Question

wildlife biologists are seeking to improve the biodiversity of the reserves in their areas wildlife refuge system. they want to know why some reserves have high species diversity while others have low species diversity. the reserves are isolated land surrounded by farms. one of the biologists, realizing that the reserves are isolated like islands, finds a graph made by biologists studying species diversity on oceanic islands. the graph shows the number of species present on an island compared with the land area of individual islands.

island biodiversity vs.
land area
graph: y - axis
umber of coexisting species\, x - axis \area (km²)\, curve starts steep, then flattens

which three insights does the graph give that can help the wildlife biologists?

a. small reserves are less able to preserve species diversity than larger ones. checked

b. having reserves of many different sizes will preserve the most species diversity. unchecked

c. multiple small reserves should preserve species diversity as well as one large reserve. checked

d. adding more land to the largest reserve will have only a small effect on species diversity. unchecked

e. the amount of land area has a bigger effect on the species diversity of small reserves than large ones. unchecked

Explanation:

1. For option A: The graph's curve shows that as area (reserve size) increases, the number of species (diversity) increases, so small reserves have less diversity preservation ability than larger ones. This matches the graph's trend.
2. For option D: When the area is large (for the largest reserves), the curve flattens, meaning adding more land (area) leads to a small increase in species, so this insight is valid.
3. For option E: The steep part of the curve is for small areas (reserves), showing that area change has a bigger impact on small reserves' diversity (large change in species with small area change) compared to large reserves (small species change with large area change). This is consistent with the graph's shape.

Option B is incorrect as the graph only relates area to species diversity, not the number of reserve sizes. Option C is incorrect because the graph shows larger area (single large reserve) has more species than multiple small ones (same total area would be less diverse as per the curve's trend).

Answer:

A. Small reserves are less able to preserve species diversity than larger ones.
D. Adding more land to the largest reserve will have only a small effect on species diversity.
E. The amount of land area has a bigger effect on the species diversity of small reserves than large ones.