Question

Which statement about dispersal is false?

(A) Dispersal is a common component of the life cycles of plants and animals.

(B) Colonization of devastated areas after floods or volcanic depends on dispersal.

(C) Dispersal occurs only on an evolutionary time scale.

(D) The ability to disperse can expand the geographic distribution of a species.

Short answer

(A) The statement “Dispersal is a common component of the life cycles of plants and animals” is false.

(B) The statement “Colonization of devastated areas after floods or volcanic eruptions depends on dispersal” is false.

(C) The statement “Dispersal occurs only on an evolutionary time scale” is true.

(D) The statement “The ability to disperse can expand the geographic distribution of a species” is false.

Step-by-step solution

Dispersal

Dispersal is the ecological process that determines the individuals moving from their birth location to a new place due to inbreeding avoidance and kin competition avoidance.

Explanation of option ‘(A)’

Factors affecting the dispersal of living organisms are soil structure and inorganic nutrients. Various methods of seed dispersal in plants are wind, gravity, explosion, and water.

Thus, plants use methods of dispersal (seed disperses away from their parent plant), and in animals, dispersal happens during sexual maturity.

Therefore, the given statement is false.

Explanation of option ‘(B)’

A natural disaster is a major adverse event like flood or volcanic eruption that occurs due to air pressure, tectonic movements, and soil erosion causing massive population migration.

Thus, living organisms colonize the area in which the original species was killed or moved during a flood or volcanic eruption.

Therefore, the given statement is false.

Explanation of option ‘(C)’

The term evolutionary time scale represents the small changes that occurred due to evolution through natural selection.

Thus, dispersal does not occur in a long evolutionary time scale that determines change over time.

Therefore, the given statement is true.

Explanation of option ‘(D)’

In biogeography, species distribution is the complex expression that focuses on the arrangement of the group of one or more populations to map their habitat.

Thus, dispersal occurs when species occupy or distributed over an area.

Therefore, the given statement is false.