Biology Test Preparation Practice

    Change Of Distribution Of Traits In A Population By Change Of Conditions

    NGSS: HS-LS4-3

    Base your answers to questions 1 on the graph below and on your knowledge of biology. The graph shows the masses of different types of plants found in an area of the Adirondack Mountains after a forest fire occurred.

    ecology, succession, change of ecosystems over time fig: lenv62016-examw_g9.png

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    Base your answers to questions 8 on the diagrams below and on your knowledge of biology. The diagrams represent how various populations interact in a forest environment.

    ecology, organization of ecosystems  fig: lenv12013-exam_g26.png

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    Base your answers to questions 9 on the information below and on your knowledge of biology.

    Found: A Plant-Eating Spider

    Spiders are meat-eaters. Until recently, scientists thought that was true for the roughly 40,000 spider species in the world. Now, researchers have discovered a spider that eats mostly plants.

    Bagheera kiplingi, a jumping spider, lives in Central America and Mexico. It nests in the leaves of acacia shrubs. Scientists have long known that ants live in these plants. The ants eat the plants’ little yellow vegetables. But scientists had no idea that the spiders eat the vegetables too.

    Christopher Meehan was a college student when he found the plant nibbling spiders. “I thought I was hallucinating,” he told TFK (Time for Kids). “But by the end of the day, I had seen about 100 more spiders eating plants.”

    Source: Time for Kids World Report,

    Edition 10/23/09 Vol. 15, #7 p.3

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    Base your answers to questions 10 on the information below and on your knowledge of biology.

    Hydrothermal Vent Communities

    Scientists discovered a unique hydrothermal ecosystem on the sea floor at hot-water vents thousands of feet below the ocean surface. Organisms in these deep-sea regions have no access to sunlight, so they depend on the heat, methane, and high levels of sulfur-bearing minerals found in the heated fluids in which they live. Scientists were amazed to discover vent communities able to sustain vast amounts of life. The vent organisms depend on bacteria that can use the sulfur-bearing minerals to produce organic materials. These bacteria live on rock surfaces and as free-floating blobs. Some bacteria live within and provide nutrients for an unusual species of giant tubeworms that lacks a digestive system. Snails, shrimp, and clams are among the animals that feed directly on the bacteria. Crabs feed directly on other animals in the vent community.

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    Base your answers to questions 12 on the information and data table below and on your knowledge of biology.

    Daphnia (water fleas) are sensitive to many changes in pond ecosystems. For this reason they are often used in bioassays, tests in which organisms are exposed to various levels of a chemical to determine what levels are safe. The results of these tests determine whether or not the chemical being tested will affect other pond organisms.

    An experiment was designed to determine the toxicity of different salt solutions on cultures of daphnia. Five fish tanks were each filled with the same amount of water containing different concentrations of salt. Ten daphnia were placed into each tank. After 48 hours, the number of daphnia that had survived and the number of daphnia that had died in each tank were recorded and the percent mortality was calculated. The results of the experiment are shown in the data table below.

    scientific inquiry, data organization, plot and interpretation fig: lenv62012-exam_w_g19.png

    Directions: Using the information in the data table, construct a line graph on the grid on the next page, following the directions below.

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    Base your answers to questions 13 on the information and data table below and on your knowledge of biology.

    The data table summarizes the changes that occurred to farmland in the years immediately following its abandonment. The land is located in a very stable ecosystem. It was abandoned after years of overuse and weathering, which resulted in the depletion of soil nutrients.

    ecology, organization of ecosystems  fig: lenv62015-examw_g28.png

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    Base your answers to questions 14 on the information below and on your knowledge of biology.

    Nature Will Have to Clean Up Hawaii Molasses Leak That Killed Thousands of Fish

    A massive spill of thick molasses has turned Honolulu Harbor into a watery wasteland where thousands of fish have been suffocated – a disaster that officials say Mother Nature will have to clean up.

    “There’s nothing alive there at all,” diver Roger White told NBC affiliate KHNL after making a seven-minute video of dead sea life blanketing the bottom of the harbor.…

    …“Unlike with an oil spill, it’s a sugar product so it will dissipate on its own,” Matson spokesman Jeff Hull told NBC News on Thursday. “There’s not an active cleanup.”

    “The molasses is not toxic but it’s heavier than water so it’s spreading around on the sea floor, displacing the oxygen-rich water down there, and the fish are suffocating,” said Keith Korsmeyer, a professor of biology at Hawaii Pacific University.

    The die-off also could lure predators like sharks, barracuda and eels to the harbor and neighboring Keehi Lagoon, experts warned.…

    …Korsmeyer said marine life would probably repopulate the harbor, after the low- oxygen water moves out, but that could take months or even years.…

    Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/other/nature-will-have-clean-

    hawaii-molasses-leak-killed-thousands-fish-f8C11137030

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    Base your answers to questions 15 on the information below and on your knowledge of biology. The diagram represents an ecological process that occurs in New York State over a long period of time.

    ecology, succession, change of ecosystems over time fig: lenv62019-examw_g26.png

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