Environmental Science Questions

Fill in the missing words in the following. The organisation responsible for publishing the "Red List of Threatened Species" is the International for of . In your response state the three words in the correct order with a space between each word.

Consider three different species of wild cats. Populations of species A are spread evenly across Africa, species B is scattered around the whole of Australia but its population is relatively large in numbers and the population of species C lives on a single island in the Southern-Asian region. Which of the three species is the most prone to extinction?

Human activities that overexploit natural resources (such as deforestation) pose a major threat to biodiversity. Which environmental value system would be the most likely to engage in such activities and ignore the threats to biodiversity they pose?

Choose which of the following pairs of criteria would be taken into account when determining the conservation status of a species:

If the midlatitude cyclone described in Question 1 took 3 days to pass your location, on which day would temperatures likely be warmest? On which day would they likely be coldest?

What general atmospheric conditions are most conducive to the formation of tornadoes?

What winter weather might be expected with the passage of a mature midlatitude cyclone when the center of low pressure is located about 100 to 200 kilometers (60 to 125 miles) south of your location?

During what months is tornado activity most pronounced in the United States?

Briefly describe the weather associated with the passage of a mature midlatitude cyclone when the center of low pressure is about 200 to 300 kilometers (125 to 200 miles) north of your location.

What is the name of the flow which becomes limited when populations are geographically isolated?

What is the name of the only place where, as a result of the isolation of gene pools and speciation, lemurs can be found today?

All species have a natural extinction rate, which is referred to as the background extinction rate. What is the approximate value of this rate (how many species go extinct per year) ?

The background extinction rate is a measure of the natural extinction of all species. Knowing that the range of the background level of extinction is between X and Y per year, substitute the letters with numbers illustrating the correct values.

Organisms can colonise isolated land through different mechanisms. What are the types of species dispersal? List three in alphabetical order. Do NOT use capital letters at all.

The process of natural selection may also be described as:

During which geological era(s) did all land mass on the Earth exist as one supercontinent? What is the name of that continent?

According to the fossil records, there have been five mass extinctions on the Earth so far. Choose which answer lists all of them in order of occurrence.

Which of the following human activities is particularly dangerous for such species as elephants, chimpanzees, rhinos or alligators?

How many mass extinctions have so far occurred in the history of the Earth?

How can deforestation threaten the biodiversity of a rainforest?