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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did Wilson and MacArthur say about the immigration of new species in an island ecosystem?
(a) That it depended on external events and compatibility of food sources.
(b) That it was a regular occurrence.
(c) That it typically only followed natural disasters like volcanoes erupting.
(d) That it depended on the defenses of the species already there. That it depended on external events and compatibility of food sources.

2. What environment is NOT analogous to an island, according to Quammen?
(a) Cave.
(b) Mountaintop.
(c) Savannah.
(d) Lake.

3. What did this species do in the location where Quammen was told to look for them?
(a) Hibernated.
(b) Fed.
(c) Migrated.
(d) Mated.

4. How many individuals were thought to be necessary to prevent harmful inbreeding?
(a) 200.
(b) 500.
(c) 5,000.
(d) 50.

5. What was the species Quammen sought called by locals?
(a) Mistoquot.
(b) Majib.
(c) Cenderwasih.
(d) Ranuren.

6. What condition would help a species breed out harmful genes?
(a) Exposure to many similar species.
(b) Inbreeding.
(c) Widespread breeding.
(d) Isolation.

7. Where does Quammen say the theory of island ecology now applies?
(a) In mountainous regions.
(b) In microclimates.
(c) In caves.
(d) In the mainlands as well.

8. What does Lawrence Abele study?
(a) Coral.
(b) Birds.
(c) Komodo dragons.
(d) Tasmanian tigers.

9. How long did Wilson and MacArthur predict it would take for species to reach equilibrium on Krakatau?
(a) 50 years.
(b) 40 years.
(c) 100 years.
(d) 75 years.

10. What was the consequence of the Simberloff and Abele article?
(a) A chaos as scientists didn't know which theory to believe.
(b) A raging debate about theory.
(c) A shift to a new theory about speciation.
(d) A return to the old paradigm of large reserves holding more species.

11. What was the previous theory that governed speciation on islands?
(a) That greater distance reduced the number of species.
(b) That more remote islands required more specialized traits for survival.
(c) That islands closer to land were more prone to extinctions, which sometimes reduced the variety of species.
(d) That there was too little data and too much inconsistency to formulate a rule.

12. What did William Newmark determine in his findings?
(a) That species count and reserve area correlated.
(b) That the number of species is less valuable than the number of predators in indicating the health of an ecosystem.
(c) That species count and reserve area are not always correlated.
(d) That species proliferate differently in different kinds of ecosystems.

13. What is the central message of Quammen's book?
(a) The twenty-first century will see unprecedented species loss.
(b) Unless something is done soon, we will lose much of our wilderness, and many species of plants and animals.
(c) Ingenuity and hard work can save the habitats and protect the breeding populations of many animals that might be lost.
(d) Habitat destruction is breaking ecosystems into islands, but species can survive in islands.

14. What did Wilson and MacArthur argue influenced the number of species on an island?
(a) The altitude of its mountains.
(b) The island's distance from the mainland.
(c) The fertility of the soil, or temperature of the water.
(d) A natural rhythm of immigration and extinction.

15. How does Quammen's visit to Aru compare with Wallace's?
(a) It inspires another revolutionary concept about evolution.
(b) It creates another new field of scientific inquiry.
(c) It pales in comparison.
(d) It provides a closing chapter to something Wallace began in the nineteenth century.

Short Answer Questions

1. What had happened to the smaller reserves in Lovejoy's plan?

2. What is an indri?

3. What theory did Dan Simberloff and Lawrence Abele challenge in an article?

4. What is the literary term for the final chapter?

5. Why were people cutting down the forests in the place where Lovejoy implemented his plan?

(see the answer keys)

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