Ecology practice questions PDF

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CH 23 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.

Define conservation biology Why are rates of extinction difficult to measure? How are extinction rates estimated? What is the background extinction rate for mammals and birds? How may plant species were lost due to European colonization What do the estimates of current extinction rates rely on? What is the current extinction rate for mammals and birds? Describe what happened to the gray wolf and its impact on the ecosystem Define a secondary extinction What are the 6 primary threats to biodiversity a. What can be defined as the most important one How might have biomass declined as populations declined for certain fish species? What percentage of earths land surface have humans modified? What percentage of primary production is going to us Define habitat loss Define habitation fragmentation Define habitat degradation

CH 24 1. Define a landscape 2. What do landscape ecologists look at a. What do these patterns influence 3. Why is creating landscape heterogeneity so important a. Talk about soils 4. What do habitat loss and fragmentation do to populations 5. What does fragmentation result in 6. Define edge effects 7. Why do more species go extinct after habitat fragmentation? a. Predation wise b. Resource wise c. Range wise d. Could species flourish after fragmentation as well? i. Why is this 8. Which trophic level is hit the hardest after fragmentation a. What can this lead to (disease wise) 9. In what ways can edge effect affect the environment in the fragment? 10. What is usually ideal for a landscape 11. Why might smaller or disconnected landscapes be more desirable considering diseases? 12. Define buffer zones and a pro and con 13. Which would be better a. Smaller or bigger reserve size b. One big or multiple small fragments c. Fragments close or far d. Fragments connected or not e. Reserve round or flat

f. Buffer zones or not 14. Define cascade effects CH 25 1. Describe the global carbon cycle 2. Describe the sulfur cycle 3. How does carbon get from the atmosphere to vegetation? a. Vegetation to soils? b. Soils to benthic sediments? c. What respires carbon back to the atmosphere? d. How does carbon get to deep ocean waters 4. Where is most of the carbon kept? 5. Where does most of the carbon in the deep waters come from? a. How does temp affect carbon dropping to the deep waters? 6. Describe how fossil fuels release carbon 7. Where is carbon retained for a long time? 8. How does soil respire? 9. What is the breakdown of anthropogenic fuel sources 10. How does deforestation increase the rates of decomposition and respiration? 11. What is the biggest carbon sink? a. What is the negative of this 12. Why are shelled organism suffering due to the ocean absorbing carbon? a. How are coral reefs suffering? 13. How is CH4 emitted naturally? a. Anthropogenically? 14. Differentiate climate and weather 15. How has excess sulfur affected waters?...