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Principles of Environmental Science

William P. Cunnigham, Mary Ann Cunningham

Chapter 3

Evolution, Species Interactions, and Biological Communities - all with Video Answers

Educators

Chapter Questions

01:50

Problem 1

Apply the principles you have learned in this chapter to discuss these questions with other students.
The concepts of natural selection and evolution are central to how most biologists understand and interpret the world. Why is Darwin's explanation so useful in biology? Does this explanation necessarily challenge traditional religious views? In what ways?

Matthew Halloran
Matthew Halloran
Numerade Educator

Problem 2

Apply the principles you have learned in this chapter to discuss these questions with other students.
What is the difference between saying that a duck has webbed feet because it needs them to swim and saying that a duck is able to swim because it has webbed feet?

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06:12

Problem 3

Apply the principles you have learned in this chapter to discuss these questions with other students.
Given the information you've learned from this chapter, how would you explain the idea of speciation through natural selection and adaptation to a nonscientist?

Billy Huggins
Billy Huggins
Numerade Educator

Problem 4

Apply the principles you have learned in this chapter to discuss these questions with other students.
Productivity, diversity, complexity, resilience, and structure are exhibited to some extent by all communities and ecosystems.
Describe how these characteristics apply to an ecosystem with which you are familiar.

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Problem 5

Apply the principles you have learned in this chapter to discuss these questions with other students.
Is what ways is disturbance good or bad in an ecosystem? Can it be both? Give an example from an ecosystem you know, and consider some of the disturbances that affect it. What are some negative and positive effects?

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Problem 6

Apply the principles you have learned in this chapter to discuss these questions with other students.
Ecologists debate whether biological communities have selfsustaining, self-regulating characteristics or are highly variable, accidental assemblages of individually acting species. What outlook or worldview might lead scientists to favor one or the other of these theories?

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Problem 7

Apply the principles you have learned in this chapter to discuss these questions with other students.
Many rare and endangered species are specialists. Explain what this term means. As environments change, should we worry about losing specialists? Why or why not?

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