Biodiversity and Conservation Flashcards
7 cards from real Ecology practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Biodiversity and Conservation flashcards as text
Which biodiversity hotspot is home to the greatest number of endemic plant species relative to its area?
Answer: Cape Floristic Region of South Africa
The Cape Floristic Region has exceptional plant endemism—over 6,200 endemic species—in a relatively small area, making it one of the most botanically diverse places on Earth.
Which ecological concept explains why island biogeography predicts more species on larger islands?
Answer: Larger islands have greater habitat diversity and support larger populations less prone to stochastic extinction
Larger islands offer more habitat types and sustain larger populations, reducing extinction probability and allowing more species to coexist.
What is 'bioprospecting' in the context of biodiversity?
Answer: Searching wild organisms for commercially valuable compounds like medicines or enzymes
Bioprospecting is the systematic search of biodiversity for biological resources with potential commercial value, raising ethical questions about access and benefit sharing.
The Allee effect describes a situation in which:
Answer: A population's per-capita fitness or growth rate decreases at very low population sizes
The Allee effect occurs when individuals in small or sparse populations have reduced fitness due to difficulty finding mates, cooperative defense failure, or inbreeding.
Which measure best captures functional biodiversity rather than species richness alone?
Answer: Trait diversity across species in a community
Functional diversity quantifies the range of ecological roles (traits) present in a community, reflecting how species contribute to ecosystem processes.
The '30x30' global biodiversity target adopted at COP15 (Kunming-Montreal, 2022) commits nations to protecting what fraction of Earth by 2030?
Answer: 30% of land and 30% of ocean
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework's 30x30 target aims to conserve 30% of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine areas by 2030.
Which process most directly drives speciation in isolated populations over time?
Answer: Genetic drift and natural selection acting independently in each population
When populations are isolated, genetic drift and divergent natural selection cause allele frequencies to diverge, eventually leading to reproductive isolation and new species.