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Date November 2017 Marks available 2 Reference code 17N.3.HL.TZ0.15
Level Higher level Paper Paper 3 Time zone TZ0 / no time zone
Command term Suggest Question number 15 Adapted from N/A

Question

Wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) once inhabited most forested areas of North America. As an important food source for early European settlers, the population of M. gallopavo seriously decreased. Due to recent conservation efforts, population numbers are increasing.

[Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_wild_turkey_in_Middleboro,_Massachusetts.jpg]

The curve shows a population of M. gallopavo from 2000 to 2015 in Ohio in the mid-western USA.

State the range of years when exponential growth of the M. gallopavo population occurred.

[1]
a.i.

Suggest factors that could account for the growth curve of the M. gallopavo population.

[2]
a.ii.

State how the population of M. gallopavo may have been determined.

[1]
b.

Hunting of M. gallopavo is currently regulated. Predict what would happen if the hunting regulations were removed.

[2]
c.

Markscheme

2000–2008

a.i.

a. natality AND mortality

b. immigration AND emigration

c. resources/abiotic conditions/carrying capacity

d. predation/hunting

[Max 2 Marks]

a.ii.

capture–mark–release–recapture/Lincoln/Peterson method

b.

a. population would decrease/may become extinct

b. open realized niche for other organisms

    OWTTE

c. food web may change

d. less intraspecific competition

[Max 2 Marks]

c.

Examiners report

[N/A]
a.i.
[N/A]
a.ii.
[N/A]
b.
[N/A]
c.

Syllabus sections

Option C: Ecology and conservation » Option C: Ecology and conservation (Additional higher level topics) » C.5 Population ecology
Option C: Ecology and conservation » Option C: Ecology and conservation (Additional higher level topics)
Option C: Ecology and conservation

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