Which statement about dispersal is false?

(A) Dispersal is a common component of the life cycles of plants and animals.

(B) Colonization of devastated areas after floods or volcanic depends on dispersal.

(C) Dispersal occurs only on an evolutionary time scale.

(D) The ability to disperse can expand the geographic distribution of a species.

Short Answer

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  1. The statement “Dispersal is a common component of the life cycles of plants and animals” is false.
  2. The statement “Colonization of devastated areas after floods or volcanic eruptions depends on dispersal” is false.
  3. The statement “Dispersal occurs only on an evolutionary timescale” is true.
  4. The statement “The ability to disperse can expand the geographic distribution of a species”is false.

Step by step solution

01

Dispersal

Dispersal is the ecological process that determines the individuals moving from their birth location to a new place due to inbreeding avoidance and k in competition avoidance.

02

Explanation of option ‘(A)’

Factors affecting the dispersal of living organisms are soil structure and inorganic nutrients. Various methods of seed dispersal in plants are wind, gravity, explosion, and water.

Thus, plants use methods of dispersal (seed disperses away from their parent plant), and in animals, dispersal happens during sexual maturity.

Therefore, the given statement is false.

03

Explanation of option ‘(B)’

A natural disaster is amajor adverse event like flood or volcanic eruption that occurs due to air pressure, tectonic movements, and soil erosion causing massive population migration.

Thus, living organisms colonize the area in which the original species was killed or moved during a flood or volcanic eruption.

Therefore, the given statement is false.

04

Explanation of option ‘(C)’ 

The term evolutionary timescale represents the small changes that occurred due to evolution through natural selection.

Thus, dispersal does not occur in a long evolutionary time scale that determines change over time.

Therefore, the given statement is true.

05

Explanation of option ‘(D)’

In biogeography, species distribution is the complex expression that focuses on the arrangement of the group of one or more populations to map their habitat.

Thus, dispersal occurs when species occupy or distributed over an area.

Therefore, the given statement is false.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

(a) In the field, S. patens is typically absent from freshwater marshes. Based on the data, does this appear to be due to salinity or competition? Explain your answer. (b) T. angustifolia does not grow in salt marshes. Does this appear to be due to salinity or competition? Explain your answer.

If the direction of Earth’s rotation reversed, the most predictable effect would be

(A) a big change in the length of the year.

(B) winds blowing from west to east along the equator.

(C) a loss of seasonal variation at high latitudes.

(D) the elimination of ocean currents.

Which statement about dispersal is false?

(A) Dispersal is a common component of the life cycles of plants and animals.

(B) Colonization of devastated areas after floods or volcanic depends on dispersal.

(C) Dispersal occurs only on an evolutionary time scale.

(D) The ability to disperse can expand the geographic distribution of a species.

Jens Clausen and colleagues, at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, studied how the size of yarrow plants (Achillea lanulosa) growing on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada varied with elevation. They found that plants from low elevations were generally taller than plants from high elevations, as shown in the diagram. Clausen and colleagues proposed two hypotheses to explain this variation within a species: (1) There are genetic differences between populations of plants found at different elevations. (2) The species has developmental flexibility and can assume tall or short growth forms, depending on local abiotic factors. If you had seeds from yarrow plants found at low and high elevations, how would you test these hypotheses?

Which of the following is characteristic of most terrestrial biomes?

(A) a distribution predicted almost entirely by rock and soil patterns

(B) clear boundaries between adjacent biomes

(C) vegetation demonstrating vertical layering

(D) cold winter months

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