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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the term that encompasses David Quammen's overall idea?
(a) Functional adaptation.
(b) Survival of the fittest.
(c) Island biogeography.
(d) Ecosystem collapse.

2. How did Wallace put Darwin in a tough spot, according to Quammen?
(a) By publishing his theory first.
(b) By having looked at Darwin's theories before he published his own.
(c) By telling him about his work.
(d) By having used some of Darwin's observations in his own work.

3. What was Tasmania's environmental history, according to Quammen?
(a) It experienced a catastrophic eruption that killed off everything on the island, before life returned slowly.
(b) It was formed by a volcano in the sea.
(c) It was separated from Australia by water.
(d) It was isolated by a growing mountain range in India.

4. When does Quammen say his field became a field of inquiry?
(a) With Darwin.
(b) With MacArthur and Wilson.
(c) With Quammen.
(d) With Alfred Wallace.

5. Why is Krakatau scientifically important?
(a) It is just being populated now.
(b) It is so isolated.
(c) It is a controlled experiment.
(d) It is an exception to most rules of population dispersal.

Short Answer Questions

1. What rule governs the relationship between the size of an island and the number of species it can support?

2. What does Quammen say about each of the pieces?

3. Where did Wallace travel after the Amazon?

4. What population does Quammen compare with the thylacine population?

5. What did Frank Preston say made up the majority of species in any ecosystem?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the different terms Quammen describes for how people have accounted for the degradation of ecosystems?

2. What factors have effectively broken the Persian rug of nature into pieces, according to Quammen?

3. What examples does Quammen use of dispersal ability?

4. What is trophic cascade?

5. Describe how Quammen's narrative progresses from one idea to the next.

6. What does Quammen say about the overall pattern of the Persian rug?

7. List the attributes that govern the survivability of individual species in island ecosystems.

8. What was MacArthur and Wilson's contribution to island biogeography?

9. Who is Frank Preston, and what was his contribution to the discussion of island size and species count?

10. How did David Wallace make his start as a biologist, in Quammen's narrative?

(see the answer keys)

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