Reference no: EM132479196

1)Bison roamed free in an area along the eastern slopes of the Rockies, in what is now Banff National Park, for thousands of years before being wiped out by hunting in the mid-1800s. Elk Island National Park, located 35 km east of Edmonton has been an important refuge for bison, amongst many other species of animals. In January 2017, 16 bison, which were raised in Elk Island National Park, were moved to Banff National Park. They were contained in a paddock initially, but then the animals were released into a partially fenced area, about 425 km2 in size, in the backcountry. There is hope the animals will eventually be free roaming.

a. Give three reasons why the population of bison in Banff National Park might NOT be in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.

b.What situation might populations in game reserves or national parks exhibit Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium?

2)Cystic fibrosis is an autosomal recessive disorder that affects 1 in 3 000 newborns with Caucasian background. It causes thick mucus build-up in various organs and can cause damages and problems in respiratory and digestive systems.

a.What is the frequency of the cystic fibrosis allele in the Caucasian population?

b.What percentage of the Caucasian population would be carriers for cystic fibrosis?

c.If two individuals are carriers of the cystic fibrosis allele, what is the probability that they would have a girl without cystic fibrosis?

3)The agouti gene determines coat colour in mice. Heterozygous mice have yellow coats, while homozygous dominant mice have black coats. However, having two copies of the recessive alleles is lethal. In a population of 2000 mice,1082 mice have black coats.

a.What is the frequency of each allele?

b.What percentage of the mouse population is expected to be carriers of the lethal allele?

c.How many mice will die during fetal development?

5.In the Rocky Mountains, valley bottoms provide a high quality wildlife habitat and offer a way for wildlife to move through the mountain environment. However, valleys are also important to humans, as most human activity in the Rockies is confined to the valley bottoms. This results in competition for space between wildlife and humans, which poses a significant problem for both. A wildlife corridor is an area of habitat that connects wildlife populations that are separated by human activities or structures such as roads or development. How do wildlife corridors increase gene flow and maintain diversity in populations?

6)Zebra mussel population growth in the Great Lakes is a growing concern. Zebra mussels are not native to North America, and due to their ability to rapidly multiply, they have been depleting the food sources for many of the native fish species in the Great Lakes. They are also associated with causing toxic algal blooms, preventing sunlight and oxygen access to many plants and fish life in the lakes.

Three years ago, a 5 km3 section of the Great Lakes was studied and approximately 89 000 zebra mussel colonies were found. Each colony produced 120 colonies over a three-year period. However, only 2% of the new colonies survived past the first year. Over the three years, there were 97 000 dead colonies that were washed ashore in the Great Lakes. Many of the zebra mussels attach themselves to hard surfaces, such as boats and trailers. It was estimated that approximately85 000 colonies attached themselves to boats and left the area. Many of these zebra mussels died, but some managed to hitchhike on boat equipment and enter other waterbodies. Negligible numbers of zebra mussels migrated from other lakes.

a.WHat is the change in population size?

b.What is the population growth rate?

c.What is the per capita growth rate over the three year period?

d.What is the population density at the end of the third year?

7) In Kenya, the Sheldrick Elephant orphanage takes care of elephants that have lost their herd as a result of poaching. In 2012, the orphanage had a population size of 387 elephants. Over the next two years, they had 18 pregnant cows birth successfully. Three cows were lost due to complications with their pregnancies. They lost 14 more from sickness. They found 57 elephants that required care and were able to release 12 into the wild. All of the elephants are kept in a 225 m 175 m rectangular park.

a. What is the population growth?

b. WHat is the Growth rate?

c. What is the Per capita growth rate?

d. What is the Population density at

-beginning of the year?

-end of 2 years?

8) Compare and contrast density-dependent factors and density-independent factors. Include the following:

-the size of population affected

-if it is biotic or abiotic

-a minimum of three examples of each of the factors

9)Two general types of life strategies allow species to thrive in varying types of environment: r-selected strategy andK-selected strategy. Given the following biomes, identify the life strategy that would be more successful in surviving the environmental conditions and explain.

a. A tropical rainforest

b. Taiga

11)Giraffes are herbivores found in Africa. They prefer to eat twigs and leaves from acacia trees. This type of producer-consumer relationship can be described as a predator-prey relationship or parasitism.

Explain

a. How the interaction between giraffe and acacia tree can be a predator-prey relationship ?

b. what instance the giraffe-acacia tree relationship would be parasitic?