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1.2 Habitat & Niche — Test 1
Q1. Trophic position of an organism determines its:✓ Eltonian niche
Q2. The appearance of lichens and mosses on bare rock where no life existed before indicates the start of:✓ Primary succession
Q3. A specialist species is characterised by a:✓ Narrower niche and high efficiency of niche utilization
Q4. Several species of herbivorous land snails in one area can coexist if they exhibit:✓ Low niche overlap and high niche differentiation
Q5. The trophic position of an organism in an ecosystem determines its:✓ Eltonian niche
Q6. A group of coexisting species that share a common niche (use resources similarly) is called a:✓ Guild
Q7. Which principle states that no two species can occupy the same niche indefinitely when resources are limiting?✓ Principle of competitive exclusion
Q8. All of the following tend to increase species diversity EXCEPT:✓ Competitive exclusion
Q9. Under which condition can a species' realized niche expand toward (or equal) its fundamental niche?✓ Removal of competition
Q10. If species abundance is proportional to niche size and colonisers split existing niches, relative abundances become most UNEVEN when:✓ The largest niche is always split
Q11. Fly larvae feeding on a shared, finite fruit grow into smaller adults at high density. This best describes:✓ Scramble competition
Q12. Tropical regions may have higher species diversity for all the following reasons EXCEPT:✓ Lower biological intensity in the tropics allows survival of more prey
Q13. Two barnacle species occupy upper and lower intertidal strata; removing the lower species lets the upper one occupy both. This shows the upper zone alone was the upper species':✓ Realized niche
Q14. Which is a characteristic of an early (pioneer) community?✓ Narrow niche specialization
Q15. Individuals adapted to a habitat phenotypically but NOT genotypically are called:✓ Ecophenes
Q16. The transition zone between two different communities is called an:✓ Ecotone
Q17. A genetically distinct, locally adapted population of a widespread species is called an:✓ Ecotype
Q18. Gause's principle is associated with:✓ Competitive exclusion
Q19. Which animal is best classified as a 'specialist'?✓ Koala
Q20. In ecology, the 'habitat' of an organism is best described as its:✓ Physical living place ('address')
1.2 Habitat & Niche — Test 2
Q21. The Grinnellian niche emphasises a species':✓ Habitat requirements
Q22. The Hutchinsonian niche is defined as:✓ An n-dimensional hypervolume of conditions and resources
Q23. The fundamental niche of a species is:✓ The full set of conditions it could occupy without competitors
Q24. Character displacement refers to:✓ Greater trait divergence between species where they co-occur
Q25. MacArthur's warblers feeding in different parts of the same spruce tree illustrate:✓ Resource partitioning
Q26. A generalist species typically has:✓ A wide niche using many resources
Q27. Niche overlap between two species is greatest when they:✓ Use very similar resources similarly
Q28. The competitive exclusion principle was experimentally demonstrated by Gause using:✓ Two Paramecium species
Q29. Resource partitioning among competitors usually leads to:✓ Reduced niche overlap and coexistence
Q30. A 'guild' differs from a taxonomic group because guild members:✓ Share resource use regardless of relatedness
Q31. Two competitors are most likely to coexist when their niches show:✓ High differentiation (low overlap)
Q32. The realized niche is usually __________ the fundamental niche.✓ Smaller than
Q33. An organism's 'niche width' refers to:✓ The range of resources/conditions it uses
Q34. Which scenario reflects the Eltonian niche concept?✓ A species' role as a seed-eating consumer in the food web
Q35. Two species sharing high niche overlap on a single limiting resource will most likely:✓ Show competitive exclusion of one
Q36. Specialisation tends to make a species:✓ More vulnerable to environmental change
Q37. Character displacement is most likely to be observed in regions of:✓ Sympatry (species co-occur)
Q38. A fundamental niche becomes a realized niche mainly through the action of:✓ Competition and other biotic interactions
Q39. Match List I (niche concept) with List II (emphasis):✓ A-iii, B-ii, C-i, D-iv