Many animal rights activists have claimed that if beef cows were eliminated, more people could be fed. What is the ecological theory behind the argument in support of this position, and what is an argument against this position? Ecologists argue that beef is bad for the environment because it leads to the emission of greenhouse gases. Furthermore, beef production leads to unsustainable consumption of environmental resources like water and vegetation. Others oppose this view by affirming that poor agricultural practices like overgrazing are the problem. Discuss the problem of Global Warming. What are some of the evidence that this is happening and what is causing it? Global warming refers to the steady rise in temperatures within the earth due to the accumulation of greenhouse gasses. Some evidence includes increases in land and sea surfaces, a rise in sea levels, increases in specific humidity, melting of glaciers, and shrinking of ice in the Arctic sea. What is the nature vs. nature problem? How can we test our ideas about this? The nature versus nurture problem is a debate in which some people believe that behavior is explained by one’s genetic traits (nature) while others claim that it stems from one’s environment (nurture). To test it, one may compare IQ scores of separated twins or analyze the relationship between social-economic status and IQ. What is the relationship between species diversity and geographic diversity? Species diversity refers to the abundance of organisms within a certain area. Modoc County may have greater species diversity than San Bernadino even though they have similar sizes. Geographic diversity relates to the way species mirror their location. What is ecology? Ecology refers to the study of the relationship between organisms and organisms’ environments. This may entail an analysis of the environmental effects of interactions between species and how conservation efforts can be instated. Species that are introduced to new habitats, such as islands, often exhibit very high growth rates, but then growth rates level off. Explain this phenomenon, and describe the different patterns of growth When new species are introduced to a habitat they initially exhibit high growth rates due to a high organism to resource ratio; this is the exponential phase. They reach a plateau phase where the growth rate declines due to increases in the number of organisms competing for the same resources. They will undergo a decline phase when resources become inadequate to sustain them, and when diseases set in. Ecologists often say that one individual living in a developed country cannot be counted as ecologically equal to one individual from a developing country. Why? A person in a developing nation cannot be ecological equal to one in a developed nation because the ecological footprint needed to maintain a person in the latter category is quite high. This person needs too much land, energy, and resources to transport, feed, consume, and house himself or herself; the above stems from industrialization. What are the three shapes of survivorship curves, and what does each one tell us about the population? Give an example of a species for each survivorship curve Type I su