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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did sailors describe the dodo?

2. What did the dodo eat?

3. What does Quammen interject into his historical narrative about ecosystem studies?

4. What were theories of species evolution based on in Wallace's time?

5. How would you describe Quammen's style?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the process by which scientists generate policies for managing ecosystems.

2. What factors have effectively broken the Persian rug of nature into pieces, according to Quammen?

3. What was the understanding about the variety of life forms before the theory of evolution came along?

4. Who is Philip Darlington, and what was his contribution to the discussion of island size and species count?

5. What example does Quammen draw from the island of Guam?

6. What is archipelago speciation?

7. What practical assertion does Quammen say Frank Preston made based on his findings?

8. What is trophic cascade?

9. What is the difference between an isolate and a sample, according to Quammen?

10. What does Quammen say about the overall pattern of the Persian rug?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How realistic is this book? What parts are not believable? What leaps of faith does the author require of the reader?

Essay Topic 2

Is Quammen somehow at fault for not making solid proposals for how to mitigate switch loss? Is his informative book somehow flawed for failing to make recommendations? Debate this proposition using examples from the book.

Essay Topic 3

Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the scientific methods used to measure and assess island biogeography. What do we gain by way of insight and understanding? What patterns or trends does the data fail to account for?

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