Humans exert top-down pressures on white-tail deer.

Question

Answer the following statement true (T) or false (F)

Answer 1

True

Clarify Question


• What is the key concept addressed by the question?
     o This question addresses bottom-up and top-down control.
• What type of thinking is required?
     o This question is asking you to take what you already know and apply it to this unfamiliar situation.


Gather Content


• What do you already know about bottom-up and top-down control?
     o Organisms in an ecological web can influence other in multiple ways.
     o Some ecologists stress the importance of so-called bottom-up factors, such as plant quality and abundance in controlling herbivores and the predators that feed on them. Others stress the importance of top-down factors, such as predators and parasites, acting to control herbivore or plant prey.
     o Bottom-up control suggests that food can limit population densities. Top-down control suggests that predators and parasites can limit population densities of those they prey upon.


Choose Answer


• Given what you now know, what information and/or problem-solving approach is most likely to produce the correct answer?
     o Do humans exert top-down control on white-tail deer? Yes, because we are now their major predator, through hunting.


Reflect on Process


• Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
     o The question required you to take what you already know and apply it to this unfamiliar situation.
     o Did you recognize that top-down control refers to limitations on a population due to predation or parasites?
     o Is there any way in which humans could be said to also exert bottom-up control on deer populations?