BOTANY 160           


END-SEMESTER EXAM                                        DECEMBER 16, 1994



PLAN YOUR TIME CAREFULLY! YOU SHOULD SPEND APPROXIMATELY 10 MINUTES
ON PART I, AND 20 MINUTES EACH ON PARTS II AND III. DO NOT ANSWER ALL THE
QUESTIONS!



I. Definitions. Choose 5 (4 points each) and use only 1 sentence to 
   define the term.


     ITEROPAROUS
     DEME 
     GENERATION TIME 
     RAMET 
     RECRUITMENT
     CONDUCTANCE 
     CAM
     RESOURCES
     COMPETITION 
     SELF-THINNING


II. Short Answer. Choose 4 (10 points each) and use 4 or fewer sentences to
define the concept.


   1. WHAT IS THE INHIBITION MODEL OF SUCCESSION?



   2. WHY IS THE LESLIE MATRIX AN IMPROVEMENT OVER CONTINUOUS GROWTH    
      MODELS LIKE THE EXPONENTIAL AND LOGISTIC?


   3. CONTRAST UNITARY VERSUS MODULAR ORGANIZATION OF ORGANISMS.


   4. (a) DRAW A SURVIVORSHIP CURVE THAT WOULD BE TYPICAL FOR A TREE
       POPULATION  (Hint: Devey Type III).
 

      (b) TELL ME IN WORDS HOW THE Y AXIS (SURVIVORSHIP) IS CALCULATED.


   5. TILMAN HAS MADE A CONTRIBUTION TO HOW WE ECOLOGISTS CLASSIFY
      RESOURCES. ILLUSTRATE WITH A GRAPH HOW HE CLASSIFIES ESSENTIAL
      RESOURCES. ON YOUR GRAPH PLACE THREE GROWTH ISOCLINES, LABELLED A, B
      AND C, THAT CORRESPOND TO WHERE dN/dt > 0, dN/dt = 0 AND dN/dt < 0,
      RESPECTIVELY.

     

   6. WHY ARE TRANSPIRATION AND CARBON UPTAKE LINKED?



   7. EXPLAIN WHAT IS MEANT BY THE LAW OF CONSTANT YIELD.



   8. UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS DO C4 PLANTS HAVE A LOWER QUANTUM YIELD THAN
      C3 PLANTS AND WHY?



III. Essay Question. Choose 1 (40 points)


   1. IN CLASS YOU LEARNED THAT NATURAL SELECTION IS ESSENTIALLY A
      DEMOGRAPHIC PROCESS, THAT TRADE-OFFS EXIST AND THEREFORE THERE ARE NO
      SUPER SPECIES, AND THAT CERTAIN COMBINATIONS OF CO-ADAPTED TRAITS ARE
      MORE COMMON THAN OTHERS.

      WEAVE THE ABOVE POINTS INTO AN ESSAY THAT LOGICALLY DEVELOPS THE
      REASONING BEHIND R AND K SELECTION THEORY AND ITS EXTENSION BY GRIME.

                           

   2. YOU HAVE OBSERVED A REPEATED PATTERN AT SEVERAL FIELD SITES THAT
      HAS LED YOU TO HYPOTHESIZE THAT SPECIES A IS BETTER AT ACQUIRING CARBON
      THAN SPECIES B, WHEREAS SPECIES B IS BETTER AT UTILIZING NITROGEN THAN
      SPECIES A AND THAT THIS EXPLAINS THERE COEXISTENCE IN
      THESE HABITATS. YOU HAVE DECIDED TO TEST YOUR HYPOTHESIS IN THE 
      CONTEXT OF TILMANS MECHANISTIC THEORY OF RESOURCE RATIOS.

      (Hint: you should show the made-up data that allowed you to estimate 
       the R* values for each species for each resource, and how these 
       values allowed you to define the region of coexistence).


      (a) DESCRIBE YOUR EXPERIMENT TO TEST YOUR HYPOTHESIS ....



      (b) PRESENT SOME MADE-UP DATA IN GRAPHICAL FORM THAT WOULD BE
          CONSISTENT WITH YOUR HYPOTHESIS.