Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function

Question 1

What does biogeochemical activity determine?

Answer 1

Soil fertility

Air and water quality

Habitability of ecosystems

Earth’s climate

Whether we can exist on Earth

Question 2

How much are current exitinctions past a normal rate?

Answer 2

100-1000 times

Question 3

What are the main theories for biodiversity-function?

Answer 3

Redundancy - few species add most of the function + adding a new species doesnt really give much extra function

Singular - each species has a unique function

Keystone - adding a keystone species to an ecosystem causes rapid increase of function + losing a keystone species causes a collapse in an ecosystem function

Question 4

Give a quick overview of the hump-back curve

Answer 4

Very low and high biomass has low biodiversity

Intermediate biomass has greatest biodiversity

Question 5

What is the hump-back curve reliant on?

Answer 5

Anthropogenic sites - pull line down into the curve

No anthropogenic sites the line in linear

Question 6

What is the sampling effect?

Answer 6

Organisms selected for an experiement were an already very productive species

Question 7

What does losing species cause?

Answer 7

Less ecosystem/productivity