Question

1. Which of the following observations suggests that there are portfolio effects that are important to the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function?

a. An experiment shows similar effects of plant diversity on productivity in a single season and across multiple seasons.

b. Different fungus species are better at breaking down wood in wet vs. dry conditions.

c. A diverse forest is able to capture more light than a less diverse forest.

d. All of the above

e. Only a. and b.

2. An ecologist is interested in the relative importance of local environmental factors (E) and regional spatial factors (S) on community composition. They measure composition in several patches in a metacommunity, along with various environmental and spatial factors. They perform an analysis called Variation Decomposition to determine the amount of variation explained by the different measured factors. Their output is as follows:

E = 0.15

S = 0.45

E*S = 0.10

Error = 0.30

What should they conclude based on this output?

a. Environmental factors explain most of the variation in community composition

b. Spatial factors explain most of the variation in community composition

c. Environment*Space interactions explain most of the variation in community composition

d. Most of the variation in community composition is unexplained

e. Local factors have the strongest effects

Answer 1

Felt great to answer. Good luck!