Monday, October 3, 2011

Primer on Ecology Test (25 items, true or false)

Dr Abe V Rotor and Ms Melly C Tenorio
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid DZRB 738 KHZ AM, 8 to 9 pm, Monday to Friday

1. Deserts are extremely dry, hot – Gobi desert, Sahara, Australian desert, North American desert.

2. Because of the harsh condition of a desert , there is no culture that lives permanent in it – except Kalahari in Southern Africa,the setting of the film, The God’s Must be Crazy.

3. The smallest ecosystem is a pond, which may be compared to a small lake. It contains has the structural and functional organization of an ecosystem.

4. Forests in America and Europe – temperate deciduous forests, and our forests in the tropics – tropical rainforest, have one thing in common. They are multi-storied, often reaching five stories or layers.

5. Taiga or evergreen forests are widespread both on the northern as well as on the southern hemisphere.

6. The largest biome in the world is the ocean; it has also the most number and kind of ecosystems.

7. The new breed of heroes today are those who protect the environment, in the likes of Rachel Carson (Silent Spring), Henry David Thoreau (philosopher) and our own Chin Chin Gutierrez and Von Hernandez both recognized and featured by Time.

8. There is no such thing as free lunch in ecology. What you get you pay. Thus for every ton of grain you harvest, you must put back to the soil the equivalence of soil nutrients like N, P, K, replacement of water and other inputs notwithstanding.

9. The sun is the prime mover of the earth’s phenomena such as wind and ocean currents, including tornadoes, typhoons, precipitation, drought, flood, due to differential heating of the surface of the earth.

10. The energy we get from eating rice actually comes from the heat of the sun – thus it generates body heat.

11. Organisms in the depth of the ocean obtain their energy from volcanic vents spewing sulfur compounds. Sulfur bacteria manufacturer food by means of chemosynthesis, the counterpart of photosynthesis by plants.

12. Algae or lumot, seaweeds included like lato and gulaman, are classified as plants (Sub-kingdom Plantae because they contain chlorophyll, thus they can manufacture food from the sun.

13. Fungi such as mushrooms, yeasts, molds, Penncilium and even those that cause diseases constitute a separate sub-kingdom - Mycophyta.

14. Evolution can be traced from the phylogenetic tree – meaning, the positions of the different sub-kingdoms in the form of a chart – the bottom are primitive/ancient becoming more complex and modern towards the top of the chart.

15. There is no living thing that has of no use at all. Each has a role to plant in the biosphere, whether this be good or bad in our own judgment.

16. A single process in nature can produce two or more products. Fermentation of sugar leads to production of ethanol and acetic acid. Decomposition of organic matter produces fuel gas (methane) and organic fertilizer.

17. In Photosynthesis what is most important is the sugar that is p[produced. Never mind the secondary product. That is of minor value and consequence.

18. Economic development must be holistic, that is the ecology of the place must be preserved, protecting all parts of the ecosystem – watershed, waterways, the land and soil, etc.

19. In biology, there are two kinds of metabolism constructive and destructive. Keep the two in balance for good health and shape.

20. The virus is not considered a living organism because it lacks the criteria of life. It can’t carry on the basic life processes.

21. Archeobacteria and Cyanobacteria are the same – they are either saprophytic or pathogenic. (F)

22. Spanish flu pandemic killed 100 million people in 1918 to early 1920s, killing 1 out of 6 people on earth. The average age in the US was reduced to 12 years old.

23. Influenza kills both young and old, but more senior citizens succumb to the epidemic.

24. Reverence of life the number one rule – and value – that we should practice in ecology. Like people, we cannot protect living things unless we love them. We cannot protect creation with out loving it. It is the highest form of prayer to the Almighty.

25. Ecology comes from the Greek word Oikos meaning house. Our planet Earth is our house, it is our spaceship – and the only one. Fortunately everything is free – water air space – we tend to forget that our only role is good housekeeping.

x x x
False - 1, 4, 5, 10, 12, 17, 21, & 23; the other items are True

ANSWERS:
Rating:
24-25 Excellent
22-23 Very Good
19-21 Good
16-18 Fair
13-15 Passed

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Test Global Warming ANSWERS:1F (competition with food and nutrition),1T, 2F, 3T, 4T, 5F, 6T, 7T, 8F, 9T, 10F (one-fourth, 11T, 12T, 13T, 14T, 15T, 16T - 1.90. Of the total freshwater (2 %), glacier and ice make up 78.19 %, 20.58 %groundwater, and 0.82% rivers and lakes, soil 0.41%; 17F, 18F, 19F (There are doubting Thomases.), 20T, 21F (It's a concern of every citizen of the world.), 22F(Penguins are found at the Antarctic), 23T(We have yet to perfect the technology; ethanol from sugarcane is more efficient.), 24T(Pesticides killed the birds that herald spring.), 25T.

RATING
24 – 25 outstanding
20 – 23 very good
16 – 19 good
12 – 15 pass
Below 11 - Listen more to Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid and research.




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