Business Development

Q: Both mature male lions and elephants bring in more money as ecotourism attractions than if they are poached for their hide and ivory. a. True b. False

Q: The African honeybee, or killer bee, is a deliberately introduced invasive species a. True b. False

Q: The primary threat to polar bears is pollution from oil spills in Arctic waters. a. True b. False

Q: It is estimated that between one-fourth and one-half of the worlds plant and animal species will suffer premature extinction by the end of this century. a. True b. False

Q: The worlds wild species provide ecological resources and services that keep us alive and support human economies. a. True b. False

Q: A low speciation rate contributes to negative effects on biodiversity. a. True b. False

Q: The primary reason polar bear population are declining is because their fur keeps their body temperature too warm in light of global warming trends. a. True b. False

Q: Nonnative species thrive in new ecosystems because they have superior gene pools. a. True b. False

Q: Extinction can be the result of habitat fragmentation. a. True b. False

Q: Pollution from human activities primarily affects human health, with any effects on the environment are small in comparison. a. True b. False

Q: One of the causes of extinction is human population growth. a. True b. False

Q: A species is biologically extinct when it has disappeared from the earth. a. True b. False

Q: Zoos and aquariums can be used to protect wild species and serve as gene banks. a. True b. False

Q: If you take a driving vacation to Mexico and then return to the United States in your car, you will be stopped at the border by U.S. agents who will ask if you are carrying any plants or animals. If you have any native plants with soil, these could be confiscated. What is the benefit to this process?

Q: Briefly discuss the rising demand for bushmeat.

Q: Use the acronym HIPPCO to describe what is currently happening to the worlds wild bird species.

Q: Explain the concept of a national park; in particular, discuss how a national park can be a habitat island.

Q: Describe the three primary challenges for scientists when attempting to estimate extinction rates.

Q: Please list at least two methods of limiting the harmful impact of invasive species as described in your text.

Q: Refer to the accompanying table. A traveling biologist decides to contribute money to the two developing countries that seems to be most focused on their threatened bird species, based on the percentage of land area that is set aside for conservation. What two countries will be recipients of her donations?

Q: Refer to the accompanying table. A biologist wishes to see threatened bird species on her vacation, assuming that these species may not be around much longer. She decides to travel to the two countries with the highest density of threatened species per square kilometer. Which countries will she be visiting?

Q: List four things that you do that can contribute to help protect wild species?

Q: Would you support legislation that would allocate monetary compensation to land owners to help protect endangered species that occur on their property? Why or why not?

Q: Some birds provide important ecological services in pollination and seed dispersal. As such, a declining bird population could cause a(n) ____________________ of extinctions.

Q: Birds are excellent ____________________ species because they respond to habitat and climate changes very quickly relative to other kinds of plants and animals.

Q: Preserving wild species for tourists rather than for hunters may provide more revenue for a country through ____________________.

Q: Many species provide ____________________ that we depend upon for industry and basic living needs.

Q: ____________________ are people who look for plants and animals that may have medicinal value.

Q: The best method for reducing threats from invasive species is through ____________________ efforts.

Q: Chemical pesticides used during the 1950s and 1960s actually hastened the advance of the Argentina fire ant by effectively wiping out the ____________________populations.

Q: Habitat degradation is causing a(n) ____________________ because there are less places for new species to emerge.

Q: Current and projected extinction rates in ____________________ or highly endangered areas of biodiversity are much higher than the global average.

Q: Of the species now listed under the Endangered Species Act, more than ____________________ have populations that are either stabilizing or improving.

Q: In the 1600s, English settlers introduced the ____________________, which is a deliberately introduced invasive species that is used to pollinate most crops.

Q: The ____________________ relationship explains how 90% of land habitat loss can cause 50% of the species to go extinct in a given area.

Q: The growing consensus is that the European honeybee ____________________ is likely caused by a combination of interacting factors related to several forms of environmental degradation.

Q: Most species reintroductions fail because a suitable ____________________ is not available.

Q: ____________________ is a process by which chemicals entering the food chain in lower organisms become concentrated as they move to animals at higher trophic levels.

Q: Scientists believe that the greatest human influenced threat to wild species is ____________________.

Q: Biologists conservatively estimate that the current extinction rate is at least ____________________ times the normal background extinction rate.

Q: The United States has not signed or ratified the ____________________ treaty.

Q: Birds contaminated with ____________________ have been unable to successfully reproduce because of excessively fragile eggshells.

Q: A habitat that is isolated by roads, agriculture, or urban development is called a(n) ____________________.

Q: Assume for the sake of discussion that you had been considering the purchase of an off-road vehicle for recreational use. Now that you have studied this chapter and are familiar with some of the issues of human disturbance of ecosystems, will this change your thinking? Explain why or why not.

Q: Which one of the three major principles of sustainability is a driving force behind climate and biodiversity? Include in your answer an explanation of why this is true.

Q: Explain what the difference is between major climate zones and major biomes, and how the two interact.

Q: Explain why you cannot clear tropical forests to grow crops or graze cattle on a sustainable basis.

Q: What climate factors determine the differences between different types of forests, or different types of deserts, and why?

Q: Explain briefly how global warming negatively impacts coral reefs.

Q: Briefly describe how mountains can offset global warming.

Q: Explain why energy input from the sun is highest at the equator and lowest at the poles.

Q: Describe one way that human activities are disrupting and degrading freshwater systems.

Q: Observe the second graph above, which is from a cold desert. What month of the year would you expect to see flowers bloom in the cold desert?

Q: Refer to the first graph above of a temperate desert and observe that the months of March and April are not the warmest, coldest or wettest months in this biome. However, the bloom of desert wildflowers will typically occur in these two months. Explain why this is the case.

Q: Describe two ecosystem or economic services provided by wetlands.

Q: How do mountains serve as major storehouses of water for humans and wildlife in the surrounding area?

Q: Explain how the rain shadow effect occurs.

Q: Aquatic life zones in higher-salinity waters are called ____________________ life zones.

Q: The ____________________ zone is the brightly lit upper zone of the open sea, where drifting phytoplankton carry out about 40% of the worlds photosynthetic activity.

Q: ____________________ is the amount of various salts such as sodium chloride dissolved in a given volume of water.

Q: ____________________ are cone-bearing, evergreen trees.

Q: ____________________ is underground soil in which captured water stays frozen for more than two consecutive years.

Q: One type of tropical grassland, called a(n) ____________________, contains widely scattered clumps of trees.

Q: A(n) ____________________ is an area at the mouth of a river built up by deposited sediment and often containing estuaries and coastal wetlands.

Q: The open sea can be dived into three zones: the euphotic zone, ____________________ zone, and abyssal zone.

Q: The tops of trees in tropical rain forests form a dense ____________________ that blocks most light from reaching the forest floor.

Q: ____________________ occur primarily in the interiors of continents in areas that are too moist for deserts to form and too dry for forests to grow.

Q: The tendency for a transition zone between two different ecosystems to have greater species diversity and a higher density of organisms than are found in either of the individual ecosystems is called the ______________________________.

Q: Carbon dioxide and methane are _________________________ released by human activities such as the production and burning of fossil fuels, clearing of forests, and growing of crops.

Q: Marshes, swamps, and prairie potholes are all examples of ____________________.

Q: Because of the ____________________, air masses moving north or south from the equator are deflected to the east.

Q: ____________________ is the general pattern of atmospheric conditions in a given area over periods ranging from at least three decades to thousands of years.

Q: Some desert plants reduce evaporation by closing their pores during the day and opening them at night to take up ____________________.

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