1. Lithops, also called Stoneplants, are a type of plant that resembles little stones. These plants have the ability to blend in with their surroundings, which affords them protection from predators. If you were in an area containing Lithops, describe four characteristics you could identify to distinguish these plants from the stones they mimic. What are the four characteristics of a living organism?
2. A population of grasshoppers in the Kansas prairie has two color phenotypes, green and brown. Typically, the prairie receives adequate water to maintain healthy, green grass. Assume a bird that eats grasshoppers moves into the prairie. How will this affect natural selection of the grasshoppers? How might this change in a drought year?
3. List two environmental problems that you feel are the most urgent worldwide. Describe each of these problems. Which areas worldwide are suffering the most from these problems?
4. Describe how environmental change and natural selection combine to shape a population's range of traits, and explain how these patterns influence the direction for evolution.
5. In your own words describe an experiment that would demonstrate biomagnification of a substance through trophic levels of an ecological system.