Biodiversity & Resilience · seed 1 · A4, ink-friendly. The answer key prints on its own page for grown-ups.

Biodiversity and why variety keeps ecosystems strong

Science · Ecosystems & Habitats · ages 12-14
Name ______________________   Date ____________

  1. Biodiversity is measured at three levels. Which one is NOT one of them?

    • Species level
    • Rainfall level
    • Genetic level

  2. What does biodiversity mean?

    • The variety of living things in a place
    • The total number of trees in a forest
    • The average temperature of a region

  3. A place with many different kinds of plants and animals has high biodiversity.

    Circle one:   True   False

  4. A single pest arrives in a field where only corn is grown. What is most likely to happen?

    • The whole crop could be wiped out since nothing else is there to balance it out
    • Only a few corn plants will be affected because the field has high biodiversity
    • Nothing changes, since pests cannot affect one-crop fields

  5. A rainforest has hundreds of species, while a farm grows only one crop. Which one can recover more easily if a new disease strikes one species?

    • The farm, because one crop is easier to protect
    • Both recover at the same rate
    • The rainforest, because other species can fill the gap

  6. This chart shows species living in an area before and after a parking lot was built there. What does it show about biodiversity?

    Beforeclearing14Afterclearing3
    • Biodiversity increased after construction
    • Biodiversity dropped after the habitat was destroyed
    • Biodiversity stayed exactly the same

  7. A company clears a whole rainforest for farmland but says it's not a big deal since the same species exist in other rainforests too. Why should people still care about the biodiversity lost here?

    • Losing that ecosystem's variety can disrupt food, medicine, and clean water that people rely on, even if some species survive elsewhere
    • It doesn't matter as long as the species survive anywhere on Earth
    • Farmland always has higher biodiversity than rainforest

  8. Jordan says invasive species aren't really a threat to biodiversity because they are still living things. What's wrong with Jordan's thinking?

    • Jordan is correct, since any living species counts toward biodiversity
    • Invasive species always help native species survive
    • Invasive species can outcompete native species for food and space, causing local extinctions
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Answer key

For grown-ups. Fold this page away before handing over the rest.

Biodiversity and why variety keeps ecosystems strong W1-mt_xSs0xAd6i1-s1

  1. Rainfall level · The three levels are species, genetic, and ecosystem. Rainfall is weather, not biodiversity.
  2. The variety of living things in a place · Biodiversity is about variety, not just a count of one type of living thing.
  3. True · That's exactly what biodiversity measures: how much variety of life exists in one place.
  4. The whole crop could be wiped out since nothing else is there to balance it out · Low biodiversity means there's no backup, so one pest can damage the entire crop.
  5. The rainforest, because other species can fill the gap · With many species doing similar jobs, a diverse ecosystem has backup options if one species struggles.
  6. Biodiversity dropped after the habitat was destroyed · Clearing habitat for construction is a common way humans reduce biodiversity, since species lose their homes and food sources.
  7. Losing that ecosystem's variety can disrupt food, medicine, and clean water that people rely on, even if some species survive elsewhere · Local ecosystems provide services people depend on. Losing one, even if species survive elsewhere, weakens those benefits for the people and wildlife who relied on that specific place.
  8. Invasive species can outcompete native species for food and space, causing local extinctions · An invasive species can crowd out native ones, which lowers the actual variety of life in that place.
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