Conservation Bio Final Exam Answers

A person, company, etc. with a concern or interest in ensuring the success of an enterprise or endeavor is a an _____

stakeholder

According to Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic, we humans _____

are an integral part of nature, i.e., a member of the "land community"

According to Pope Franciss second encyclical, he criticizes humans _____

consumerism, irresponsible economic development, and degradation of the environment

According to the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, an individual organism that has dignity should be considered worth which price?

Priceless

According to the Jaina Worldview, one should practice which of the following?

Non-injury of all living things

According to the Phylogenetic Species Concept, a species is _____

the minimum monophyletic population that shares a diagnosable character

Air masses in the Hadley cells _____ at about 30 degrees north and south of the equator.

descend toward the Earth, and take up moisture from the Earth's surface

True or false: Although it is known to occur in humans, instinctive inequity aversion (a kind of inborn fairness instinct) never occurs in non-human animals.

FALSE

True or false: Although it is known to occur very infrequently in humans, cannibalism never occurs in non-human animals.

FALSE

An economic tool that could help determine the value of protecting national parks in which the researchers would assess how much people pay each year to visit them is known as the _____ .

Travel Cost Method

Arrange entities in the scheme of biological organization in order from less-inclusive to more-inclusive.

population -- community -- ecosystem -- biosphere

Bob Costanza and colleagues estimated the value of Earths ecosystem goods and services to be _____ at the time of their estimate.

much more than the total gross world product

Conservation Biologists as a group are concerned about biodiversity _____

at all levels of the taxonomic hierarchy, as well as most levels of biological organization

Conservation Biologists note that the Earth has experienced several mass extinction upheavals in the geologic past. Which mass extinction event are we currently experiencing (we call it the "_____ Mass Extinction")?

Sixth

Ecosystem goods and services refer to _____

resources and processes that nature provides to humans for free

Extinction is generally considered among Conservation Biologist to be a _____ condition for a population.

permanent

For a Cost-Benefit Analysis to recommend that a project may proceed, the following should minimally be true: benefits _____ costs.

greater than

HIPPO is the acronym used by E. O. Wilson to list _____

mechanisms by which humans cause species to go extinct

If a species occurs naturally in Baton Rouge and Lafayette (both in Louisiana), but nowhere else on the planet, it could be said to be endemic to _____

Louisiana

If a species occurs naturally in Baton Rouge and Lafayette (both in Louisiana), but nowhere else on the planet, it could be said to be endemic to _____

North America

In a benefit:cost ratio of 100:1, the benefits _____ the costs.

are greater than

In a representative relative-abundance distribution for a given community of organisms, most species are _________________ .

rare

In a Steady-State Economic Model we would generally aim for the human population to _____ .

achieve a sustainable level and then remain constant

In Conservation Biology what do the letters HIPPO signify (i.e., the acronym provided to us by E. O. Wilson)?

Habitat destruction and degradation; Invasive species; Pollution; Human population; Overexploitation

Less developed countries or regions on Earth have experienced _____ human population growth rates in the past 50 years relative to more developed countries or regions.

relatively higher

More than 50% of humans now live in _____ .

urban areas

Science aims to explain natural phenomena based on _____

natural processes only

Species richness within a collection of individual organisms refers to _____

the number of species

The doubling time of a population that is growing exponentially _____ .

remains constant

The ethical idea that nature has value simply because it exists takes a _____ viewpoint or perspective.

biocentric

The last known individuals of a species are known as _____ .

endlings

The most striking global pattern in the distribution of species-level biodiversity is _____ .

a latitudinal gradient, such that highest diversity occurs around the equator

The population growth rate of a population that is growing exponentially _____

increases steadily

The total biomass of all terrestrial domestic livestock (animals) is _____ the total biomass of all terrestrial wild animals.

much greater than

The total number of humans alive on the planet today is approximately (to the nearest billion) how many?

8 billion

Threats to biodiversity frequently result from multiple interacting causes, which Conservation Biologist frequently refer to as _____ .

stressor synergies

Using the Biological Species Concept, the number of species alive on the planet today is definitely more than _____ .

one million (1,000,000)

What is the name of the prominent Conservation Biologist who wrote "Silent Spring," which helped initiate the 1970s Environmental Movement and the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)?

Rachel Carson

Which of the following are both considered rock-derived nutrients in ecosystems, and that are extracted by humans as raw materials for industry?

Phosphorus (P) and sulfur (S)

Which of the following is not a category in Deborah Rabinowitzs conceptual scheme of rarity?

Body mass or size

Which of the following is not a mechanism of evolution?

Static (unchanging) allele frequency

Which of the following persons is not associated with the Romantic-Transcendental Conservation Ethic as one of its main direct contributors?

Gifford Pinchot

Which of the following statements is the most accurate characterization of ecosystem processes for the global biosphere?

Matter cycles within and energy flows through the global ecosystem.

Which property of the Earth is the principal key to understanding seasonal climatic patterns on the Earth, i.e., changes among seasons throughout the year?

Its revolution around the Sun on a tilted axis

Which quantity have scientists estimated with greater accuracy?

The current human population size.

Which viewpoint of value (which we discussed in class) links directly to the fact that Louisiana’s irises (a type of flowering plant) can be sold for $10 apiece in flower shops, because having them in their homes brings joy to the people who buy them?

anthropocentric

Whittakers dominance-diversity curve is one way to illustrate relative abundance of a sample of organisms. Which value is generally placed on the horizontal axis?

Rank

Who conceived of the idea of the “invisible hand” in free-market economies?

Adam Smith

With respect to the demographic processes of a given population, which two natural processes would necessarily cause a population to decrease (each by removing at least one individual from the population)?

death, emigration

With respect to the demographic processes of a given population, which two natural processes would necessarily cause that population to increase (each by adding at least one individual to the population)?

birth, immigration

After careful consideration of accumulated evidence, the United Nations’ International Panel on Climate Change has determined that _____ .

anthropogenic increases in greenhouse gases is the principal cause of global warming today

True of false: All toxic substances are anthropogenic, i.e., made by humans. Is this true or false?

FALSE

Aquatic eutrophication usually results from abnormally high inputs of which of the following elements?

phosphorus

Aquatic oxygen depletion occurs during eutrophication because _____ the water.

bacteria use oxygen from

Coral bleaching occurs when corals expel their _____ .

zooxanthellae

Do species-area curves generally increase exponentially?

No

Endocrine disruptors directly influence organisms' endocrine systems because the chemicals act as or mimic the body's own _____ .

hormones

Starting from current levels of Earth's surface global temperature and pressure, if atmospheric CO2 concentration were anthropogenically increased, oceanic CO2 concentration would _____ .

increase

Starting from current levels of Earth's global surface temperature and pressure, if global surface temperatures would warm, the concentration of oxygen in seawater would _____ .

decrease

If surface seawater pH were to decrease, the concentration of calcium carbonate in surface seawater would _____ .

decrease

Starting from current levels of Earth's global surface temperature and pressure, if the concentration of hydrogen ions in seawater were to decrease, the ability of corals to form exoskeletons and shell-bearing mollusks to form shells would _____ .

increase

If an environmental toxicant that is anthropogenically introduced into the environment via nonpoint source pollution is found at increasing concentrations from primary producers to consumers, the specific term used to describe that pattern is _____ .

biomagnification

If the per capita growth rate, r, that we used in class is zero, then the population would be _____ in size.

remaining steady, i.e., not changing in size

In a standard space-for-time substitution study of the impact of disturbance, a valid comparison would be _____ .

between two sites that differ in the time since disturbance occurred

In Conservation Biology, alternative stable states (as used in systems theory) exist on either side of a/an _____ .

tipping point

In the original model of Island Biogeography Theory, _____ .

the species present on the island continued to change, even when the number of species was at equilibrium, i.e., the species composition was always in flux

In the original model of Island Biogeography Theory, the _____ decreases as the number of species on the island increases.

immigration rate

In the original model of Island Biogeography Theory, the rate of immigration _____ as the number of species on an island increases.

decreased

In the past 100 million years, has the Earth experienced average surface temperatures at least 2 degrees C warmer than it is today?

Yes

In toxicological studies, LD50 refers to _____ .

the concentration at which half of the test subjects would die

Is Louisiana included in one of the 36 Global Biodiversity Hotspots?

Yes

On a real-world landscape, can habitat loss occur without habitat fragmentation?

Yes

On average, an island that is more isolated from the mainland will have _____ species compared to an otherwise comparable island that is closer to the mainland.

fewer

One generally agreed upon prediction by climatologists and climate modelers is that anthropogenic global warming results in _____ .

a higher frequency of extremely damaging hurricanes

One symptom of the deoxygenation of the ocean is that most of the ocean's oxygen minimum zones (OMZ) are _____ .

expanding

Pleistocene glacial and inter-glacial cycles, with ~41,000 and ~100,000 year periodicities, are causally linked to which characteristic of the Earth, i.e., which of the following cause the cycles?

The Earth's ever-changing orbit.

Relative to common species, rare species generally _____ owing to random events.

suffer the highest extinction probabilities

The _____ is constructed by tallying the "first encounters" of species as the area expands in which the tally was conducted.

species-area relationship

The _____ is constructed by tallying the "last encounter" of species as the area expands of habitat that has been lost.

endemics-area relationship

The current solar energy imbalance for planet Earth means that during 2024, we can expect at the planetary level _____ .

more energy input than energy output

True or false: The only potentially harmful type of pollution to humans or nature is chemical pollution.

FALSE

The per capita growth rate, r, that we used in class includes which two BIDE factors?

the net change in the population measured per individual

The presence of corridors generally _____ among habitat patches, relative to the same configuration of patches without corridors.

increases connectivity

The standard ecological/environmental definition for a/an _____ is a discrete event that removes biomass from a natural community or ecosystem.

disturbance

The target effect in Island Biogeography Theory refers to _____ .

larger islands having higher immigration rates than smaller islands

The term that is used for the anthropogenic activity that occurs on a given parcel of land is: _____ .

land use

What does glacial retreat mean?

Glacial ice is melting.

What is the name of the atmospheric carbon dioxide monitoring curve from Mauna Loa, Hawaii?

Keeling

When a liquid becomes more acidic, the pH _____ .

decreases

When Paul Ehrlich describes science as an "adversary game," he means that _____ .

a scientist makes an important contribution when their sound evidence falsifies another scientist's hypothesis

Which category of pollution source is generally considered to have a single identifiable source of negligible extent?

Point Source

Which current governor of Louisiana at least once recently declared that anthropogenic climate change is a "hoax"?

Jeff Landry

Which of the following is not generally an environmental concern for microplastics?

They are radioactive.

Which of the following would not be considered to be a form of "energy pollution" in the way we discussed this term in class?

excessive numbers of batteries in a garbage dump

Which type of disturbance results in killing all resident organisms in a site, leaving a "blank slate" for future colonization?

catastrophic

Which type of stochasticity would be simulated by flipping a coin once to determine whether the entire population experiences a good or bad year for any given year's reproductive effort?

environmental

Which United Nations agreement focused specifically on protection of the ozone layer?

Montreal Protocol

Which United Nations agreement focused specifically on stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations?

Kyoto Protocol

Why is the current mass extinction unique?

It is caused by humans.

Without any greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere, Earth’s average temperature would be _____ .

colder than it is today