1. What is the main benefit of sexual reproduction over asexual reproduction? In
ID: 174614 • Letter: 1
Question
1. What is the main benefit of sexual reproduction over asexual reproduction? In contrast, what are two benefits of asexual reproduction over sexual reproduction?
2. What are ecosystem services? Name at least two different types of ecosystem services and provide examples of each. Why are ecosystem services important to humans?
3. Describe at least two challenges to contemporary fire management.
4. We discussed several invasive species in class. Select one and describe one way the species is ecologically harmful, and another way in which that species is economically harmful.
Explanation / Answer
1.
Benefits of sexual over asexual reproduction
One of the advantages of sexual reproduction is it results in new combination of genes that is genetic variation. However in asexual reproduction the offspring are similar to their parent. Genetic variation is not possible in the case of asexual reproduction. Hence because of genetic variation, sexual reproduction plays an important role in the origin of new species having different characters.
Benefits of asexual over sexual reproduction
Asexual reproduction creates a clone of the organism and needs only one parent. Asexual reproduction does not require a mate. Comparatively less energy and time are required to reproduce. Large numbers of offspring are produced rapidly.
2.
Ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems. They are basically of four categories: Supporting services, provisioning services, regulating services and cultural services.
Ecosystem services are important to humans as they regulate climate, help in water purification, pests and diseases are regulated and helps in soil biodiversity.
3.
The big question faced by contemporary fire management is how to manage fire to support the long-term biological integrity of a particular landscape, while still meeting diverse human needs. Our big challenge is answering this question while considering that in just a handful of generations humans have completely altered fire’s natural habitat. We have fragmented and degraded ecosystems, drained or dried out the land, excluded fire from its native spaces, or introduced it to where it doesn’t belong.
The fire we face today is fierce and destructive. It spreads in patterns and at rates never seen before. Most alarmingly, through human intervention, fire is colonizing new habitats through amplifying cycles in sensitive areas. These sensitive ecosystems, primarily the Arctic tundra and tropical rain forests harbor ancient highly concentrated carbon stocks, which are rapidly released during fire events (like in Indonesia). Fire is not a natural process here, and it has devastating effects, locally and globally.
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