Wildlife Ecology & Management Flashcards
7 cards from real ESA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Wildlife Ecology & Management flashcards as text
Adaptive management in wildlife ecology is defined as:
Answer: A structured decision-making process that treats management actions as experiments to reduce uncertainty
Adaptive management uses structured learning from monitoring outcomes to iteratively refine management actions, treating interventions as experiments.
Which index is commonly used to assess species diversity within a community by accounting for both richness and evenness?
Answer: Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H')
The Shannon-Wiener index (H') measures both the number of species (richness) and the evenness of their relative abundances within a community.
A 'metapopulation' is best described as:
Answer: A set of spatially separated subpopulations connected by dispersal
A metapopulation consists of spatially discrete subpopulations linked by occasional dispersal, with local extinction and recolonization dynamics.
Which type of survivorship curve is typical of large, long-lived mammals with low offspring production and high parental care?
Answer: Type I (convex curve)
Type I survivorship curves show high survival rates throughout most of the lifespan with mortality concentrated in old age, characteristic of large mammals including humans.
The 'umbrella species' concept in conservation biology refers to:
Answer: A species whose protection automatically protects many co-occurring species
An umbrella species has large habitat requirements such that protecting it and its habitat simultaneously protects numerous other species sharing that habitat.
Edge effects in wildlife ecology typically refer to changes in:
Answer: Species composition and abundance near habitat boundaries
Edge effects describe how species composition, abundance, and ecological processes differ near the boundary between two habitat types compared to the interior.
Which sampling design is most appropriate for estimating wildlife population density along a linear transect when detectability decreases with distance from the transect line?
Answer: Distance sampling
Distance sampling uses the perpendicular distance of detected animals from the transect line to model the detection function and estimate density accurately.