Organisms and Populations: MCQ Test

1. Which of the following is identified as a unifying principle in biology that provides a holistic perspective?

• Genetics
• Molecular Biology
• Ecology
• Biochemistry

2. Ecology is primarily concerned with which four levels of biological organisation?

• Macromolecules, cells, tissues, organs
• Organisms, populations, communities, biomes
• Classical, modern, botany, zoology
• Physico-chemical factors, other species, environment, diversity

3. Who is revered as the Father of Ecology in India?

• M.S. Swaminathan
• Ramdeo Misra
• Birbal Sahni
• S.P. Raychaudhuri

4. Ramdeo Misra established teaching and research in ecology at which institution?

• Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Delhi
• University of Calcutta
• Department of Botany of the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
• Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru

5. Which of the following governmental bodies were established following the efforts of Ramdeo Misra?

• Department of Science and Technology (DST)
• National Committee for Environmental Planning and Coordination (1972) and Ministry of Environment and Forests (1984)
• Geological Survey of India (GSI)
• National Biodiversity Authority (NBA)

6. When we ask 'How does the bird sing?', what type of question are we seeking the answer to in the context of biological organisation?

• Significance-type question
• Mechanism-type question
• Evolutionary-type question
• Ecological-type question

7. What defines a population for the purpose of ecological studies?

• Any group of individuals living together
• Isolated, single individuals of a species
• A group of individuals of the same species in a well-defined geographical area, sharing or competing for similar resources, potentially interbreeding
• All living organisms in a particular biome

8. At which level of biological organisation does natural selection operate to evolve desired traits?

• Individual organism level
• Tissue level
• Population level
• Community level

9. Which of the following is an attribute unique to a population, not an individual organism?

• Births
• Deaths
• Age
• Sex ratio

10. If 4 individuals in a laboratory population of 40 fruitflies died during a specified time interval of one week, what is the death rate in the population during that period?

• 4
• 40
• 0.1 individuals per fruitfly per week
• 0.4 individuals per fruitfly per week

11. What does the shape of an age pyramid reflect for a human population?

• The average lifespan of individuals
• The genetic diversity within the population
• The growth status of the population (growing, stable, or declining)
• The migratory patterns of the population

12. When measuring the population density of a single huge banyan tree with a large canopy versus 200 carrot grass plants in an area, what is a more meaningful measure than total number?

• Number of leaves
• Percentage cover or biomass
• Number of fruits produced
• The height of the plants

13. The tiger census in national parks and tiger reserves often relies on which indirect measures for population size estimation?

• Direct capture and counting
• Satellite imagery analysis
• Pug marks and fecal pellets
• Aerial surveys

14. Which two basic processes contribute to an increase in population density?

• Mortality and Emigration
• Natality and Mortality
• Natality and Immigration
• Immigration and Emigration

15. In the population growth equation N(t+1) = N(t) + [(B + I) – (D + E)], what does 'r' represent in the exponential growth equation dN/dt = rN?

• Resource availability
• Rate of reproduction
• Intrinsic rate of natural increase
• Environmental resistance

16. When resources in a habitat are unlimited, what type of growth pattern does a population exhibit?

• Logistic growth
• Linear growth
• Exponential or geometric growth
• Declining growth

17. The exponential growth of a population, when plotted as N in relation to time, results in what curve shape?

• S-shaped curve
• Bell-shaped curve
• J-shaped curve
• Sigmoid curve

18. What is the term for the maximum possible number of individuals a given habitat can support with its finite resources?

• Biotic potential
• Growth limit
• Carrying capacity (K)
• Population ceiling

19. Which type of population growth model is considered more realistic because resources for growth for most animal populations are finite and become limiting?

• Exponential growth model
• Linear growth model
• Verhulst-Pearl Logistic Growth model
• Unlimited growth model

20. Organisms evolve to maximise their reproductive fitness, which is also known as:

• Ecological amplitude
• Darwinian fitness
• Genetic bottleneck
• Metabolic rate