Time allowed: 2 hours Answer ALL questions in Section A, ALL PARTS of the question in Section B and ONE question from Section C.

Transcription

1 UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA School of Biological Sciences Main Series UG Examination BEHAVIOURAL ECOLOGY BIO-5010B Time allowed: 2 hours Answer ALL questions in Section A, ALL PARTS of the question in Section B and ONE question from Section C. Write answers to EACH SECTION in the Answer Grid or SEPARATE booklet. The maximum number of marks available for your answers in SECTION A is 40 marks The maximum number of marks available for your answer in SECTION B is 30 marks The maximum number of marks available for your answer in SECTION C is 30 marks The TOTAL number of marks available for the paper is 100 Numbers in square brackets [ ] indicate the relevant mark applied to each part of the question. Notes are not permitted in this examination. Do not turn over until you are told to do so by the Invigilator. BIO-5010B Module Contact: S Yeates, BIO Copyright of the University of East Anglia Version 1

2 2 SECTION A: MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS Answer ALL questions. Answer multiple choice questions in the answer grid provided and attach this to your booklet for Section A. All multiple choice questions have only ONE answer. 1. Which of the following describes fitness? a) The number of eggs an animal lays b) The number of offspring an animal has over its lifetime that reach sexual maturity c) The amount of food an animal eats d) The total number of offspring an animal has over its lifetime e) Genetic diversity within a population 2. Identify which of the following is true: a Fixed Action Pattern is: a) stereotypical and innate b) achieved through learning c) constantly changing d) one that occurs in multiple bouts e) independent of nerve transmission 3. The first assumption of the optimal foraging theory is: a) optimal foraging results from natural selection b) natural selection selects foraging behaviour that maximises the size of the prey sought c) optimal foraging is genetically determined d) optimal foraging maximises the time spent foraging e) optimal foraging will only favour behaviour that maximises energy return 4. Identify which of these statements is correct. a) The evolution of anisogamy is explained through constructive selection b) The evolution of anisogamy is explained through inverse selection c) The evolution of anisogamy was explained by Ronald Fisher d) The evolution of anisogamy is explained through disruptive selection e) The evolution of anisogamy is explained through directional selection Section A continues on next page/...

3 3 Section A continued 5. Selection that favours altruism for the propagation of alleles in a family is called: a) reciprocal selection b) kin selection c) group selection d) familial selection e) none of the above 6. Identify which of these statements about ageing is true: a) rates of intrinsic mortality cause the evolution of rates of extrinsic mortality b) because intrinsic mortality determines extrinsic mortality, ageing occurs c) rates of extrinsic and intrinsic mortality are negatively correlated d) rates of extrinsic mortality correlate positively with rates of intrinsic mortality e) rates of intrinsic and extrinsic mortality are never correlated 7. Which of the following statements are true: a) group living increases the fitness of the individuals by decreasing the risk of predation and increasing feeding success b) group living reduces the time the group spends being vigilant due to lower predation risk c) group living increases the fitness of the individuals by increasing feeding success due to less time spent fighting d) group living decreases the risk of disease e) none of the above 8. If a statistical test of your data outputs a probability value of 0.25 (i.e. P=0.25), then which of the following statements is an accurate interpretation of that probability value? a) The effect is statistically significant b) The result is not due to chance c) The probability of the result being obtained if the null hypothesis is true is 2.5% d) The probability of the result being obtained if the null hypothesis is true is 25% e) The result is unrepeatable Section A continues on next page/... TURN OVER

4 4 Section A continued 9. Which sex should show mate choice? a) Always males b) Always females c) The sex having lower parental investment d) The sex having higher parental investment e) Neither sex 10. Which of the following statements is true? a) Animal mating patterns are uniform within a species b) Animal mating patterns evolve for the genetic quality of a species c) Animal mating patterns may be influenced by potential reproductive rate, parental care, and ecology d) Animal mating patterns stop species from co-adapting e) Animal mating patterns evolve for the genetic benefit of a population 11. Which of the following about territoriality is true? a) Territoriality always benefits the territorial individual b) Territories rarely contain any resources c) Territories guarantee mating success d) Territories frequently overlap in time or space e) None of the above are true 12. Which one of the following statistical tests would you use to test for differences between two datasets with a skewed distribution? a) Regression b) Mann Whitney U test c) T test d) Kolmogorov Smirnov test e) Logarithmic transformation Section A continues on next page/...

5 5 Section A continued Male bighorn sheep fight each other to determine which male will mate with females. They fight by charging each other, rearing up and clashing their horns together. The male with the bigger set of horns usually wins. From this description, you would expect male bighorn sheep to be affected by: a) adaptive radiation b) kin selection c) sexual selection d) reciprocal altruism e) all of the above 14. Why should female vertebrates be selected to exhibit mate choice based on the Major Histocompatibility Complex of their mates? a) Because outbreeding at the MHC can increase parasite loads b) Because heterosis benefits at the MHC will be inherited by their offspring c) Because the MHC is under disruptive selection d) Because MHC variation depends on offspring number e) Because MHC alleles are polymorphic 15. Which of the following offer a plausible explanation for the development of conflict between parents and their offspring? a) Because parental care is costly to future reproduction b) Because most semelparous parents are only 50% genetically related to their offspring c) Because most iteroparous parents must trade current parental investment against future reproduction d) Because most male parents have a reduced confidence of genetic parentage compared with females e) All of the above 16. Why do organisms senesce? a) Because the strength of evolutionary selection to remain alive decreases with age b) Because molecular damage from free radicals and glycation causes intrinsic ageing and death c) Because extrinsic risks of mortality are present throughout life d) Because maintaining life is costly e) All of the above Section A continues on next page/... TURN OVER

6 6 Section A continued In a Hawk-Dove game, the evolutionarily stable strategy is? a) Hawk b) Dove c) Hawk and Dove d) Dependent on rewards and costs of each strategy e) Bourgeois 18. What type of selection is most likely responsible for the large antlers seen on male deer? a) Territorial selection b) Intersexual selection c) Intrasexual selection d) Kin selection e) Group selection 19. Holden & Mace (2003) examined how agricultural transitions influenced changes in parental investment across 68 Bantu tribes in Africa. They analysed whether parents primarily left their wealth on death to daughters (matrilineal inheritance) or to sons (patrilineal inheritance). The study showed that the change from pastoral to livestock ownership was associated with: a) a switch from matrilineal to patrilineal inheritance b) a switch from patrilineal to matrilineal inheritance c) an increase in the level of matrilineal inheritance d) an increase in the level of patrilineal inheritance e) no changes in matrilineal or patrilineal inheritance 20. What does the Ideal Free Distribution describe in behavioural ecology? a) How species are distributed along a gradient according to energy flow b) How individuals are distributed in relation to resources c) How resources are distributed in relation to their patchiness d) How an ideal habitat is structured according to energy flow e) How patches are distributed in relation to their resource value END OF SECTION A START YOUR ANSWER TO THE NEXT SECTION IN A NEW BOOKLET Section B begins on next page/...

7 7 SECTION B: DATA HANDLING QUESTION Answer ALL PARTS of this question 21. In Gryllid crickets, males transfer a spermatophore to the female at mating, which then drains sperm into the female tract for spermathecal storage. This mode of insemination means that we can experimentally ensure that all sperm from a cricket mating enters the female. You conduct a study in which females are allocated matings with males of known relatedness. You assign blocks of four sibling females to one of four treatments, all of which involved one mating with each of two different males. The four treatments are as follows: 1) one mating to each of two of her brothers (SS); (2) one mating to each of two males which were brothers to one another but unrelated to the female (NN); (3) one mating to a brother followed by one mating to an unrelated male (SN); (4) one mating to an unrelated male followed by one mating to a brother (NS). For each treatment you allow matings by adding the first male to a pot containing a female. After mating you leave the male with the female for a further 45 min to prevent her from removing the spermatophore. An hour after her first mating you introduce the second male to the female and allow them to mate using the same protocol as for the first male. After mating, you transfer the female to a clean pot and provide her with food and fine wet sand for oviposition. You then count the number of eggs hatched daily until seven days after the last emergence. You measure the reproductive success of the females as the total number of offspring that hatched for each of the four treatments. You repeat this block of four treatments 20 times using different individuals in each block. The results from this experiment are presented in Figure 1 on the next page. Section B Q21 continues on next page/... TURN OVER

8 8 Section B Q21 continued... Figure 1. Mean and standard errors of proportion of eggs hatching for female field crickets mated either to two siblings, two non-siblings, a sibling followed by a non-sibling or a non-sibling followed by a sibling (a) Describe what the results on the graph tell you about hatching success for each of the four treatments. [5 marks] (b) How would you analyse the data displayed on the figure and what would you check before conducting this analysis? [3 marks] (c) From looking at the graph would you expect to find any significant differences between treatments? If so where do the differences lie? (d) During this experiment you controlled which male was mated first and second for each female. What other factors should be controlled? [5 marks] Section B Q21 continues on next page/...

9 9 Section B Q21 continued... (e) What do these results tell you about inbreeding depression in this population of crickets? [3 marks] (f) What does the figure tell you about inbreeding avoidance in this population of crickets? [5 marks] (g) Suggest mechanisms by which female may be biasing fertilisation of her eggs to sperm from specific males [5 marks] (h) What do the results of this study suggest to you about the benefits to females of polyandry END OF SECTION B START YOUR ANSWER TO THE NEXT SECTION IN A NEW BOOKLET Section C begins on next page/... TURN OVER

10 10 SECTION C: ESSAY QUESTION Answer ONE question [30 marks] 22. Explain how the ideal free and ideal despotic distributions can be used to predict how animals respond to competition for resources. Define the differences between these models and provide examples of where animals have been shown to conform to these theories. 23. From an evolutionary perspective, why do individuals senesce in the natural environment? Define what causes intrinsic mortality and explain how extrinsic mortality is linked to senescence. 24. Why are male and female reproductive optima subject to evolutionary conflict? Give research examples of the consequences of sexual conflict. END OF PAPER

11 UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA School of Biological Sciences Main Series UG Examination BEHAVIOURAL ECOLOGY BIO-5010B Registration Number SECTION A: Answer Grid (for Multiple Choice Questions only) Place a single cross in the appropriate box Question Marks Marks A B C D E No. given available

12 BIO-5010B Main EXAMINATION MARKERS [Do not print this when printing to take to Examinations Office! This is for our information only.] Question No. 1 st Marker 2 nd Marker Section A Q1-20 Dr Sarah Yeates Prof A Bourke Section B Q21 Dr Sarah Yeates Prof A Bourke Section C Q22 Dr Sarah Yeates Prof A Bourke Section C Q23 Dr Sarah Yeates Prof A Bourke Section C Q24 Dr Sarah Yeates Prof A Bourke