[Q]: The government of Ecuador has been actively pushing to increase biodiversity. They have been quite successful in their pursuit. Moreover, the citizens of Ecuador are receptive about the idea of increased biodiversity. On the contrary, the Government of Oman was not very active in increasing the biodiversity of their country. As a result, Oman, at present, is not very biodiverse. Given the paragraph above, please answer correctly the following question: Would Oman have less or more stable ecosystem funcions than Ecuador? Hint: "There is now unequivocal evidence that biodiversity loss reduces the efficiency by which ecological communities capture biologically essential resources, produce biomass, decompose and recycle biologically essential nutrients... There is mounting evidence that biodiversity increases the stability of ecosystem functions through time... Diverse communities are more productive because they contain key species that have a large influence on productivity and differences in functional traits among organisms increase total resource capture... The impacts of diversity loss on ecological processes might be sufficiently large to rival the impacts of many other global drivers of environmental change... Maintaining multiple ecosystem processes at multiple places and times requires higher levels of biodiversity than does a single process at a single place and time."
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[A]: less

[Q]: Scientists studied mutations on groups of fruit flies. Group A presented gemline mutations, while group B presented somatic mutations. Given the paragraph above, please answer correctly the following question: Which group had more serious mutations? Hint: Once again, a mutation is the change in the DNA or RNA sequence. In multicellular organisms, mutations can be subdivided into germline mutations and somatic mutations. Germline mutations occur in the DNA of sex cells, or gametes, and are therefore potentially very serious. These mutations can be passed to the next generation. If the zygote contains the mutation, every cell in the resulting organism will have that mutation. If the mutation results in a disease phenotype, the mutation causes what is called a hereditary disease. Somatic mutations , which occur in somatic, or body, cells, cannot be passed to the next generation (offspring). Mutations present in a somatic cell of an organism will be present (by DNA replication and mitosis) in all descendants of that cell. If the mutation is present in a gene that is not used in that cell type, the mutation may have no effect. On the other hand, the mutation may lead to a serious medical condition such as cancer.
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[A]: Group A

[Q]: Two groups of scientists examined two fires. Group A put a large log on it, and group B made a fire with small twigs. They wanted to see which fire would last longer. Given the paragraph above, please answer correctly the following question: Which group had a fire that burned slower? Hint: A large log placed in a fire will burn relatively slowly. If the same mass of wood were added to the fire in the form of small twigs, they would burn much more quickly. This is because the twigs provide a greater surface area than the log does. An increase in the surface area of a reactant increases the rate of a reaction. Surface area is larger when a given amount of a solid is present as smaller particles. A powdered reactant has a greater surface area than the same reactant as a solid chunk. In order to increase the surface area of a substance, it may be ground into smaller particles or dissolved into a liquid. In solution, the dissolved particles are separated from each other and will react more quickly with other reactants.
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[A]: Group A

[Q]: Large birds are natural predators of rodents. Unfortunately, rodents consume crops in farmlands. In recent years, use of chemicals in agriculture has seen reduced number of large birds in Germany. But in some places in France farmers are cautions about using chemicals in agriculture. As a result, large bird population had been stable in France. Given the paragraph above, please answer correctly the following question: Which country would see more rodents in agricultural lands, France or Germany? Hint: Predators play an important role in an ecosystem. For example, if they did not exist, then a single species could become dominant over others. Grazers on a grassland keep grass from growing out of control. Predators can be keystone species . These are species that can have a large effect on the balance of organisms in an ecosystem. For example, if all of the wolves are removed from a population, then the population of deer or rabbits may increase. If there are too many deer, then they may decrease the amount of plants or grasses in the ecosystem. Decreased levels of producers may then have a detrimental effect on the whole ecosystem. In this example, the wolves would be a keystone species.
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[A]:
Germany