Biodiversity

Question 1

Hierarchical organisation in Ecology…

What are the levels?

Answer 1

Biosphere 
Biome
Landscape 
Ecosystem
Community 
Population interactions 
Population 
Individuals

Question 2

Global environmental challenges…

What are some examples of “brown” problems?

Answer 2

Soil erosion 
Salinisation of irrigated soil
Depletion of stratospheric CO2
Industrial of toxic wastes
Radioactive waste contamination 
Sewage discharge
Sulphuric/nitric acid deposition 
Industrial N fixation 
Eutrophication of lakes
Release of endocrine disrupters
Increased energy demand
Depletion of aquifers
Bioaccumulation of pesticides
Thermal pollution 
Noise pollution
Oil spills 
Urban encroachment

Question 3

Global environmental challenges…

What are some examples of “green” problems?

Answer 3

Conversion of primary habitat
- Tropical deforestation
- Plowing of grasslands
- Drainage of wetlands
- Desertification of savannah
Habitat degradation 
Over-exploitation of resources
Introduction of exotic species 
Introduction of diseases
Loss of genetic diversity
Overgrazing of rangelands
Coral reef bleaching 
Wildflires and droughts
Shifts in species ranges
Rising sea levels

Question 4

Global scale environmental problems like “brown” and “green” problems cause a LOSS in?

Answer 4

Ecosystem functions

Biodiversity

Question 5

The optimist view of the global situation sees…

Answer 5

Agriculture - worldwide per capita crop yield rose between the 1950s and 1980s from 275kg to 370kg even though the worlds population increased by 1.8% per year during that time

Human lifespan - Reduced infant mortality, better health care and better quality environments have made it possible for life expectancy to to increase across most of the world. Life expectancy approx. 35 in 1700 to approx. 80 in 2005.

Question 6

The pessimist view of the global situation sees…

Answer 6

Human population - grew more in the 20th century than it has in all of previous history

Energy - Approx 50% of all fossil fuel used by humans consumed in the last 25years

Resources - The avg. human ecological foot prints approx. 2.1 ha but for every person on the planet to reach present US levels (9.6 ha) would require 4 Earth-like planets

Freshwater - The world is heading in the direction where billions of people will not have access to basic clean drinking water

Question 7

What is an ecological footprint?

Answer 7

The amount of productive land and shallow sea appropriated by each person to sustains/her lifestyle and patterns of natural resource use

Question 8

It takes 38% of Earth’s ice-free surface to feed how many people today?

Answer 8

7 billion

Question 9

How many more people are expected to be on the earth by 2050?

Answer 9

2 billion

Question 10

What is an Environment Kuznets Curve?

Answer 10

An EKC is a relationship between various indicators of environmental degradation and per capita income.

Question 11

What is the Economist perspective?

What is the Ecologist perspective?

Answer 11

Economist - sees the human economy as the dominant factor, and the “environment” merely as an externality component of the economy

Ecologist - sees the environment in a finite planet as the primary constraint and the human economic systems merely as part of that environment

Question 12

What is the equation for population doubling time (T)?

Answer 12

T = 70 / % growth rate

Question 13

Population growth is beginning to…?

Answer 13

Decelerate

Question 14

Human population density (HPD) in the UK approx.?

Answer 14

224 people per squared km

Question 15

What is IPAT?

Answer 15

I = P x A x T

IPAT - posits that society’s impact (I)…

…on Earth’s life-supporting systems is a product of population size (P)…

… per capita consumption (affluence) (A)…

… and a “technological factor” (T)…

Question 16

What is the Alee Effect?

Answer 16

A correlation between population size or density and mean individual fitness or fecundity

Question 17

What is doubling time?

Answer 17

The amount of time for a population to double

Question 18

What is the difference between discrete and continuous?

Answer 18

Discrete - An event that happens once per unit time (i.e. once per year)

Continuous - An event that happens continuously

Question 19

What is Demographic stochasticity?

Answer 19

When populations are too small, change events resulting from fluctuation matter to population size

Question 20

What is a closed population?

Answer 20

A population with no migration arrivals or departures

Question 21

Whats is cohort analysis?

Answer 21

An approach to demographic analysis implying data for cohorts to study the experiences of the same group of people at different points in time

Question 22

What is crude birth (or death) rate?

Answer 22

The number of live births (or deaths) in a year per thousand people in the mid year population

Question 23

What is fecundity?

Answer 23

The potential reproductive capacity of an organism of population, measured by the number of gamete, seed set or asexual propagules

Question 24

What is the intrinsic rate of growth?

Answer 24

Maximum off spring / individual / time

Question 25

What is a stable population?

Answer 25

A population which is closed to migration and has an unchanging age-sex structure that increases (or decreases) in size at a constant rate

Question 26

What is zero population growth (ZPG)?

Answer 26

A situation where a population has a growth rate of zero.

Achieved if additions to the population from births and inward migration exactly balance the losses from deaths and outward migration

Question 27

What is allometry?

Answer 27

The change in organisms in relation to a proportional change in body size

Eg. Across a vast range of animal sizes, basic metabolic rate is proportional to weight 0.75.

The relationship (negative correlation) between maximum plant abundance and average body size for terrestrial plants and marine phytoplankton

The relationship (negative correlation) between carnivore density and carnivore body mass