Test 3

Question 1

What is Biodiversity?

Answer 1

the variety of life on Earth

Question 2

What are the three ways of considering biodiversity?

Answer 2

genetic diversity (variation within a species),

species diversity (variety of different species),

ecosystem diversity (variety of habitats and ecological communities within a region)

Question 3

What is happening to biodiversity worldwide?

Answer 3

rapidly declining at an alarming rate

Question 4

What are the two components of species diversity?
Species ________________ and
Species _______________

Answer 4

Species Richness
Species Evenness

Question 5

What factors of biomes contribute to high biodiversity?

Answer 5

stable and warm climates (typically near the equator),

high levels of precipitation,

diverse habitats within the biome,

a variety of food sources,

and a long evolutionary history allowing for greater species diversification

Question 6

What is a biodiversity hotspot?

Answer 6

regions that contain a high level of species diversity, many endemic species

It must have at least 1,500 vascular plants as endemics

30% or less of its original natural vegetation.

Question 7

What is the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem services?

Answer 7

Biodiversity is the foundation for ecosystem service

Question 8

ecosystem service

Answer 8

the benefits that ecosystems provide to humans, both directly and indirectly

Question 9

According to the theory of Island Biogeography: what characteristics of islands promote higher biodiversity?

Answer 9

larger islands and islands closer to the mainland

Question 10

What is habitat fragmentation

Answer 10

the process of breaking up large habitats into smaller, isolated pieces. This can happen due to natural events like volcanic eruptions or fires, but it’s more commonly caused by human activities like construction, farming, and industrial development.

Question 11

effects of habitat fragmentation

Answer 11

reduce genetic variation

difficult for animals to move from habitat to habitat (starvation, dehydration, injury or death)

pose a threat to plants through genetic changes

Question 12

What is shifting baseline syndrome?

Answer 12

a gradual change in our accepted norms and expectations for the environment across generations.

Question 13

What is an endemic species?

Answer 13

a plant or animal that is native to a specific geographic area and is not found anywhere else in the world

Question 14

What are the major threats to biodiversity?

Answer 14

Climate change
Habitat loss
Invasive species
Population growth of humans
Pollution
Overexploitation

Question 15

What are some examples of disturbances? Give examples of biotic and abiotic disturbances.

Answer 15

Biotic - insect infestations, disease epidemics, and herbivory

Abiotic - extreme weather events

Question 16

Why do we care about disturbances from the perspective of energy flow and nutrient cycling?

Answer 16

altering the movement of energy through food webs and the cycling of essential nutrients

Question 17

When characterizing disturbance, what are the three parameters?

Answer 17

frequency, magnitude, space/scale

Question 18

How is climate change different than a typical disturbance

Answer 18

it represents a long-term, widespread shift in average weather patterns across a large region, while a disturbance is a sudden, localized event like a wildfire, flood, or storm that disrupts an ecosystem in a relatively short time frame

Question 19

How does biodiversity relate to resilience and resistance?

Answer 19

providing a wider variety of species with different adaptations,

allowing the ecosystem to better withstand disturbances

recover more effectively from disruption

Question 20

Primary Succession

Answer 20

the initial stage of ecological succession, when organisms first colonize a new area without vegetation or other life

Question 21

Secondary Succession

Answer 21

a natural process that occurs when an existing community is disrupted by a disturbance, but the soil and nutrients remain. This restarts the ecological succession cycle, but not from the beginning

Question 22

Secondary Succession can be caused by

Answer 22

Fire
Flooding
Windstorms
Human activities, such as logging

Question 23

Which type of succession takes a long time to stabilize vs a short period of time?

Answer 23

secondary succession is faster than primary succession because the soil is already present and some plants may have survived. The process begins with pioneer species, such as lichens, mosses, fungi, and bacteria, that reproduce and grow quickly to take advantage of the resources

Question 24

What does resistance mean for a species and what does it allow for?

Answer 24

the ability of a species to withstand or overcome competitive pressures or antagonistic interactions from other species in their environment.

Question 25

What does resilience mean for a species and what does it allow for?

Answer 25

the ability to recover from disturbances or stressors, allowing the species to maintain its population and function even when facing environmental challenges like climate change, disease outbreaks, or habitat disruption

Question 26

Evolution is a two-part idea: what are the two parts?

Answer 26

we all share one common ancestor Population changes over time

Question 27

What are some mechanisms to make species change over time?

Answer 27

Natural selection, mutation, genetic drift, and gene flow (gene migration

Question 28

Who evolves: populations or individuals?

Answer 28

only populations evolve, not individuals

Question 29

How is evolution like a puzzle with multiple solutions?

Answer 29

given the same environmental pressures and genetic variations, different evolutionary paths can lead to similar adaptations in different species

Question 30

Genetic Drift

Answer 30

The change of gene frequencies of a population over time due to random mating that results in the loss of some gene variant (random patterns of mating)

Question 31

Bottleneck Effect

Answer 31

The situation that occurs when population size is drastically reduced, leading to the loss of some genetic variants and resulting in a less diverse population (initial population dramatically decrease)

Question 32

Founder Effect

Answer 32

The situation that occurs when a small group with only the subset of a larger population’s genetic diversity becomes isolated & evolves into a different population, missing some of the traits of the original group. (emigration of a subset to a new area)

Question 33

Natural Selection

Answer 33

The process by which organisms best adapted to the environment survive to reproduce, leaving more offspring than less well-adapted individuals

Question 34

Artificial Selection

Answer 34

A process in which humans decide which individuals breed & which do not in an attempt to produce in a population of plants or animals with desired traits.

Question 35

Coevolution

Answer 35

when two or more species evolve together in response to each other's adaptations

Question 36

selective pressure

Answer 36

an environmental factor that influences which organisms within a population are more likely to survive and reproduce

Question 37

What is the difference between natural selection and artificial selection? Give an example.

Answer 37

atural selection is based on the adaptive characteristics of animals. Artificial selection is based on the desirable characters selected by humans.

Question 38

bottleneck effect example

Answer 38

Northern elephant seals have reduced genetic variation probably because Hunting reduced their population size to as few as 20 individuals at the end of the 19th century.

Question 39

Describe how Coevolution leads to mutual evolution with an example.

Answer 39

when two species, through their close ecological interactions, evolve adaptations that benefit both parties flowering plants and their pollinators

Question 40

Evolution is not the only possible response to change: what are two other possible outcomes and what influences whether a species evolves or does one of these?

Answer 40

extinction and migration depends primarily on the severity and speed of the change, the species' genetic diversity, and the availability of suitable alternative habitats.

Question 41

What are the parameters of evolutionary fitness?

Answer 41

survival and reproduction

Question 42

Species richness

Answer 42

total number of different species in a given area or ecosystem.

Question 43

Species evenness

Answer 43

a measure of how evenly different species are distributed in a community