Dear Colleagues, This is a head's up for those about to give examinations related to ecology. Several ecology faculty here at OSU have simultaneously (at 3:00 AM on Sunday) received the following message. It arrived via an aol address. The name has been removed from the text below, but it does not match any students enrolled at OSU. It is hard to imagine that this is a particular request for a student who is 'just interested in the topic'. On the chance that the message has originated from someone who has happened upon an advanced copy of an examination, I thought it would be prudent to send this to the list in case the author of the examination is an ecolog-l subscriber. --Mike _______________________________________________________________________________
My name is **** and I am a sophomore at OK State. The school website must be down because the email server isn’t working. I found a peculiar genetics question / scenario that I was of interest. Based off your research and professional interests I was hoping you could shed light on two of these questions I have. My first question is: lets say there are two widely separated ponds that each have a population of a species of sunfish in them. Assuming I obtained demographic data on these two populations that showed that there are differences in the sunfish life histories between the two populations. I need to develop a scenario in which differences in a particular biotic factor between the two observed populations might lead to these two populations evolving differences in their life histories, despite being the same species?? Its kind of a tongue twister and I am having trouble. My second questions theoretical question that I am not to sure on my answer. I have to simulate an environment where I create an artificial pond in your backyard that’s looks as natural as possible and self-sustaining, just as a pond might be in nature. I stick a few males and females (when sexes are separate) of several aquatic plant and animal species, including invertebrates and vertebrates. I do not artificially provide any outside sources of food or nutrients. A.) I have to explain why the population of each species in my pond could expect to initially grow exponentially. (B) Then I have to explain why each population could be expected to grow exponentially only for a short period in nature? If you could please lead me in the right direction and explain to me the steps as to how this happens, I would really appreciate it, thanks!
