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Biogeography First Exam Study Guide

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First exam study guide for fall 2016 Biogeography course at the University of Arizona.
Tony Colella
Quiz by Tony Colella, updated more than 1 year ago
Tony Colella
Created by Tony Colella about 8 years ago
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Resource summary

Question 1

Question
Earth's tilt is nearly
Answer
  • 15.5º
  • 20º
  • 23.5º
  • 30º

Question 2

Question
Water's high _________________ allows it to store a lot of energy.
Answer
  • storage potential
  • heat capacity
  • potential gradient
  • solar capacity

Question 3

Question
Global physical gradients on Earth arise from all of the following except
Answer
  • Earth's spin
  • Latitude
  • Precipitation
  • Earth's orbit around the Sun
  • Earth's tilt

Question 4

Question
You would probably find the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) where near the summer solstice?
Answer
  • The Tropic of Capricorn (23.5º S)
  • The South Pole (90ºS)
  • The Equator (0º)
  • The Tropic of Cancer (23.5º N)

Question 5

Question
Warm currents are most often found on __________ ocean boundaries.
Answer
  • Northern
  • Southern
  • Western
  • Eastern

Question 6

Question
Short-term global cycles like El Nino involve periodic variations in what?
Answer
  • Sea-surface temperatures
  • Wind patterns
  • Atmospheric circulation cells
  • Sea-surface temperatures and wind patterns
  • Wind patterns and atmospheric circulation cells

Question 7

Question
Glacial climates in the Pleistocene tended to be...
Answer
  • Cool and dry
  • Cool and wet
  • Warm and dry
  • Warm and wet

Question 8

Question
During the *initial* cycles of glaciation and melting in the Pleistocene, extinctions were more common in...
Answer
  • Animals
  • Plants
  • Both
  • Neither

Question 9

Question
A planet with a greater tilt than Earth's would most likely have what kind of seasons?
Answer
  • Milder
  • Stronger
  • About the same as Earth's
  • No seasons at all

Question 10

Question
Humid air _________ dry air.
Answer
  • is heavier than
  • is lighter than
  • weighs the same as

Question 11

Question
Global precipitation patterns are driven by all of the following except
Answer
  • temperature
  • ocean currents
  • local topography
  • wind patterns

Question 12

Question
Topography and global precipitation patterns together determine
Answer
  • regional climate
  • surface energy input
  • rate of continental drift
  • the degree of Earth's tilt

Question 13

Question
Alexander von Humboldt was one of the first to note the abiding biogeographic principle that elevational gradients are analogous to
Answer
  • altitudinal gradients
  • latitudinal gradients
  • longitudinal gradients

Question 14

Question
The theory of island biogeography would consider all of the following except
Answer
  • An island in the ocean
  • A mountain range surrounded by lowlands
  • A series of low, grassy hills
  • A city surrounded by forest

Question 15

Question
Plants can move sap (and the nutrients within it) against the pull of gravity in part because of water's
Answer
  • high surface tension
  • high heat capacity
  • high heat conduction

Question 16

Question
How much of Earth's global water is freshwater?
Answer
  • About 10%
  • About 5.5%
  • About 2.5%
  • About 1%

Question 17

Question
Infiltration is
Answer
  • the movement of aboveground water belowground
  • the movement of belowground water aboveground
  • the movement of water on the Earth's surface
  • the emptying of rivers and streams into the ocean

Question 18

Question
All of these affect water's ability to infiltrate except
Answer
  • soil saturation
  • land cover
  • soil characteristics
  • land shape

Question 19

Question
What is the primary driver of Earth's water cycle?
Answer
  • Hadley cells
  • the intertropical convergence zone
  • evaporation
  • global climate

Question 20

Question
Transpiration occurs when plants lose water in the form of
Answer
  • water vapor
  • liquid water
  • frozen water

Question 21

Question
_____________ is responsible for cloud formation
Answer
  • Infiltration
  • Precipitation
  • Condensation
  • Transpiration

Question 22

Question
Why are arid environments likely to occur on the leeward slopes of near-ocean mountain ranges?
Answer
  • The rain shadow effect
  • Those mountains are most often at 30º N and S
  • The spin of the Earth
  • Ecoregion gradients

Question 23

Question
Seeds that exhibit serotiny only germinate when
Answer
  • they "know" the Earth's tilt has changed
  • they're triggered by some external factor
  • they are affected by the Coriolis effect

Question 24

Question
The only mass extinction for which science is pretty sure it knows the cause is
Answer
  • the end-Ordovician
  • the end-Triassic
  • the end-Cretaceous
  • the end-Permian

Question 25

Question
Our class definition of biogeography includes all of the following except
Answer
  • ...the study of distributions...
  • ...of biodiversity...
  • ...globally...
  • ...over space and time...

Question 26

Question
When it comes to biogeographic patterns, this scale is most important
Answer
  • global
  • local
  • regional
  • all scales are important to biogeographic patterns

Question 27

Question
The lithosphere includes
Answer
  • all of Earth's water, including oceans, freshwater, and the water cycle
  • the layers of gases that surround the Earth's surface
  • the Earth's rocky crust, including the geographic template
  • the zone of life on Earth

Question 28

Question
In the Greek tradition, which of these might we call the central question of biogeography?
Answer
  • How are organisms distributed around the world?
  • Do organisms change over time?
  • Are organisms at certain latitudes the same as organisms at certain altitudes?

Question 29

Question
Charles Darwin based his theory of evolution by means of natural selection on several key pieces of evidence. Which of these were not included?
Answer
  • Comparison of fossils with existing, similarly-shaped organisms
  • Studying finches and tortoises in the Galapagos
  • Observing giraffes in African savannas

Question 30

Question
Wegener's theory of continental drift relies on all of the following pieces of evidence except
Answer
  • Landmasses fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.
  • Geological similarity between matching sides of continents.
  • Elevational similarities in mountain ranges between continents that appear to fit together.
  • Fossil similarities between matching sides of continents.

Question 31

Question
Plants that colonize new land that may one day be a new ecosystem require all of the following except
Answer
  • Carbon
  • Herbivores
  • Nutrients
  • Water

Question 32

Question
Sky islands and tepuis are both types of
Answer
  • mainland islands
  • exterior islands
  • isolation islands
  • endemic islands
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