A forest region has a species-area relationship with Z = 0.2…
Contributed by StemPy LabTry it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
A forest region has a species-area relationship with . Developers clear the forest, and only per cent of its area is left as one block.
- What per cent of the species is expected to remain?
- What per cent of the species is expected to be lost?
- Another region loses half of its area, with the same . What per cent of its species is expected to be lost?
Need a reminder? The key ideaShow
The species-area relationship is , or . The slope is , and it is 0.1 to 0.2 for regions and 0.6 to 1.2 for whole continents. When an area falls to a fraction of its size, the species fall to of their number.
The worked solution
Have you tried it?
Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Given. .
Plan. The species left are , where is the fraction of the area left.
Step 1. (a) , so per cent remain.
Step 2. (b) per cent are lost.
Step 3. (c) , so per cent remain and per cent are lost.
Answer: per cent; per cent; per cent.
Check. Losing per cent of the area costs about a third of the species. The model gives only an estimate.
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