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Social Sciences
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English (U.S.)
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Biodiversity Questions

Essay Instructions:

Please answer all of the following questions. Each answer should be one half-page in length minimum. You should support your answers with examples and information from the readings. (100 points)
26) Why are top predators so rare and green plants so common in terrestrial ecological communities? Please provide examples of each to support your answer.
27) Name at least two groups of organisms that do not fit the biological-species concept and describe why. Which species concept best fits the groups you have chosen and why?
28) Describe how adaptive radiations develop. Please provide two examples to support your answer.
29) Why is there no single overall measure of biodiversity?
30) Why does species diversity increase as one moves from the poles to the equator? Identify and describe two prevailing hypotheses explaining latitudinal gradients in biodiversity.

Essay Sample Content Preview:

Biodiversity
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Biodiversity
1 Why are top predators, so rare and green plants so common in terrestrial ecological communities? Please provide examples of each to support your answer.
Plants are producers that make food from sunshine. Plants are consumed by herbivores. Carnivores eat the herbivores. On each occasion something is eaten in this food chain, the amount of energy gets less. This continues until at the utmost apex of the food chain. At the end, the available resources will be able to support only a few individual species. In terrestrial ecosystems, top predators are likely to put a limit to predators of small populations.. This could lead to extinctions. Fisher et al., (2006) argue that top predators help in protecting many species of prey indirectly from excessive predation. In Australia, for example, there has been one of the greatest mammal deterioration and disappearance. The main cause for this extinction and decline has been the introduction of mid-sized predators, including the feral cat and the red fox. The decline of dingo, the largest predator in Australia had a role in the extinctions of feral cat and red fox. As a result, the rarity of dingoes allowed smaller predators permitted lesser to overcome the marsupial prey. This triggered extinction throughout the continent. Hence this is good evidence in the argument that the topmost predators retain the status of prey diversity in a big margin in terrestrial ecosystem (Fisher et al, 2006).
2 Name at least two groups of organisms that do not fit the biological-species concept and describe why. Which species concept best fits the groups you have chosen and why?
The biological-species concept is a set of, possibly, or actually interbreeding organisms. For instance, Homo sapiens can successfully interbreed with one another, but this cannot happen with any other species. The set of genes that are found in an interbreeding population are referred to as gene pool. Therefore, members of a given species are part of or contribute common gene pool. This pool is the one that contains all various forms of genetic diversity within the species. There are several living organisms that asexually reproduce. For instance, the bacteria are known to replicate themselves. While procaryotes undergo sexual reproduction, they do not excahnage genes. The phenomenon is even applicable in advanced creatures like some salamanders and lizards that do not undergo sexual reproduction (Ucdavis, 2015). All populations of these creatures are females and lay eggs. The eggs are never fertilized even though they hatch as females. The cycle goes on and on. Asexual reproduction is even easier among plants as many reproduce through budding. Examples include Bermuda grass and strawberries as do dandelions that reproduce without any sex (Ucdavis, 2015).
3 Describe how adaptive radiations develop. Please provide two examples to support your answer
The process by which organisms rapidly diversify into a new form multitude through a change in the environment is referred to as adaptive radiation. This occurs particularly when new resources are made available via environmental change. . This change also unlocks niches in the envi...
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