View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How was the minimum viable population theory applied in Texas?
(a) Officials wanted to know how many invasive fish they would have to kill off to collapse the population.
(b) Officials wanted to create an open season for hunting mountain lions.
(c) Officials wanted to know if a dam would destroy too much habitat for an endangered snake.
(d) Officials wanted to determine how much development could take place without damaging the viability of a species of water bird.

2. What is the tone of the final chapter?
(a) Foreboding.
(b) Dire.
(c) Portentous.
(d) Optimistic.

3. What was Lovejoy trying to determine with his plan?
(a) An ideal size for a nature reserve.
(b) An ideal number of reserves for a landscape.
(c) An ideal number of species per acre.
(d) A critical number of ecosystems for a conservation strategy.

4. How did Wilson and MacArthur test their theory about recolonization?
(a) By studying data from the ancient city of Atlantis.
(b) By studying new volcanic islands in the South Seas.
(c) By returning year after year to a small island off Tasmania.
(d) By fumigating an island in the Florida Keys.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What was the previous theory that governed speciation on islands?

2. How did Quammen get to Aru?

3. Who confirmed to Quammen that this site in fact existed?

4. What distinguished this species for Quammen? Wallace had discovered it there a hundred years ago. Darwin had developed his theory of evolve from observing it. Englishmen had lost their fortunes hunting for specimens.

5. How many species did Wilson and MacArthur predict would establish an equilibrium in Krakatau?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where was Quammen sent, in order to find what he was looking for?

2. What does Quammen say about applying the case of the Mauritius kestrel to other species?

3. What was the practical example of species management Quammen cited from Texas?

4. How does Quammen describe Bedo's death?

5. How did Krakatau serve as evidence for MacArthur and Wilson's thesis?

6. What is the concept of the minimum viable population?

7. What data did Simberloff and Abele deploy in challenging this theory?

8. What did people argue over in the wake of Simberloff and Abele's 1976 article?

9. Who was Thomas Lovejoy, and what was his reaction to the debate Simberloff and Abele began?

10. What conclusion dis scientists reach in the Texas case?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 996 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample