BI-100- First Year Science Seminar Final

Science, Society, and the Biosphere exam

How did the arrival of the first humans on what are now known as the Hawaiian Islands

affect the pre-human ecosystems of the islands?

(Rapa Nui)Did the inhabitants destroy the pre-human ecosystem,

or did they adapt a sustainable way of life on a harsh, isolated, and resource-poor

island?

What did the Portuguese mariners of the 1400s learn that enabled them to become

Europe’s pre-eminent open-ocean sailors?

What is guano?

How did guano contribute to the various disparities between Euro-American

and Indigenous populations in and around the Pacific?

Why were European and American whalers hunting whales in the Pacific Ocean in the

period between 1760 and 1860? There are at least two reasons.

What effects did whaling in the Pacific have on the indigenous human

populations of Pacific island societies?

Why were the pre-contact populations so beautiful and healthy?

What happened? Why the huge population declines following European contact?(Of hawaiian islands)

Describe the “Thrifty Gene” hypothesis, and the “metabolism scales with size”

phenomenon.