EEB 2208 Final (Homework)
Which of the following statements about habitat corridors are true? 6. Corridors facilitate gene flow. 7. Corridors help to prevent population fragmentation. 8. Corridors can act as sink habitat. 9. Corridors can help invasive species to spread. 10. Corridors can help endangered species to persist.
A A A A A
Which of the following things have been suggested as reasons why conservation is important? 1. People like nature. 2. Biodiversity is a source of building materials. 3. Human health can benefit from biological diversity. 4. Ecosystems provide important services to humans. 5. If too many species go extinct there might be an ecological catastrophe.
A A A A A
Which of the following disciplines play an important role in conservation biology? 11. Genetics. 12. Political science. 13. Geography. 14. Economics. 15. Environmental activism.
A A A A B
Which of the following statements correctly links a concept with an appropriate example? 26. Humans are a keystone species. 27. Pandas are flagship species. 28. Beavers are ecosystem engineers. 29. Sea turtles are a type of by-catch. 30. Because albatross are long-lived species even small reductions in their reproductive rates make them vulnerable to extinction.
A A A A B
Which statements correctly connect the named species to a cause of their endangerment? 26. The Puritan tiger beetle is a narrow range species at risk of catastrophe. 27. The rainbow trout is at risk from hybridization. 28. The large blue butterfly is at risk from co-extinction. 29. The heath hen is at risk from recent climate change. 30. Cone shells are at risk because of their use in biomedical research.
A A A B A
Which of the following statements about the design of reserve networks are true? 11. Large reserves are generally better than small reserves. 12. All other things being equal, the best shape for a reserve is generally a circle. 13. Several small reserves can sometimes be better than one large reserve of equal area. 14. Small reserves are always more effective when they are widely spaced. 15. Maximizing the amount of edge habitat in a reserve network is important.
A A A B B
Which of the following could be considered keystone species? 16. Wolves. 17. Beavers. 18. Oak trees. 19. Humans. 20. Krill.
A A B A A
Which of the following examples are correct? 11. Animal Planet, the cable TV channel, derives from a cultural ecosystem service. 12. Vultures provide ecosystem services that are threatened by painkiller use. 13. Bushmeat is an example of a supporting ecosystem service. 14. The disappearance of wolves from Connecticut is an example of extirpation. 15. Humans are an example of an ecosystem engineer.
A A B A A
Which of the following statements about ecosystem services are correct? 16. Increased nitrogen use, in the form of fertilizers, has provided an important ecosystem service to humans. 17. Increased nitrogen use, in the form of fertilizers, has created "dead zones" in the world's oceans. 18. High biodiversity is nearly always found in places that provide a lot of ecosystem services. 19. The magnitude of pollination services depends on the proximity of natural habitats. 20. Ecosystem services are the basis for human well-being.
A A B A A
Recently, some researchers put forward their plans to use genetic techniques to clone passenger pigeons from DNA obtained from museum specimens in order to bring the species back from extinction. Which of the following statements related to this endeavor are correct? 11. Before its extinction the passenger pigeon was perhaps the most common land bird on Earth, with a single flock estimated to contain about 2 billion birds. 12. To produce a viable population of passenger pigeons, the researchers are likely to need genetic material from a lot of individuals. 13. Passenger pigeons went extinct because they were an island endemic. 14. If successful, this would be a first because endangered species have never been cloned before. 15. If cloning is successful, the population should be increased to 500 individuals before it is considered safe from extinction.
A A B B B
The CT DEEP plans to restore an area of grassland on an old landfill in Hartford. The goal is to restore all of the ecological functions of the historic grasslands, but only some of the species that occurred there historically because the site is too small to support area-sensitive species. Which of the following statements about the project apply? 1. This project is an example of site rehabilitation. 2. This project meets the Society of Ecological Restoration's definition of ecological restoration. 3. Doing nothing more than putting topsoil on the landfill is one option for restoration. 4. A good reference site for this project would be a natural grassland with the full complement of functions and species that the DEEP hopes to see at the restored site. 5. Controls should be set up to determine whether active restoration was necessary.
A B A A A
Which of the following is a component of biological diversity? 21. Interactions among species. 22. Abiotic factors, such as temperature. 23. Species richness. 24. DNA differences among humans. 25. Species evenness.
A B A A A
Large nest boxes are commonly used to help manage for wood ducks. Which of the following recommendations would reduce the effectiveness of using nest boxes to manage this species? 26. Clumping boxes in groups of ten. 27. Hiding boxes deep in the woods. 28. Building boxes with two compartments. 29. Placing boxes in a dense tangle of vegetation. 30. Placing boxes on tall poles in the middle of a pond.
A B A B A
One of the best studies to examine the characteristics of successful invading species involved birds introduced to New Zealand. In this study, what were the best predictors of invasion success? 11. The number of individuals released. 12. Reproductive rates. 13. The number of potential competitors. 14. Life spans. 15. The number of introduction attempts.
A B B B A
Which of the following statements about global change are accurate? 6. A major effect of increasing atmospheric CO2 is that the world's oceans are becoming more acidic. 7. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are at their lowest point in 400,000 years. 8. A major reanalysis of global temperature data that was conducted recently suggests that warming trends are quite different from what previous analyses have predicted. 9. Melting of Arctic sea ice is predicted to cause sea-levels to rise over the next century. 10. Increased air-travel by humans is likely to increase the spread of disease organisms.
A B B B A
Which of the following statements about the global reserve network are accurate? 16. About 4% of the world's land surface is strictly protected. 17. Marine reserves cover a greater area than terrestrial reserves. 18. The rate at which additional land is protected has slowed considerably in the past few decades. 19. In the U.S., all marine protected areas exclude activities such as fishing, oil extraction and recreational boating in order to protect biodiversity. 20. One advantage of captive breeding over the creation of reserves is the reduced cost.
A B B B B
Which of the following statements about the equation, Ht+1 = (1 - 1/2Ne)Ht, are true? 31. Ne is the number of individuals in the population. 32. Ht is a measure of the amount of genetic variation in the population. 33. If you do these calculations, Ht+1 will always be smaller than Ht. 34. The equation describes the effect of genetic drift on a population. 35. The equation describes changes in genetic diversity in a population.
B A A A A
Which of these statements about the role of stochasticity in population models are correct? 6. Catastrophic events are a type of demographic stochasticity. 7. Random variation in the number of offspring produced by each individual in a population is a type of stochasticity. 8. Adding stochasticity to a model makes the resulting conclusions more useful. 9. Adding stochasticity to a model makes the resulting conclusions less certain. 10. Genetic drift is a stochastic process.
B A A A A
Why is it difficult to use observational field studies to determine the MVP for a species? 21. Because it is impossible to estimate the amount of environmental stochasticity. 22. Because it typically takes a long time. 23. Because estimating MVP requires that you track multiple populations. 24. Because the data are difficult, or impossible, to gather. 25. Because many people view it as unethical to let a population decline without doing something.
B A A A A
Based on what I have told you in lectures, which of these places are likely to be species richness hotspots? 1. Alaska. 2. Madagascar. 3. The South American Andes. 4. Easter Island. 5. The ocean between Australia and SE Asia.
B A A B A
Which of the following statements correctly link a species with the factors that threaten it? 16. Sea turtles are threatened because they are poor dispersers. 17. Red-cockaded woodpeckers are threatened because they require specific habitat conditions that are rare. 18. Large blue butterflies are threatened because they are extreme habitat specialists. 19. Flattened musk turtles are threatened because they hybridize with other turtle species. 20. Vultures are threatened by overuse of painkillers in farming.
B A A B A
Which of these conservation actions would be considered representative of the declining population paradigm? 16. Translocating northern quolls to an island where they will be safe from invasive species that threaten them. 17. Reducing the spread of invasive species. 18. Developing a land protection strategy that helps to keep common species common. 19. Captive breeding for the critically endangered California condor population. 20. Implementing sustainable harvest management for waterfowl.
B A A B A
A group of researchers has created a demographic model to estimate the extinction risk for Sumatran rhinos. The model is designed to determine the probability that the current population of 275 animals will go extinct within the next 100 years. All of the data for the model come from a detailed, long term study of birth and death rates from the wild population. The researchers conducted 10,000 simulations, and found that the population went extinct in 150 of them. Which of the following statements are true? 11. The model is deterministic. 12. The model includes uncertainty in the population's trajectory. 13. According to the model, the population has at least a 90% chance of persisting for 100 years. 14. According to the model, environmental stochasticity is a major threat to the persistence of this population. 15. The species is completely safe from extinction.
B A A B B
Which of the following statements about the effective population size are true? 21. It is usually 2-3 times greater than the census population size. 22. It is a theoretical measure of how many individuals contribute their genes to future generations. 23. It is affected by the sex ratio, population size fluctuations, and reproductive variation. 24. The smaller the effective population size the smaller the risk of inbreeding. 25. It can be used to estimate the rate at which species richness declines.
B A A B B
Which of the following statements about extinction are correct? 21. A good way to define extinction is that a species has not been detected for 50 years. 22. The term extinction debt refers to extinctions that are expected to happen due to past actions. 23. In the Singapore extinction study discussed in class, extinctions rates were uniformly high across habitats and taxonomic groups. 24. One way to determine whether a species is likely to be extant is to look at the length of the time gaps between past sightings. 25. Because of extinction debt, scientists have suggested that only about half of the extinctions that will ultimately be caused by habitat losses will occur within the first 50 years.
B A B A A
Why did heath hens go extinct? 1. Because no land was protected for them. 2. Because their habitat was destroyed. 3. Because they are a long-lived species, with high reproductive rates. 4. Because a harsh winter killed many individuals. 5. Because they were hunted.
B A B A A
The town of Mansfield is conducting a study of the effects of clearing invasive plants in town parks. They want to know whether using pesticides is more effective than removing plants by mechanical means. To study this question, they plan to use pesticides throughout one of their parks and mechanical methods at another. They will then measure the number of invasive plants in fifty 1-m2 plots at each park and compare the two sets of numbers. Which of the following statements are accurate? 21. The management treatments in this study are well replicated. 22. Ideally the investigators would determine which park gets which type of management, randomly. 23. A strength of this study is the use of controls. 24. A strength of this study is the absence of confounding factors. 25. With this study design the investigators cannot answer their question very well.
B A B B A
Using data collected from vets, researchers have studied the mortality rate of cats that have fallen from buildings to see whether the height of the fall influences the chance that the cat will die. Surprisingly, they found that cats that fall from floors 1-5 were more likely to die than those that fell from higher up (floors 6-32). Why was this? 6. Falling from high up gives the cats time to position themselves so that they land safely. 7. The data are biased. 8. A mean is being compared to a median. 9. Fewer cats fall from high floors than low floors. 10. Vets don't see most of the cats that fall from higher floors.
B A B B A
Which of the following statements about species richness are generally true? 6. Richness increases with increasing latitude. 7. Richness is highest in the tropics. 8. Richness is higher on islands than on the mainland. 9. Richness is highest at high elevations. 10. Richness is highest in hotspots.
B A B B A
Which of these statements about habitat loss are true? 6. The area of tropical rainforest destroyed each year is about the same as the area of Connecticut. 7. About half of the wetland habitat in the U.S. (excluding Alaska) has been lost in the last two centuries. 8. Most habitat loss is caused by urban development. 9. Well over half the coral reef habitat in the world has been lost or severely damaged. 10. Habitat loss and degradation affects more endangered species in the US than any other threat.
B A B B A
Conservation biologists frequently make inferences based on imperfect knowledge and extrapolation. Which of the following statements, based on extrapolation, are reasonable? 31. Identifying biodiversity hotspots based on well-studied groups of organisms will ensure the protection of all groups. 32. Data deficient species are so numerous that it is impossible to compare modern extinction rates to those in the past. 33. If a data deficient species is declining, habitat loss is probably a contributing factor. 34. Protecting habitat in the lowland tropics is likely to benefit more species than protecting habitat in the montane boreal zone. 35. If a terrestrial species has declined due to habitat loss, it is likely that agriculture is the cause.
B B A A A
Which of the following statements about over-harvest are true? 21. Species with high reproductive rates are most vulnerable to over-harvest. 22. Over-harvest tends to affect endangered US plants more than animals. 23. Bush-meat is exported from Africa for profit. 24. Many marine species are threatened by over-harvest even though they have no commercial value. 25. The annual harvest of millions of mourning doves is sustainable.
B B A A A
How does the current rate of extinction compare to the background rate? 6. They are about the same. 7. Both are estimated to be greater than 10,000 species/year. 8. The current rate might be as much as ten thousand times greater than the background rate. 9. The current rate is estimated to be about 100-1000 times greater than the background rate. 10. Comparisons between the two numbers are meaningless.
B B A A B
Which of the following statements about the species that remain to be described by scientists are true? 11. About half of all species on Earth have been described. 12. Species that remain to be described are all found in the tropics. 13. New species continue to be described in the United States. 14. New species of mammals continue to be described. 15. Most species that remain to be described are plants.
B B A A B
Climate change has been predicted to cause many changes in the future. For which of the following things, is there already good evidence? 1. Growing season lengths have declined. 2. Net primary production by plants in the Amazon Basin has declined. 3. Sea-levels are rising faster than IPCC reports have predicted. 4. Arctic permafrost is spreading. 5. Many species have shifted their geographic ranges to the north.
B B A B A
Why are there more endangered species in Hawaii than in California? (5 points) 26. Hawaii has more large species than California. 27. Hawaiian species have more complex life-histories than Californian species. 28. Hawaii is a group of remote islands. 29. Humans have destroyed more habitat in Hawaii than in California. 30. Introduced predators have a bigger impact on island species than on mainland species.
B B A B A
The black-footed ferret is an endangered species that has been bred in captivity. A new release program is being designed to establish a new population in the wild. Which of the following recommendations would benefit the organizers of the release? 6. Once the release has been done, stay well away from the release site at all times so as to not disturb the animals. 7. Release as few individuals as possible to minimize the risk of something going wrong. 8. Augment populations at regular intervals to simulate immigration. 9. Avoid soft releases. 10. Choose a release site near the periphery of the species' former range.
B B A B B
Which of the following statements about extinction are correct? 11. Mass extinctions have been very common throughout geological time. 12. Extinction rates were far higher during past mass extinctions than they are today. 13. Extinction is a natural process. 14. Extinction rates in marine species are much higher than for terrestrial species. 15. Extinction rates in birds are very similar to all other groups.
B B A B B
Why is it easier to set up a captive breeding program for plants than animals? 1. Plants can persist with much smaller population sizes than animals. 2. Plants generally require more specialized breeding conditions than do animals. 3. Maintaining plants ex-situ usually requires less space than animals. 4. Double-clutching is easier in plants than animals. 5. Genetic drift is more severe in animals than in plants.
B B A B B
The following statement compares dolphin survival in captivity versus the wild: "Calculations taken from the study showed that on average the expected life span of a bottle-nosed dolphin in captivity could be as little as 14 years, while in the wild the dolphin could live twenty to twenty-nine years." What can you accurately conclude from this statement? 26. Keeping dolphins in captivity harms them. 27. Dolphins live longer in the wild than in captivity. 28. Captive breeding is unlikely to be a good strategy for dolphin conservation. 29. The mean life span of a captive dolphin is 14 years. 30. The median life span of a wild dolphin is 20-29 years.
B B B B B
Which of the following statements about species endangerment are correct? 26. In Wilcove et al.'s study of endangered species in the U.S., most species were threatened by habitat loss alone. 27. In the same study, disease was found to affect about 40% of all species. 28. The IUCN has conducted complete assessments of all of the world's species to provide information on how many are endangered. 29. IUCN assessments are based only on population size and known threats. 30. In an analysis of potential future extinctions, Thomas et al. found that climate change alone is likely to cause a 6th mass extinction.
B B B B B