MULTIPLE CHOICE

Identify the choice that best describes the statement or answers the question.

1. The lowest level of environmental complexity that includes living and nonliving factors is
the__________.
a. biome
b. ecosystem
c. community
d. biosphere
2. What is the original source of almost all the energy in most ecosystems?
a. carbohydrates
b. water
c. sunlight
d. carbon
3. Most of the energy available to a consumer trophic level is used by organisms for
____________.
a. transfer to the next trophic level.
b. respiration, movement, and reproduction.
c. producing inorganic chemical compounds.
d. performing photosynthesis
4. Which of the following statements best describes a food web?
a. Many individual organisms of the same species that live in the same space and that
share resources.
b. A black bear eats fruit and then spreads the fruit seeds through its excretions.
c. A system that is made up of a community of organisms and their environment.
d. All life is connected by the transfer of energy among organisms and their environment.
5. An organism that uses energy to produce its own food supply from inorganic compounds is
called a(an)
a. heterotroph.
b. detritivore.
c. consumer.
d. Autotroph
6. An organism that cannot make its own food is called a(an)
a. heterotroph.
b. autotroph.
c. chemotroph.
d. Producer
7. The branch of biology dealing with interactions among organisms and between organisms and
their environment is called _________.
a. economy.
b. recycling.
c. modeling.
d. ecology.
8. Organisms that obtain nutrients by breaking down dead and decaying plants and animals are
called __________.
a. decomposers.
b. autotrophs.
c. omnivores.
d. Producers
9. What is an organism that feeds only on plants called?
a. carnivore
b. omnivore
c. herbivore
d. detritivore
10. All the interconnected feeding relationships in an ecosystem make up a food.
a. interaction.
b. network.
c. chain.
d. web.
11. The total amount of living tissue within a given trophic level is called the
a. organic mass.
b. energy mass.
c. trophic mass.
d. biomass.
12. What is an ecological model of the relationships that form a network of complex interactions
among organisms in a community from producers to decomposers?
a. food web
b. food chain
c. an ecosystem
d. a population
13. Which food might a first level consumer eat?
a. fish
b. berries
c. bacteria
d. worms
14. What is an animal that catches and eats another animal called?
a. prey
b. producer
c. predator
d. herbivore
15. Animals that eat a variety of meats, fruits, and vegetables are __________
a. producers.
b. omnivores.
c. carnivores.
d. herbivores.
16. Grass that gains energy from the sun is an example of a _________.
a. consumer.
 b. decomposer.
c. parasite.
d. producer.
17. Herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores are all ____________.
a. decomposers.
b. scavengers.
c. producers.
d. consumers.
18. In a marine food chain, small fish eat plankton, big fish eat small fish, and sharks eat big fish.
Which organism has the smallest population?
a. the sharks
b. the small fish
c. the big fish
d. the plankton
19. Which of the following consumers feeds on dead organisms?
a. herbivores
b. carnivores
c. omnivores
d. detritivores
20. What is the primary source of energy in all ecosystems?
a. plants
b. the sun
c. bacteria
d. producers
21. A community is _____________.
a. A collection of plants and animals
b. Organisms living in a habitat
c. Autotrophs and heterotrophs
d. Web of life
22. What are the two components of ecosystem?
a. Plants and animals
b. Weeds and trees
c. Biotic and abiotic
d. Frogs and insects
23. The organisms at the base of food chain are?
a. Herbivores
b. Photosynthetic plants
c. Saprophytic plants
d. Carnivores
24. In natural ecosystem, decomposers include ____________.
a. Only bacteria and fungi
b. Only microscopic animals
c. The above two types of organisms plus macroscopic animals
d. Only the above two types of organisms
25. The combined portions of Earth in which all living things exist is called the __________.
a. biome.
b. ecosystem.
c. community.
d. biosphere.
26. Which of the following descriptions about the organization of an ecosystem is correct?
a. Communities make up species, which make up populations.
b. Populations make up species, which make up communities.
c. Species make up communities, which make up populations.
d. Species make up populations, which make up communities.
27. A snake that eats a frog that has eaten an insect that fed on a plant is a _____________.
a. first-level producer.
b. second-level producer.
c. first-level consumer.
d. third-level consumer.
28. Matter can recycle through the biosphere because
a. matter is passed out of the body as waste.
b. matter is assembled into chemical compounds.
c. biological systems do not use up matter, they transform it.
d. biological systems use only carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen

figure 1.

29. In the food web, which is the correct flow of energy?

a. DCA
b. ACD
c. BAF
d. ACF
30. What does the arrow between the grasshopper and the frog represent?

a. energy flowing from producers to consumers

b. energy flowing from the frog to the grasshopper
c. energy flowing from consumers to producers
d. energy flowing from the grasshopper to the frog
31. In an aquarium fish eat the shrimp, and a shark eats the fish. What would happen to the
population of shrimp if the shark was removed from the aquarium?
a. decrease
b. increase
c. stays the same
d. increase and then decrease
32. In the food web, what two organisms are competing for food?

a. A and B
b. A and C
c. B and D
d. D and F
33. If fish in a river begin to die because of pollution, what may happen to a river ecosystem?
a. All organisms in the ecosystem will be affected in some way.
b. The organisms that eat fish will reproduce faster.
c. All species of organisms in the ecosystem that rely on fish for food will starve and die.
d. The abiotic factors but not the biotic factors in the ecosystem will change
34. Organisms that can make their own food from sunlight are called _____________.
a. decomposers.
b. producers.
c. consumers.
d. carnivores.
35. The trophic levels in this figure illustrate _______________.

a. the relative amount of energy at each level.

b. the amount of living organic matter at each level.
c. the relative number of individual organisms at each level.
d. that the producers outnumber first-level consumers
36. The algae at the beginning of this figure illustrates what?

a. consumers.
b. producers.
c. decomposers.
d. heterotrophs.
37. A plant, being eaten by herbivore which in turn is eaten by a carnivore, makes
a. food chain
b. web of food
c. omnivores
d. interdependence
38-39. Illustrate the following.

38. ___________________ occurs between evaporation and precipitation.

a. Condensation
b. Transpiration
c. Transpiration
d. Evaporation
39. ___________________ occurs between transpiration and precipitation.
a. Evaporation
b. Transpiration
c. Condensation
d. Precipitation
40. Plants are _____________
a. producers.
b. herbivores.
c. consumers.
d. Omnivores
41. The pyramid of energy is
a. always upright
b. always inverted
c. both upright and inverted
d. none of the above
42. Which is the most stable ecosystem?
a. mountain
b. desert
c. forest
d. ocean
43. The correct sequence of food chain is
a. bacteria- grass- rabbit- wolf
b. grass- snake- insect- deer
c. grass- wolf- deer- buffalo
d. grass- insect- birds -snake
44. Which ecosystem has the highest primary productivity?
a. pond ecosystem
b. lake ecosystem
c. grassland ecosystem
d. forest ecosystem

45. The natural place of an organism or community is known as _________________.

a. Niche
b. Habitat
c. Habit
d. Biome
46. Which of the following is a constituent of ecosystem?
a. Plants
b. Birds
c. Animals
d. All of these
47. What kind of Ecosystem is known as sustainable?
a. The one in which all species are in balance
b. The one in which there are no animals
c. The one in which animals feed on each other
d. All of these
48. An Ecosystem comprises of _______________.
a. Living organisms
b. Non-living organisms
c. Both living and non-living organisms
d. Only plants
49. Which of the following statement is TRUE?
a. Ecosystems may vary in size
b. Ecosystems are always very large
c. Ecosystems are always very small.
d. None of these is true.
50. If one part of Ecosystem is damaged, what happens?
a. It doesn’t have any impact on the Ecosystem
b. It destroys the ecosystem
c. It has an impact on everything else in the ecosystem.
d. All of these