Biology MCAS Practice Exam-Ecology

SmartMCAS Practice Exam Name: Class: Biology MCAS Practice Exam- Ecology Date: Teacher: smccarthy 1. High School | Biology | Multiple Choice | 2009 | Question 13 Reporting Category: Ecology Standard(s): Ecology - B 6.2 A builder is proposing a new housing development in an area of western Massachusetts. Construction of the housing development will destroy the wetland habitat in the area. Which of the following would be the most likely consequence of the wetland’s destruction? A. The wetland plant species would disperse to adjacent meadow habitats. B. The populations of wetland animals would be unable to survive in that area. C. The wetland animal species would survive by interbreeding with non-wetland species. D. The populations of wetland plants would evolve to disperse seeds by wind rather than water. 2. High School | Biology | Multiple Choice | 2008 | Question 30 Reporting Category: Ecology Standard(s): Ecology - B 6.3 A partial food web for a coastal ecosystem is shown below. Which of the following organisms in this food web obtains energy from both producers and consumers? A. anchovy B. mysid shrimp C. weakfish D. sand shrimp 3. High School | Biology | Multiple Choice | 2009 | Question 18 Reporting Category: Ecology Standard(s): Ecology - B 6.3 Which of the following relationships is an example of mutualism? A. A lion eats a gazelle. B. A virus uses both a bird and a horse as hosts. C. A bacterium breaks down dead plant materials. D. A bird eats food particles from a crocodile’s teeth. High School | Biology | Multiple Choice | 2006 | Question 29 Reporting Category: Biology Standard(s): Ecology - 6.1 Fertilizers can enable farmers to grow the same crop in a field for several years in a row. Farmers who use less fertilizer often rotate their crops by planting the crop one year and legumes, such as beans and clover, the following year. 4. Fertilizer use and crop rotation with legumes both increase the availability of which of the following nutrients in soil? A. calcium B. nitrogen C. oxygen D. protein 5. High School | Biology | Multiple Choice | 2008 | Question 43 Reporting Category: Ecology Standard(s): Ecology - B 6.1 On remote islands, immigration and emigration usually do not have a large effect on population sizes. A bird population on a remote island remains at a relatively constant size year after year. Which of the following most likely describes the birthrate and the death rate for this population? A. Birthrate and death rate are both zero. B. Birthrate and death rate are close to equal. C. Birthrate is significantly less than death rate. Birthrate is significantly greater than D. death rate. 6. High School | Biology | Multiple Choice | 2008 | Question 5 Reporting Category: Ecology Standard(s): Ecology - B 6.4 Which of the following processes releases primarily oxygen into the atmosphere? A. combustion B. osmosis C. photosynthesis D. respiration 7. High School | Biology | Multiple Choice | 2008 | Question 40 Reporting Category: Ecology Standard(s): Ecology - B 6.2 There is a limit to how large any given population can grow. Which of the following statements best explains why a population must eventually stop growing? A. A low female-to-male ratio develops in the population as it grows. B. Old individuals outnumber juveniles in the population as it grows. C. The resources available are fully used by the population as it grows. D. Natural selection changes the gene pool of the population as it grows. 8. High School | Biology | Multiple Choice | 2007 | Question 29 Reporting Category: Ecology Standard(s): Ecology - B 6.4 The water cycle would not occur if which of the following were missing? 9. A. animals B. bacteria C. ice caps D. solar energy High School | Biology | Multiple Choice | 2006 | Question 13 Reporting Category: Biology Standard(s): Ecology - 6.1 In one of the steps of the carbon cycle, a person exhales a molecule of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. Which of the following is most likely to happen next to the atom of carbon in this molecule? A. It may be used as part of a sugar in a plant. B. It may become part of a protein in an animal. C. It may be consumed as a fossil fuel is burned. D. It may be decomposed into carbon and oxygen by a bacterium. 10. High School | Biology | Multiple Choice | 2004 | Question 4 Reporting Category: Biology Standard(s): Ecology - 6.1 Legumes, such as clover and alfalfa, have nodules on their roots that contain nitrogen-fixing bacteria. These bacteria convert nitrogen gas from the atmosphere into nitrates. Which of the following best accounts for the presence of nitrogen-fixing bacteria in legume root nodules? A. Nitrates are a food source for earthworms. B. Plants can use nitrates, but not nitrogen gas. C. Nitrates are one of the reactants in photosynthesis. D. Nitrogen gas is toxic to most plants, but nitrates are nontoxic. 11. High School | Biology | Multiple Choice | 2006 | Question 5 Reporting Category: Biology Standard(s): Ecology - 6.1 Which of the following explains why elements, such as carbon and oxygen, that are used in organic molecules are not permanently removed from the environment? A. They are replenished by sunlight. B. They are cycled through ecosystems. C. They are replaced by volcanic eruptions. D. They are produced constantly from nutrients. High School | Biology | Multiple Choice | 2010 | Question 1 Reporting Category: Ecology Standard(s): 6.2 - Analyze changes in population size and biodiversity (speciation and extinction) that result from the following: natural causes, changes in climate, human activity, and the i Every year, monarch butterflies from Canada and the United States spend the winter in central Mexico. The dry and mild climate in Mexico allows the monarch butterflies to survive the winter.One winter, a week of storms caused freezing temperatures and 43 cm of snow in Mexico. What was the most likely impact of these storms on the monarch butterflies? 12. A. Monarch butterflies died in large numbers. B. Monarch butterflies immediately migrated back to the United States. C. Monarch butterflies did not migrate from Canada and the United States the next year. D. Monarch butterflies evolved several new adaptations to survive the winter in Mexico. 13. High School | Biology | Multiple Choice | 2009 | Question 2 Reporting Category: Ecology Standard(s): Ecology - B 6.3 Which of the following lists identifies organisms that are producers in food webs? A. algae, ferns, sunflowers B. mushrooms, bacteria, earthworms C. termites, red foxes, shrews D. woodpeckers, cardinals, grasshoppers 14. High School | Biology | Multiple Choice | 2005 | Question 4 Reporting Category: Biology Standard(s): Ecology - 6.1 Plants use many gallons of water every day. Almost all of the water used by plants is absorbed through the roots. Water leaves plants by which process? A. infiltration B. precipitation C. runoff D. transpiration 15. High School | Biology | Multiple Choice | 2008 | Question 34 Reporting Category: Ecology Standard(s): Ecology - B 6.4 Which of the following environmental conditions makes water less available to plants for growth? A. Soil in the area is organically rich. B. Ground cover is effective at slowing erosion. C. High humidity lowers the rates of transpiration. D. Cold temperatures freeze the water in and on the ground. 16. High School | Biology | Multiple Choice | 2008 | Question 21 Reporting Category: Ecology Standard(s): Ecology - B 6.2 Populations of Caribbean coral have decreased significantly over the past 30 years due to disease. Which of the following is most likely a major factor leading to the increased amount of disease in the coral? A. Symbiotic algae are living in the coral cells. B. Several different species of fish live on the coral reefs. Levels of spawning have C. decreased and lowered reproductive rates. Water temperatures have increased D. and favored the growth of microorganisms. 17. High School | Biology | Multiple Choice | 2009 | Question 43 Reporting Category: Ecology Standard(s): Ecology - B 6.3 A marine food web is shown below. Which of the following diagrams correctly represents an energy pyramid from this web? A. B. C. D. 18. High School | Biology | Multiple Choice | 2005 | Question 21 Reporting Category: Biology Standard(s): Ecology - 6.1 The natural cycling of oxygen between organisms and their environment is most directly accomplished through which of the following pairs of processes? A. fermentation and oxidation B. transpiration and evaporation C. precipitation and condensation D. photosynthesis and respiration 19. High School | Biology | Multiple Choice | 2007 | Question 42 Reporting Category: Ecology Standard(s): Ecology - B 6.4 Which of the following explains why legume plants are less likely than other terrestrial plants to experience nitrogen limitation? A. Legume plants need less nitrogen than other plants do. B. Legume plants have nitrogen-fixing bacteria on their roots. C. Legume plants catch insects to supply themselves with nitrogen. D. Legume plants can absorb nitrogen directly from the atmosphere. 20. High School | Biology | Multiple Choice | 2010 | Question 31 Reporting Category: Ecology Standard(s): 6.4 - Explain how water, carbon, and nitrogen cycle between abiotic resources and organic matter in an ecosystem, and how oxygen cycles through photosynthesis and respiration.