All flashcards
Flashcard 1: What is assisted migration (managed relocation)?
Answer: Moving species to suitable habitats as climate conditions shift. Helps species track suitable climate conditions as they shift.
Flashcard 2: What is sustainable yield in wildlife or fishery management?
Answer: A harvest level that can be maintained without long-term decline. Balances harvest with population's natural regeneration capacity.
Flashcard 3: Which policy tool directly limits overexploitation: harvest quotas or habitat corridors?
Answer: Harvest quotas. Sets harvest limits to prevent overexploitation of species.
Flashcard 4: What is overexploitation as a threat to biodiversity?
Answer: Harvesting organisms faster than populations can recover. Exceeds natural reproduction rates, causing population decline.
Flashcard 5: Which strategy is most effective at preventing invasive species impacts: prevention or eradication?
Answer: Prevention (biosecurity and early detection). Stopping introductions is cheaper and more effective than removal.
Flashcard 6: What is an invasive species in biodiversity management?
Answer: A nonnative species that spreads and harms native ecosystems. Non-natives that outcompete or disrupt native species interactions.
Flashcard 7: Which conservation approach prioritizes protecting keystone species to stabilize ecosystems?
Answer: Ecosystem-based management. Protects key species that maintain entire ecosystem stability.
Flashcard 8: What is a keystone species?
Answer: A species with a disproportionately large effect on its ecosystem. Their removal causes ecosystem collapse despite low abundance.
Flashcard 9: Which reserve design generally maximizes interior habitat: long narrow or compact?
Answer: Compact reserve design. Minimizes edge effects by maximizing interior-to-perimeter ratio.
Flashcard 10: What is an edge effect in fragmented habitats?
Answer: Altered conditions at habitat boundaries that change species survival. Habitat edges experience different microclimate and predation pressures.
Flashcard 11: What is a wildlife corridor designed to increase?
Answer: Gene flow between separated populations. Allows genetic exchange between isolated habitat patches.
Flashcard 12: Which strategy most directly reduces habitat fragmentation effects: corridors or culling?
Answer: Wildlife corridors. Corridors reconnect fragmented habitats, allowing species movement.
Flashcard 13: What is habitat fragmentation?
Answer: Breaking continuous habitat into smaller, isolated patches. Divides large habitats into smaller pieces, reducing population connectivity.
Flashcard 14: What is the primary goal of biodiversity preservation strategies?
Answer: Maintain ecosystem function and prevent species extinctions. Conservation aims to sustain ecological processes and prevent species loss.
Flashcard 15: What is biodiversity, as evaluated in conservation planning?
Answer: Variation of genes, species, and ecosystems in an area. Encompasses all living diversity at genetic, species, and ecosystem levels.
Flashcard 16: What is bycatch in fisheries, and why is it a biodiversity issue?
Answer: Unintended capture of non-target species that increases mortality. Accidental catch kills species not targeted by fishing operations.
Flashcard 17: Which fishing strategy reduces bycatch most directly: selective gear or higher quotas?
Answer: Selective gear (for example, TEDs and circle hooks). Specialized equipment prevents capture of non-target species.
Flashcard 18: What is pollution as a driver of biodiversity loss?
Answer: Contaminants that reduce survival, reproduction, or habitat quality. Chemical and physical pollutants directly harm organisms and ecosystems.
Flashcard 19: Which strategy directly reduces eutrophication in lakes: nutrient runoff control or ecotourism?
Answer: Reducing nitrogen and phosphorus runoff. Excess nutrients cause algal blooms and oxygen depletion.
Flashcard 20: What is eutrophication?
Answer: Nutrient enrichment causing algal blooms and oxygen depletion. Excess nutrients trigger harmful algal blooms and fish kills.
Flashcard 21: What is climate change mitigation in the context of biodiversity preservation?
Answer: Reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit habitat and range shifts. Reduces warming that forces species to shift ranges.
Flashcard 22: What is climate change adaptation as a biodiversity strategy?
Answer: Managing ecosystems to increase resilience to changing conditions. Helps ecosystems cope with unavoidable climate impacts.
Flashcard 23: What is in situ conservation?
Answer: Protecting species in their natural habitats. Protects species in their original, natural environments.
Flashcard 24: What is ex situ conservation?
Answer: Protecting species outside natural habitats (zoos, seed banks). Maintains species away from their natural environments for safety.
Flashcard 25: Which option is an ex situ method: seed bank or national park?
Answer: Seed bank. Seed banks preserve genetic material outside natural habitats.
Flashcard 26: What is a seed bank used to preserve?
Answer: Genetic diversity of plant species for future restoration. Maintains genetic material for restoration and research purposes.
Flashcard 27: What is captive breeding as a biodiversity strategy?
Answer: Breeding threatened species in captivity to increase population size. Increases population size before releasing back to wild.
Flashcard 28: What is reintroduction in conservation biology?
Answer: Releasing captive-bred or relocated organisms into native range. Restores species to areas where they previously existed.
Flashcard 29: Which risk is most associated with small captive populations: inbreeding or high gene flow?
Answer: Inbreeding depression. Small populations lose fitness through mating between relatives.
Flashcard 30: What is genetic drift, and why does it matter for small populations?
Answer: Random allele frequency change that can reduce genetic diversity. Stronger in small populations, reducing adaptive potential.