Global Science

Biodiversity Reading

Pages 506-512

Answer these questions on your own SENBP. Do NOT copy the question. Just write the answer in complete sentences and legibly.

1. Define biosphere.
2. Contrast the terms biotic and abiotic,
3. What is a species?
4. Place these terms in order from smallest to largest:

Biome – Community – Organism – Population

5. What is biodiversity?
6. What are some effects of smog on biodiversity?
7. How did draining the Everglades effect biodiversity?
8. What does it mean to become extinct?
9. Why is extinction such a big issue now?
10. Why is biodiversity important to a species of plants?
11. What happens in a simple ecosystem if one species disappears? Give an example to support your answer.
12. What does periwinkle have to do with the importance of biodiversity?
13. How are sea urchins, kelp and sea otters related? How do they illustrate the importance of biodiversity?
14. What was the population low of the whooping crane and when was that low?
15. How did reducing the use of chemical pesticides affect the population by 1999? Give some evidence to support this.
16. Why is it difficult for some populations to recover from low numbers? Use the whooping crane as your example.