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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Quammen believe happened to Bedo?

2. What was the conclusion Soule and Gilpin came to regarding the Texas question?

3. What is the tone of the ending of the book?

4. What did William Newmark determine in his findings?

5. What data does William Newmark look at in his studies?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Quammen choose Aru as the destination for his final chapter?

2. What conclusion dis scientists reach in the Texas case?

3. What was Quammen looking for at Aru?

4. What was the effect of 'An Equilibrium Theory of Insular Zoogeography', according to Quammen?

5. What is the definition of 'viable' in Quammen's account?

6. How does Quammen describe Bedo's death?

7. What experiment took place in the Florida Keys?

8. What did Simberloff and Abele propose as a result of their data?

9. What is the concept of the minimum viable population?

10. Who was Thomas Lovejoy, and what was his reaction to the debate Simberloff and Abele began?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Is Quammen somehow at fault for not making solid proposals for how to mitigate switch loss? Is his informative book somehow flawed for failing to make recommendations? Debate this proposition using examples from the book.

Essay Topic 2

Do you think the earth itself could become an island for the human species? How could the theories Quammen describes in plants and animals apply to human beings in the future? Describe a scenario in which human beings could have to demonstrate the same adaptive techniques other animals showed on islands.

Essay Topic 3

Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the scientific methods used to measure and assess island biogeography. What do we gain by way of insight and understanding? What patterns or trends does the data fail to account for?

(see the answer keys)

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