首页
登录
职称英语
Species interdependence in nature confers many benefits on the species invol
Species interdependence in nature confers many benefits on the species invol
游客
2023-12-23
35
管理
问题
Species interdependence in nature confers many benefits on the species involved, but it can also become a point of weakness when one species involved in the relationship is affected by a catastrophe. Thus, flowering plant species dependent on insect pollination, as opposed to self- pollination or wind pollination, could be endangered when the population of insect-pollinators is depleted by the use of pesticides.
In the forests of New Brunswick, for example, various pesticides have been sprayed in the past 25 years in efforts to control the spruce budworm, an economically significant pest. Scientists have now investigated the effects of the spraying of Matacil, one of the anti-budworm agents that is least toxic to insect-pollinators. They studied Matacil’s effects on insect mortality in a wide variety of wild insect species and on plant fecundity, expressed as the percentage of the total flowers on an individual plant that actually developed fruit and bore seeds. They found that the most pronounced mortality after the spraying of Matacil occurred among the smaller bees and one family of flies, insects that were all important pollinators of numerous species of plants growing beneath the tree canopy of forests. The fecundity of plants in one common indigenous species, the red-osier dogwood, was significantly reduced in the sprayed areas as compared to that of plants in control plots where Matacil was not sprayed. This species is highly dependent on the insect-pollinators most vulnerable to Matacil. The creeping dogwood, a species similar to the red-osier dogwood, but which is pollinated by large bees, such as bumblebees, showed no significant decline in fecundity. Since large bees are not affected by the spraying of Matacil, these results add weight to the argument that spraying where the pollinators are sensitive to the pesticide used decreases plant fecundity.
The question of whether the decrease in plant fecundity caused by the spraying of pesticides actually causes a decline in the overall population of flowering plant species still remains unanswered. Plant species dependent solely on seeds for survival or dispersal are obviously more vulnerable to any decrease in plant fecundity that occurs, whatever its cause. If, on the other hand, vegetative growth and dispersal (by means of shoots or runners) are available as alternative reproductive strategies for a species, then decreases in plant fecundity may be of little consequence. The fecundity effects described here are likely to have the most profound impact on plant species with all four of the following characteristics, a short life span, a narrow geographic range, an incapacity for vegetative propagation, and a dependence on a small number of insect- pollinator species. Perhaps we should give special attention to the conservation of such plant species since they lack key factors in their defenses against the environmental disruption caused by pesticide use. [br] The passage suggests that the lack of an observed decline in the fecundity of the creeping dogwood strengthens the researchers’ conclusions regarding pesticide use because the ______.
选项
A、creeping dogwood is a species that does not resemble other forest plants
B、creeping dogwood is a species pollinated by a broader range of insect species than are most dogwood species
C、creeping dogwood grows primarily in regions that were not sprayed with pesticide, and so served as a control for the experiment
D、creeping dogwood is similar to the red-osier dogwood, but its insect pollinators are known to be insensitive to the pesticide used in the study
答案
D
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3298235.html
相关试题推荐
Becauseexcessivelyhuntinghasdepletedmanywildlifespecies,gamepreservesa
Becauseofthecomplicatednatureofoursociety,mostpeoplefindthemselvesto
Disturbedbythe______natureoftheplaysbeingpresented,thePuritansclosed
InsteadofpublishinginScienceorNature,the______journalsinwhichmajornew
Ofthe500milliondifferentspeciesfromlivingcreaturesthathaveappearedon
Becauseexcessivelyhuntinghasdepletedmanywildlifespecies,preservationzon
HolChanMarineReservehasnowallowedfishandotherspeciestoregenerate,pr
ThankstoFrancisBacon’s________,themasteryofnaturebecameapositivedoctr
HoiChanMarineReservehasnowallowedfishandotherspeciestoregenerate,pr
[originaltext]Todaywearegoingtotalkaboutaspeciesoffishthatisra
随机试题
[originaltext]Therevolutionincommunicationsthathasalreadytakenplace
Inboxes30-36onyouranswersheet,writeYESifthestatementagreeswiththe
BlairAdmitsNeverHavingSentFlowerstoHisWifeBritishPrimeMinisterTon
Accordingtothepassage,landladiesare______.[br]WhatisNOTmentionedasa
建筑智能化系统的现场控制器应安装在远离被监控的机电设备之处,以避免电磁干扰。一般
当污水管在楼板下悬吊敷设时,可将清扫口设在上一层楼地面上,污水管起点清扫口与管道
用于项目财务评价现金流量分析的经营成本包括()。A、燃料及动力费 B、修理费
火灾自动报警系统全面巡视在例行巡视的基础上增加以下项目:火灾报警控制器装置打印
影响问题解决的因素有哪些?
导线连接应紧密、不伤线芯、不断股,垫圈下螺丝两侧压的导线截面应相同,同一电器器件
最新回复
(
0
)