Two Important Marine Food Webs Off the West Coast of North

question 108

Multiple Choice

Two important marine food webs off the west coast of North America are the phytoplankton  zooplankton  fish web and the kelp  sea urchin  sea otter web.How do these two food webs compare in terms of the primary control of energy flow?

• A) Both have primarily bottom-up control; they are controlled by phytoplankton and kelp, respectively.
• B) Both have primarily top-down control; they are controlled by fish and sea otters, respectively.
• C) The first has primarily bottom-up control by phytoplankton; the second has primarily top-down control by sea otters.
• D) The first has primarily top-down control by fish; the second has primarily bottom-up control by kelp.
• E) Both food webs vary so much in resource availability that it is impossible to determine primary control.

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Definitions:

Binomial Random Variable

A type of random variable that takes on a fixed number of trials, each with two possible outcomes.

Normal Curve

A symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data where most occurrences take place around the mean.

Continuity Correction

An adjustment made when approximating a discrete distribution with a continuous one, often applied in binomial and poisson distributions.

Binomial Distribution

A probability distribution that describes the number of successes in a fixed number of independent experiments, each with the same probability of success.