Levels of Biodiversity
Which specific level of diversity focuses on the range of different ecosystems, such as forests, wetlands, and deserts?
Habitat diversity?
In the Simpson’s Reciprocal Index formula, what does the lowercase letter n represent?
The number of individuals of a particular species.
What term describes an ecosystem's ability to resist a disturbance (like a natural disaster or human impact) and successfully return to its original equilibrium?
Resilience
What are the random changes in an organism's DNA that serve as the ultimate source of entirely new genetic material in a population?
Mutations.
What specific term is used for species, such as the marine iguanas and giant tortoises of the Galápagos Islands, that are naturally found nowhere else on Earth?
Endemic
Why are commercial Cavendish banana crops highly susceptible to being wiped out by threats like Panama disease?
They are genetically identical (cloned), meaning they lack the genetic diversity needed to adapt or provide resistance to the disease.
When comparing two similar ecological communities, what are some human or environmental impacts that a low Simpson's Index value might indicate?
Recent colonization, pollution, or eutrophication.
Why do early-stage pioneer communities (such as lichens and mosses) have very low resilience compared to complex ecosystems?
Their food webs are simple, and they lack the deep species interactions and multiple energy pathways needed to withstand disruptions.
Which evolutionary process involves the movement of genes between populations via migration, helping to increase genetic diversity?
Gene flow
If two frog populations live in the exact same rainforest but cannot interbreed because one mates exclusively in the early morning and the other mates only at night, what specific type of isolation are they experiencing?
Temporal Isolation
Which big cat is frequently cited as having extremely low genetic diversity due to historical population bottlenecks, making the entire population vulnerable to disease?
Cheetah
What kind of step-by-step identification guide is created when students use a sequence of choices (such as shoe brands, colours, or physical traits) to identify an item or organism?
A dichotomous key.
What type of regulatory mechanisms are weakened when human activities simplify ecosystems, making the environment much more vulnerable to collapse?
Negative feedback loops
What is the term for random changes in gene frequencies over time that occur purely by chance rather than an adaptive advantage, affecting small populations most severely?
Genetic drift
In Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, how did heavy poaching pressures during a civil war act as a selective pressure on the female elephant population?
It drove natural selection in favor of tuskless females, dramatically increasing the proportion of elephants born without tusks.
Why is high genetic diversity within a population crucial when facing an environmental shift like a drought or temperature spike?
It provides a larger "genetic pool" with variations, ensuring some individuals have traits that allow them to survive and reproduce under the new conditions.
What are the 3 conservation strategies?
Protected areas
Sustainable resource management
Species recovery programs
Why does high species diversity make complex ecosystems stable if one particular food resource is disrupted?
Because organisms can easily shift to alternative food sources, maintaining the continuous flow of energy through the food web.
Which famous historical example demonstrates natural selection by showing how industrial pollution shifted a population's competitive advantage from light-colored variants to dark-colored variants?
The peppered moth
Why do conservationists closely monitor and protect sea otters in the Pacific Northwest to ensure the health of kelp forests?
Sea otters act as a keystone species that controls sea urchin populations; without them, urchins overgraze and destroy the kelp ecosystem.
Besides providing essential carbon sequestration, how do temperate forests generally compare to tropical rainforests regarding species richness and evenness?
Temperate forests typically have fewer species (lower species richness) and can be less balanced in relative abundance compared to tropical rainforests.
What is the term for science initiatives where volunteers from the general public or parabiologists record and report species sightings to help scientists monitor biodiversity?
Citizen science
In terms of energy flow and food web structure, how does high habitat diversity directly foster a complex ecosystem's resilience against the extinction of a primary consumer?
High habitat diversity creates numerous ecological niches, which allows for greater species richness and a highly webbed, complex food network. If a primary consumer goes extinct, predators don't starve because the complexity of the system provides alternative energy pathways. They can shift their diet to other primary consumers occupying different niches, preventing a trophic collapse.
Evolution by natural selection inherently relies on which four continuous steps?
Variation, overproduction of offspring, competition for limited resources, and differences in adaptation/survival.
hich international conservation initiative provides financial funding to developing countries for protecting forest carbon storage, as highlighted in the Amazon rainforest case study?
REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation).