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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through The Coming Thing.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is a trophic cascade?
(a) The consequences of habitat depletion.
(b) The cycle of expansion and contraction in animal populations.
(c) The result of change in one species' hunting habits.
(d) The interrelation between species.

2. What did the dodo eat?
(a) Small mammals and snakes.
(b) Fruit.
(c) Other birds.
(d) Insects.

3. What does Quammen say Wallace developed in South America?
(a) A clear vision of the profits to be made in providing scientists with specimens.
(b) A deep devotion to the science of zoology.
(c) A terrifying vision of the destruction of ecosystems.
(d) A sharp eye for different traits in insects.

4. How many species did Wilson and MacArthur predict would establish an equilibrium in Krakatau?
(a) 500.
(b) 50.
(c) 30.
(d) 250.

5. What was Tasmania's environmental history, according to Quammen?
(a) It was separated from Australia by water.
(b) It was isolated by a growing mountain range in India.
(c) It experienced a catastrophic eruption that killed off everything on the island, before life returned slowly.
(d) It was formed by a volcano in the sea.

Short Answer Questions

1. What ecosystem does Wallace distinguish from ecosystems that developed in isolation?

2. What was Carl Jones trying to rescue in Mauritius?

3. What rule governs the relationship between the size of an island and the number of species it can support?

4. What were the first plants to arrive after the eruption of Krakatau?

5. What does Quammen use as an example of an island?

(see the answer key)

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