Principles of Ecology Unit 8: Assignment 1 chapters 21.2-21.5 and 22 Chapter 21: Global Biodiversity 1. Robert MacArthur and E.O. Wilson found species richness on islands increased with increased island area. Why can large islands support more species? 2. Explain how ecosystem fragmentation can create new communities of species and cause a potential loss of sensitive species? 3. How does island or fragment size and isolation impact the species richness within that island/patch? What factors drive these differences? 4. What are the general patterns of worldwide biodiversity? What factors drive the patterns? 5. How does continental drift and evolution impact the species we find in different parts of the world? Chapter 22: Conservation of Global Biodiversity 1. Why would conservation of biodiversity hotspots reduce costs and maximize conservation potential? 2. Provisioning services: look up another example of pharmaceutical chemical that was originally derived from plants and is now saving lives? 3. Compare and contrast regulating services and supporting services. 4. How is the fishing industry contributing to continued overharvest of fish species? 5. Compare and contrast bio-accumulation and bio-magnification. 6. How is climate change contributing to loss of biodiversity? .