Environmental Systems and

Societies

IB1 Exam

Please read this page, but do not open your booklet until your teacher tells you to start. Write your

name in the spaces below.

First name______________________________________

Last name______________________________________

Remember

The test is 1 ½ hours long.

There are 3 sections to the exam:-

Section A – Multiple Choice – answer all questions

Section B – Longer questions – answer all questions

Section C – Essay style question – choose only one question from this

section

Answer all questions on the writing paper provided

Check your work carefully.

Ask your teacher if you are not sure what to do.

There are 11 pages and 1 blank page

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Section A – Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following could be described as an isolated system?

A. The entire universe

B. The planet Earth

C. The biosphere

D. A remote island

2. Which statement describes the result of the first law of thermodynamics?

A. The amount of energy available to do useful work in a system decreases over time.

B. Doing work always creates heat.

C. Total energy input is always equal to total energy output.

D. Energy cannot be recycled.

The diagram below refers to question 3 and question 4. It represents a terrestrial food web

in the deserts of the south-west USA.

3. Which statement is a correct description of the Hognose snake?

A. It is a tertiary consumer only.

B. It is a quaternary consumer only.

C. It is a tertiary and quaternary consumer.

D. It is the top carnivore.

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4. Which of the following organisms named below is part of the trophic level which makes

most efficient use of energy input for that food chain?

A. Garter snake

B. Sparrow

C Rabbit

D. Hognose snake

5. In a European forest, oak tree leaves are eaten by small caterpillars, which are eaten by

small birds (Bluetit), that then are eaten by larger birds (Sparrowhawk).

Which of the following pairs of pyramids are most likely to represent this food chain?

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6. Toxins such as heavy metals are more likely to kill top predators than organisms lower in the

food chain. Which is the best explanation of this effect?

A. Herbivores rapidly excrete heavy metals.

B. Top predators often eat dead animals which may have been poisoned.

C. The digestive system of top predators allows toxins to enter their bloodstream

more readily.

D. Non-biodegradable toxins become more concentrated as they move up the food

chain.

7. Which list shows the major biomes of the world in the correct order of increasing latitude?

A. Hot desert, tropical rainforest, tundra, temperate forest

B. Tropical rainforest, hot desert, temperate forest, tundra

C. Tropical rainforest, temperate forest, hot desert, tundra

D. Tropical rainforest, hot desert, tundra, temperate forest

8. The diagram below represents a balanced model ecosystem.

Which of the following would have to be supplied, from the outside, to enable the aquarium

to act as a model for an ecosystem?

I. Light

II. Carbon dioxide

III. Minerals

IV. Oxygen

A. I only

B. II and IV only

C. I, II and III only

D. I, II, III and IV

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9. The biomass assimilated by heterotrophic organisms measured in units of mass per unit area

per unit time is

A. gross primary productivity.

B. net primary productivity.

C. carrying capacity.

D. gross secondary productivity.

10. Which of the following statements is correct?

A. A community is a collection of ecosystems sharing similar climatic conditions.

B. A species is a group of organisms of the same population living in the same area at

the same time.

C. Two species of a community may share the same habitat but not the same niche.

D. A population may include two different species living in the same community.

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Section B – Longer answers

11. The graph below shows the density of creosote bushes (Larrea tridentata) plotted

against rainfall in the Mojave Desert in California.

Describe and explain the trend shown in the graph. [4 marks]

Summer 2009 paper2 question 3

12. a) Name and briefly describe an ecosystem that you have studied. [1]

b) Name three abiotic factors that are important in this ecosystem. [1]

c) For one of these abiotic factors explain how it may affect the abundance of a

named organism that is found in the ecosystem. [2]

d) Explain how a named biotic factor other than human activity might affect the

abundance of the organism named in 12 (c). [2]

Summer 2009 paper2 question 5

Page | 7

13. This table gives a list of energy sources used to generate electricity and their cost per

kilowatt hour.

a) Identify the two energy sources with the average lowest cost in Figure 1, and state one

advantage and one disadvantage of each. [3]

b) Outline two reasons why a country may not use the cheapest energy source to produce

electricity. [2]

c) Suggest two reasons why it is so difficult to persuade people to reduce the amount of

energy that they use. [2]

d) Describe how the second law of thermodynamics applies to environmental systems. [1]

Ecosystems summer 2009 paper 1 question 1

14. The following two figures show a rocky seashore and the distribution of four species of

animal on the seashore. Mean high water mark represents a high tide and mean low water

mark a low tide. The abundance of each species is shown by the thickness of the bars.

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a) Identify one abiotic (physical) factor which changes from mean low water mark to mean

high water mark.[1]

b) Mussels are permanently attached to a rock and feed by filtering small particles of food

out of sea water. Suggest one reason why they are only found in the intertidal zone. [1]

c) Distinguish between the terms herbivory and predation. [2]

d) List the following terms in increasing order of size. [1]

Biome, Ecosystem, Biosphere, Habitat

Ecosystems summer 2009 paper 1 question 2

15. The graph below shows changes in the sea level on the island of Oahu in the

Hawaiian Islands, Pacific Ocean, over the last century. Zero represents the mean sea level

in 1950.

Page | 9

a) Describe and discuss possible explanations for the shape of the curve in the graph. [6]

b) Identify the years in which the lowest and highest levels were recorded. [1]

c) Describe processes that might be involved in the transfer of phosphorus from the water

of the ocean surrounding a remote island to the soil of that island. [3]

d) State whether a remote oceanic island is an open, closed or isolated system. Explain

your answer. [1]

Summer 2008 paper 2 question 1

16. a) Name and briefly describe an ecosystem which you have studied.

b) Name an organism from each of the following trophic levels found in this ecosystem.

Producer, Herbivore, Carnivore, Decomposer

[2]

c) Choose one of the organisms named above, and explain how a named abiotic factor

and a named biotic factor might influence the abundance of that organism. [4]

Summer 2008 paper 2 question 2

17. The table below gives the mean dry weight biomass for the primary producers in

certain ecosystems.

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a) Define the term dry weight biomass. [1]

b) For one of the ecosystems listed above, describe and evaluate a method for

obtaining such dry weight biomass data. [4]

c) Name one abiotic factor important in the ecosystem you have selected, and describe

how you would study its variation over time. [3]

d) The sketch below shows four types of termite found in Australia. (Termites are

burrowing, colonial insects.)

List three characteristics displayed by the organisms illustrated above that might be used

to construct a key to assist in identifying termites from the same part of Australia. [3]

Summer 2007 Paper 3 Question A1.

Page | 11

Section C Answer ONE question from this section

18. a) Distinguish between pyramids of numbers and pyramids of biomass, and

outline two consequences of pyramid structure in ecosystems. [4]

b) Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages to ecosystems and societies of banning

the pesticide DDT. [6]

c) With reference to examples other than pesticide use, describe the ways in which

farmers can improve the productivity of their soil, and discuss how the strategies adopted

may differ between technocentric and ecocentric farmers. [8]

Expression of ideas [2]

Summer 2009 paper 2 question 4

19. a) Describe the requirements for photosynthesis to occur, stating the inputs and

outputs of the process. [5]

b) Describe what is meant by gross primary productivity and explain how this differs

from net primary productivity. [4]

c) Construct a flow diagram to show the movement of energy through an ecosystem

with at least three trophic levels. Label all flows and storages. [8]

Expression of ideas [3]

Summer 2008 paper 2 question 7

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