants move nearly 2 km from where they are born and become 1%-8% of the males and 0.7-6% of the females in other populations. On an evolutionary scale, why is this significant?

22. Answer: These immigrants provide a source of genetic diversity for the other populations.