Name __________________________________
Period ____________
Biodiversity Reading Guide/ Study Guide
Read Pages 108 -122 in your text book
1. What is biodiversity?
2. Describe the three types of biodiversity:
Genetic diversity
Species diversity
Ecological diversity
3. What is a biodiversity hotspot?
4. Where are most of the world’s biodiversity hotspots located?
Benefits of Biodiversity
5. Roughly, what percentage of prescriptions contain some sort of natural product?
6. What plant is vinblastine and vincristine dervived from?
7. Where is this plant naturally found?
8. Describe the fatality rate of childhood leukemia before and after vinblastine and
vincristine were introduced into cancer drugs.
9. Look at table 5.2 on page 110 to find other medicines we obtain from organisms.
How would your life be affected if these medicines did not exist due to the
extinction of organisms that provide us with these products?
Biodiversity can support ecosystem stability
10. What 8 ecological services are provided by other organisms?
11. If biodiversity dramatically decreased and humans had to pay for these services,
how much money would it cost us?
Biodiversity has aesthetic and cultural benefits
12. Give an example of aesthetic benefits of biodiversity
13. How many species go extinct in undisturbed ecosystems every decade?
14. With current human interaction, how many species go extinct every day?
Human Activities have Sharply increased extinctions
15. If present trends continue, how many of the current species could be extinct by
the middle of the twenty first century?
16. What does HIPPO stand for?
Habitat destruction is the main threat for many species
17. What is the biggest reason for destruction of forests?
18. Why did the northern spotted owl begin to disappear?
Fragmentation reduces habitat to small, isolated patches
19. What is habitat fragmentation?
20. Name three reasons why breaking up habitats reduces biodiversity?
21. How does fragmentation make populations more vulnerable to catastrophic events?
Invasive species are a growing threat
22. What is an invasive species?
23. What are synonyms of invasive species?
24. Name two reasons why people move species from other habitats into the United
States?
25. Describe how the shipment of nursery stock from China in 1904 affected the
American chestnut.
Pollution poses many different types of risk
26. How did common pesticides such as DDT, PCB’s and dioxins affect animals?
27. How are ducks, swans, and cranes introduced to lead?
28. How many waterfowl die each year from lead poisoning?
29. How does human population growth threaten biodiversity?
Overharvesting had depleted or eliminated many species
30. What is overharvesting?
31. What type of animals are being overharvested in Africa?
32. What threat does overharvesting have on the health of humans?
Commercial Collection serves medicinal and pet trades
33. What type of animals are captured and sold in the pet trade?
34. How does using cyanide used in fish capture hurt the environment (2 ways)?
Predator and pest control is expensive but widely practiced
35. Why are coyotes, bobcats, and prairie dog killed by the US government?
Endangered Species Management and Biodiversity Protection
36. Why is it legal to hunt animals certain times of the year but illegal at other times?
37. What is ESA?
38. What is the difference between the following terms:
Endangered species
Threatened species
Vulnerable species
39. Why have 18 species gone extinct since being nominated for protection?
40. What is the Fish and Wildlife Service required to do once a species is officially
listed as endangered?
41. How much money does the US spend in the recovery plan of all currently listed
species?
42. Our funding priorities are not always based on biology rather based on what?
Controversy persists in species protection
43. What is the major controversy among landowners in species protection?
44. What are the costs to consumers, barge traffic, and farmers by protecting the
salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River?
Many countries have laws for species protection
45. What is CITIES?
46. What does CITIES do?
47. What is gap analysis?