3.1 -

Question 1

How do assess biodiversity hotpots

Answer 1

The total number of species (at least 1500 vascular plants)

Question 2

What are the conflicts in defining hotspots

Answer 2

• focus on vascular plants and ignore animals
• don not represent total species diversity or richness
• focus on places that have already lost habitat, no it those are losing it
• do not consider genetic diversity
• do not consider the value of services e.g. water resources

Question 3

What can you do to reduce biodiversity loss

Answer 3

• increased conservation efforts
• more sustainable production
• more sustainable consumption

Question 4

Discuss the usefulness of providing numerical values of species diversity to understanding the nature of biological communities

Answer 4

• how do we understand ecosystems
• scientific observations is a search for patterns
• measurements mean numbers
• numbers mean quantitative data
• patterns tell is ecosystems current state and how they were in the past