Biodiversity

Question 1

Which of the following is NOT one of the four major factors contributing to the current biodiversity crisis?

a) Habitat loss b) Introduced species c) Overexploitation d) Depletion of fresh water
e) Global atmospheric warming

Answer 1

d) depletion of fresh water

Question 2

A loss of 90% of any given habitat will likely result in the loss of what percentage of species that are native and dependent on that particular habitat?
a) 10 b) 25 c) 33 d) 50 e) 75

Answer 2

d) 50

Question 3

What percentage of wetlands that once existed in the U.S. is still in existence, today?
a) >66 b) < 50 c) ca. 25 d) >10 e) <2

Answer 3

e) <2

Question 4

What percentage of the world’s forests has been destroyed to date?
a) 10 b) 25 c) 50 d) 66 e) 75

Answer 4

c) 50

Question 5

What percentage of the world’s tropical rainforests have been destroyed?
a) 10 b) 20 c) 50 d) 66 e) 75

Answer 5

c) 50

Question 6

What percentage of the Brazilian rainforests has been destroyed as of 2013?
a) 10 b) 20 c) 50 d) 66 e) 75

Answer 6

b) 20

Question 7

What two factors in combination do biologists think are most likely to limit the growth of the human population?

a) oil and fresh water		b) fresh water and arable land
c) oil and armed conflicts	d) disease and fresh water
e) disease and armed conflicts

Answer 7

b) fresh water and arable land

Question 8

Between the early 1960’s and the present, what has the rate of growth of the human population done?

a) increased exponentially	b) increased logistically	c) stayed about the same
d) decreased steadily 		 e) increased steadily until very recently when it has leveled off

Answer 8

d) decreased steadily

Question 9

The amount of arable land per person on a worldwide scale has gone from 3.54 acres per person in 1959 to about ____________ acres per person in 2006.
a) 5.4 b) 4.5 c) 3.5 (stayed the same) d) 2.3 e) 1.2

Answer 9

e) 1.2 or 1.15

Question 10

In the question above, this change represents a loss/gain of about ____________ percent.
a)+ 65% b) +30% c) +25% d)-33% e)-66%

Answer 10

e) -66%

Question 11

While the world population has doubled over the past 30 years to 7 billion people, the amount of arable land in the world has done what since 1985?

a) stayed about the same	b) increased exponentially	 c) increased geometrically	d) decreased exponentially	 e) none of the above

Answer 11

e) none of the above

Question 12

What is the term that is used when we talk about what is needed to sustain an individual in terms of their current uses of food, water, energy, living space, commerce, transportation, & waste management? When we want to compare people from different areas of the world, this value is often converted to hectares of arable land.

	a) niche space	b) arable land value	c) resource management value		 d) ecological footprint	e) energy/food partition

Answer 12

d) ecological footprint

Question 13

hy do most exotic (non-native) species tend to out-compete native species when they come
to reside in areas outside of their native habitat?
a) they are harder workers than the settled, lazy slackers that are native to an area
b) the native species haven’t evolved defenses against the non-native species so non-
natives can prey on many different species(i.e., they eat everything in sight).
c) by outcompeting one species in particular, they throw the whole community
structure out of balance.
d) they haven’t evolved to speak the same language so they can’t interact efficiently
with other species in the community
e) in their new habitat/community, they do not have the natural predators that had
evolved with them in their native habitats and their populations grow
unconstrained.

Answer 13

e) in their new habitat/community, the do not have the natural predators that had evolved with them in their native habitats and their populations grow unconstrained.

Question 14

What percentage of free-living species in the U.S. were considered to be non-natives by the late 1990’s?
a) 11 b) 22 c) 33 d) 50 e) 75

Answer 14

a) 11

Question 15

What percentage of free-living species in Hawaii is considered to be non-native?
a) 11 b) 22 c) 33 d) 44 e) 66

Answer 15

d) 44

Question 16

The most widely referenced paper (Pimental et al. 2005) on the issue of invasive species reported that invasive species cost the United States more than $__________ in damages every year.
a) 50 million b) 100 million c) 500 million d) 1 billion e) 120 billion

Answer 16

e) 120 billion

Question 17

Given that there are about 300 million people in the U.S., if Pimental et al.’s estimates are correct, then the cost of invasive species for each citizen of the U.S. is about $_______ per year.
a) 16 cents b) 32 cents c) $1.60 d) $3.34 e) $400.00

Answer 17

e) 400.00

Question 18

About how many species are currently protected by the Endangered Species Act?
a) 500 b) 850 c) 1300 d) 3000 e) 10,000

Answer 18

c) 1300

Question 19

Of those, about how many have received this protection at least partly due to displacement by, competition with, and predation by invasive species?
a) 100 b) 250 c) 400 d) 1000 e) 2,600

Answer 19

c) 400

Question 20

Of the 36 species of fish native to Arizona, how many have been federally listed as endangered or threatened?
a) 5 b) 10 c) 15 d) 20 e) 30

Answer 20

d) 20

Question 21

Besides being responsible for ca. $1.1 billion in damages in the U.S. alone, pigeons have been found to be responsible for the spread of how many human and livestock diseases?
a) 10 b) 20 c) 33 d) 50 e) 120

Answer 21

d) 50

Question 22

Populations of songbirds have dropped by ___% in the mid-Atlantic States of the U.S. over the past 40 years.
a) 10 b) 20 c)33 d) 50 e) 66

Answer 22

d) 50

Question 23

Maps indicating biodiversity hotspots are meant to show which of the following?

a) areas rich in species diversity in general
b) threatened species specifically
c) endemic species, which have a limited habitat.
d) all of the above
e) b & c above

Answer 23

d) all of the above

Question 24

According to a published survey by NOAA (2008), what percentage of the coral reefs found worldwide are considered to be in “fair or poor” condition?
a) 25 b) 33 c) 60 d) 75 e) 95

Answer 24

c) 60

Question 25

What percentage of coral reefs are “threatened with extinction?”
a) 25 b) 33 c) 60 d) 75 e) 95

Answer 25

b) 33

Question 26

What percentage of marine life is dependent upon coral reefs?
a) 25 b) 33 c) 60 d) 75 e) 95

Answer 26

a) 25

Question 27

What percentage of mammal species is considered to be threatened with extinction?
a) 25 b) 33 c) 60 d) 75 e) 95

Answer 27

a) 25

Question 28

What factor(s) is/are the driving factors leading to the extinction of these various mammal species?

a) over-harvesting	b) climate change	c) habitat destruction	d)introduced species
e) a & c above

Answer 28

a) over-harvesting & c) habitat destruction

so e) a&c

Question 29

What percentage of all the primates in South and Southeast Asia are facing extinction?
a) 25 b) 44 c) 62 d) 79 e) 87

Answer 29

d) 79

Question 30

Which of the following is not one of the reasons that so many primates in South and Southeast Asia are facing extinction?

a) they have lower population densities
b) they have slower life histories
c) they have very specialized niches
d) they have larger home ranges
e) they are more likely to be hunted

Answer 30

c) they have very specialized niches

Question 31

A species-area curve for most islands will show which of the following?
a) species diversity is greater on islands nearer to the mainland no matter their size
b) species diversity is lower on islands nearer to the mainland due to competition
c) high extinction rates on remote islands tend to keep species diversity low there
d) species diversity increases in direct relation to the size of an island
e) species diversity increases in direct relationship to the complexity of community structure on
an island

Answer 31

d) species diversity increases in direct relation to the size of an island.

Question 32

Which of the following best defines the Competitive Exclusion Principle?
a) the more the niche space of two species overlaps, the more likely it is that one or another will
be extirpated or go extinct
b) when a new species arrives on an island, it will not be able to successfully colonize if other
keystone species from their community are not already there
c) when a keystone species is removed from a community, many species will be disappear due
to competition from species previously held in check by the keystone species
d) competition between any two species is a bad thing because it will lead to a reduction in
fitness for both species
e) if one species is removed or dies off, the species that it most shared a resource base with will
expand in population size and in distribution

Answer 32

a) the more the niche space of two species overlaps, the more likely it is that one or another will be extirpated or go extinct.

Question 33

Which factor or factors will most influence/predict the number of species found on any given island?

a) the size of the island	b) the age of the island	c) the proximity of the island to the mainland
d) all of the above	e) a & c above

Answer 33

d) all of the above

Question 34

Here in the Southwest, the number of mammal species that can be found on the tops of isolated mountains set in the desert (sky islands) has been directly related to which of the following?

a) the area encompassed by the sky island	b) the age of a particular sky island
c) the community complexity found on a given sky island
d) the variation in food resources found on a particular sky island
e) all of the above

Answer 34

e) all of the above

Question 35

Which of the following is NOT a true statement about which areas are best for maintaining the highest species diversity?
a) large reserves are better than small reserves
b) reserves connected by habitat corridors are better than isolated reserves
c) several reserves set further apart from each other are better than reserves set close together
d) one large reserve is better than several small reserves that encompass the same area as the
larger reserve
e) reserves with compact shapes (i.e., circles) that minimize boundary length are better than
elongated reserves that expand boundary length

Answer 35

b) reserves connected by habitat corridors are better than isolated reserves.

Question 36

Temperate regions of the world are most likely to have which of the following patterns of plant (and
animal) diversity?
a) many dominant species spread evenly across the landscape, but only a few rare or endemic
species
b) many rare and endemic species, but only a few dominant species
c) many dominant species spread evenly across the landscape along with many rare and
endemic species
d) a few dominant species as well as only a few rare and endemic species
e) none of the above

Answer 36

d) a few dominant species as well as only a few rare and endemic species.

Question 37

Species diversity in which of the following groups increases rapidly the closer one gets to the Equator?

a) plants	b) animals	c) fungi		d)protists	 e) all of the above

Answer 37

e) all of the above