Deck 23: Global Conservation of Biodiversity

Question 1

How many mass extinctions have occurred?

A) 5
B) 15
C) 10
D) 3

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Biodiversity hotspots throughout the world contain _____ percent of the world's plant species.

A) 75
B) 40
C) 80
D) 50

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Provisioning services are those that

A) support ecosystems, such as primary production, soil formation, and nutrient cycling.
B) include climate regulation, flood control, and water purification.
C) humans use, including lumber, fur, meat, crops, water, and fibre.
D) provide aesthetic, spiritual, or recreational value.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Drinking water is an example of a ____ service.

A) cultural
B) provisioning
C) supporting
D) regulating

Question 5

Why are regulating services considered instrumental values? Give examples.

Question 6

Cultural services are those that

A) humans use, including lumber, fur, meat, crops, water, and fibre.
B) allow ecosystems to exist, such as primary production, soil formation, and nutrient cycling.
C) include climate regulation, flood control, and water purification.
D) provide aesthetic, spiritual, or recreational value.

Question 7

The carbon-sequestering ability of tropical rainforests is an example of a ____ service.

A) regulating
B) provisioning
C) cultural
D) supporting

Question 8

A focus on the economic value a species can provide is called the

A) intrinsic value of biodiversity.
B) instrumental value of biodiversity.
C) provisioning service.
D) regulating service.

Question 9

Which of the following describes intrinsic values of biodiversity?

A) aesthetic
B) cultural
C) inherent
D) economic

Question 10

A mass extinction event is one in which _____ percent of the existing species go extinct.

A) 75
B) 95
C) 55
D) 25

Question 11

The mass extinction that occurred 443 million years ago was caused by

A) global warming.
B) an asteroid.
C) volcanism.
D) an ice age.

Question 12

Which of the following is NOT a category of instrumental values?

A) cultural
B) regulating
C) consumer
D) supporting

Question 13

The beauty of a national park is an example of a ____ service.

A) supporting
B) provisioning
C) regulating
D) cultural

Question 14

Nutrient cycling is an example of a ____ service.

A) regulating
B) cultural
C) supporting
D) provisioning

Question 15

What is NOT an example of a regulating service?

A) climate regulation
B) nutrient cycling
C) flood control
D) water purification

Question 16

A supporting service provides benefits of biodiversity that

A) have aesthetic, spiritual, or recreational value.
B) humans use.
C) include climate regulation, flood control, and water purification.
D) allow ecosystems to exist.

Question 17

The cancer drug Taxol, which originally came from the Pacific yew tree (Taxus brevifolia), is an example of a _____ service.

A) provisioning
B) cultural
C) supporting
D) regulating

Question 18

Flood control is an example of a ____ service.

A) provisioning
B) cultural
C) regulating
D) supporting

Question 19

How many total species have been named?

A) 2.3 million
B) 1.3 million
C) 13 million
D) 3.5 million

Question 20

What is the difference between instrumental and intrinsic values of biodiversity? Give examples for each.

Question 21

During the past 500 years, _____ of mammal species have gone extinct.

A) 10 percent
B) 0.2 percent
C) 5 percent
D) 1.4 percent

Question 22

habitat loss
Level: easy
The largest cause of declining biodiversity is

A) habitat loss.
B) overharvesting.
C) introduced species.
D) global climate change.

Question 23

Declines in genetic diversity can

A) increase the probability that a population will survive changing environmental conditions.
B) reduce the probability that a population will survive changing environmental conditions.
C) decrease the probability of speciation.
D) increase the rate of evolution.

Question 24

Of the 607 species of conifers, how many have gone extinct?

A) 42 percent
B) 20 percent
C) 5 percent
D) No conifers have gone extinct.

Question 25

All species of moas (Dinornis) in New Zealand have gone extinct as a result of

A) habitat loss.
B) overharvesting.
C) invasive species.
D) pollution.

Question 26

Biotic _____ is the process by which unique species compositions originally found in different regions slowly become more similar as a result of the movement of people, cargo, and species.

A) normalization
B) confluence
C) magnification
D) homogenization

Question 27

How has agriculture led to losses of genetic diversity? Why is this a problem?

Question 28

The golden lion tamarin (Leontopithecus rosalia) has become critically endangered as a result of

A) pollution.
B) invasive species.
C) habitat loss.
D) climate change.

Question 29

Scientists hypothesize that losses of large mammals between 11 500 and 500 years ago were caused by

A) humans.
B) climate change.
C) pollution.
D) invasive species.

Question 30

A review of research in Europe demonstrated that species richness is

A) positively related to aboveground biomass.
B) negatively related to aboveground biomass.
C) positively related to genetic diversity.
D) negatively related to genetic diversity.

Question 31

Extinction rates over the past 50 years are _____ times higher than the historic rate.

A) 100
B) 1 000
C) 10
D) 10 000

Question 32

Which of the following is NOT an IUCN category relating to species assessment?

A) threatened
B) least concern
C) near-threatened
D) endangered

Question 33

Which of the following is NOT a cause of genetic diversity?

A) inbreeding depression
B) declining population sizes
C) bottleneck effect
D) mutation

Question 34

The period of the last _____ may be a sixth mass extinction.

A) 100 000 years
B) 10 million years
C) 1000 years
D) 10 000 years

Question 35

The Svalbard facility on an island north of the Norwegian mainland was constructed to

A) store plants.
B) store seeds.
C) store animals.
D) store embryos.

Question 36

Why has it been challenging to determine the declines in species diversity of amphibians?

Question 37

The collapse of the Atlantic cod fishery in the early 1990s was the result of

A) pollution.
B) climate change.
C) introduced species.
D) overharvesting.

Question 38

Tropical forests are being logged at a rate of _____ million hectares per year.

A) 20
B) 5
C) 50
D) 10

Question 39

The most recent mass extinction event occurred

A) 65 million years ago.
B) 200 million years ago.
C) 35 million years ago.
D) 450 million years ago.

Question 40

The IUCN defines the term extinct as pertaining to a species that was alive in the wild in the

A) past but no individuals remain alive today.
B) year 1000 but no individuals remain alive today.
C) year 1500 but no individuals remain alive today.
D) year 1900 but no individuals remain alive today.

Question 41

A minimum viable population is the _____ population of a species that can _____.

A) smallest; persist in the face of environmental variation.
B) ideal; persist in increasing global temperatures.
C) smallest; maintain genetic variability.
D) ideal; return a population from threatened status.

Question 42

In the calculation of half-life, N₀ represents

A) the final amount of the contaminant.
B) the initial amount of the contaminant.
C) the elapsed time.
D) the half-life.

Question 43

The pesticide DDT in a body of water increases about _____ in concentration when it binds to particles such as algae.

A) 10-fold
B) 5-fold
C) 50-fold
D) 30-fold

Question 44

Which chemical caused declines in predatory bird populations in the 1950s and 1960s in the United States?

A) DDT
B) Alar
C) organophosphates
D) pyrethroids

Question 45

The California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) was saved from extinction by

A) habitat protection.
B) reduced harvesting.
C) species reintroduction.
D) the banning of pesticides.

Question 46

In a food chain that undergoes biomagnification of a pesticide, which organism can expected to have the highest pesticide concentration?

A) algae
B) carnivorous fish
C) zooplankton
D) herbivorous fish

Question 47

The California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) reintroduction was very successful in increasing natural populations of condors. In addition to reintroduction, what strategies were used to conserve this species?

Question 48

In addition to increasing temperature, global climate change is predicted to

A) cause extreme weather events.
B) alter precipitation patterns.
C) shift distributions of species.
D) All of the above

Question 49

Over the past 20 years, sea levels have been rising at a rate of _____ millimetres per year.

A) 5
B) 1
C) 10
D) 3

Question 50

The time required for a chemical to break down to half of its original concentration is called its

A) decomposition coefficient.
B) retention time.
C) half-life.
D) decontamination time.

Question 51

Protecting habitat for buffalo and wildebeests is challenging because

A) they have a very large range.
B) they undergo large-scale movements.
C) there may not be enough contiguous habitat to meet their requirements.
D) All of the above.

Question 52

You measure 1000 mg of the pesticide DDT in the soil, and 30 days later the amount in the soil is 998.1 mg. What is the half-life (in years) of DDT in this soil?

Question 53

How do pesticides decrease biodiversity?

A) killing nontarget species
B) biomagnification
C) altering food webs
D) all of the above

Question 54

The northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) was saved from extinction by
A) captive breeding.

A) species reintroduction.
B) habitat protection.
C) reduced harvesting.

Question 55

What is the process by which the concentration of a contaminant increases as it moves up the food chain?

A) bioexpansion
B) bioconcentration
C) biomagnification
D) bioaccumulation

Question 56

The goal in protecting a habitat is commonly the preservation of a large enough area to support a _____ population.

A) maximum sustaining
B) minimum sustaining
C) maximum viable
D) minimum viable

Question 57

From 1880 to 2013, Earth's temperatures have increased an average of

A) 0.2°C per year.
B) 2°C per year.
C) 4°C per year.
D) 0.8°C per year.

Question 58

The half-life of a contaminant is calculated as

A) ln(N0 ÷ Nt) ÷ t ln(2).
B) ln(N0 × Nt) ÷ t ln(2).
C) t ln(2) ÷ ln(N0 × Nt).
D) t ln(2) ÷ ln(N0 ÷ Nt).

Question 59

The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park has had effects beyond the conservation of wolves. What are other benefits of the reintroduction?

Question 60

Methylmercury is an organic mercury compound that is a waste product of industrial processes and also results from the burning of fossil fuels. Methylmercury has been shown to increase up food chains by biomagnification. Bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) can have tissue concentrations of methylmercury of 0.69 ppm (parts per million). Assuming a food web that starts with phytoplankton (0.00069 ppm) and a 10-fold biomagnification from each level in the food chain to the next level, calculate the concentration of methylmercury at each level in the food chain. How many levels are there in the food chain, including the phytoplankton and the tuna?