The Kurinjimala sanctuary in munnar was set up in 2006 for the conservation of the endangered Neelakurinji flower. What is/are unique about the Neelakurinji flower?

 

1. These flowers blossoms only once in twelve years
2. It is endemic to western ghats of India
3. The paliyan tribal people of Nilgiri hills calculate their ages by the blossoms of Neelakurinji

Select the correct option from codes given below:

[A] Only 1 & 2
[B] Only 2 & 3
[C] Only 1 & 3
[D] 1, 2 & 3

Question 402 pts

You go on an expedition to the mountain forests of the remote island of Halmahera, Indonesia. You discover a new species of arboreal primate that is only found deep in the forest. It is endemic to a single mountain range and is found nowhere else. Logging companies are beginning to explore the area and may start building roads soon in order to provide access to the remote forest for logging.

What effects could road building have on the primate population within the next 10 years?

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Question 412 pts

Which of the below is NOT an example of an ecosystem service?

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Question 422 pts

Climate change must be factored into the design of new conservation areas and in new land acquisitions made by current reserves. Which of the below types of habitat would be given highest priority for conservation in light of climate change?

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Question 432 pts

The Ngorongoro Crater lion population in Tanzania is isolated from nearby Serengeti lion populations. In 1962, the population crashed due to disease, dropping from 90 individuals to less than 20. The population of lions today is currently exhibiting a high rate of sperm abnormalities, which are rare outside the crater population. What is the likely cause of this?

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Question 442 pts

What is considered to be the most likely hypothesis for the cause of the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna?

Will rate when all are answered.

Some of you will have seen Starship Troopers, a moviebased upon a novel by Robert Heinlein. The film deviates from thebook in some ways, for example the book describes a visit to aplanet to resupply the dropships used in combat operations by theM.I. (mobile infantry). Heinlein describes this visit in the book;a portion of the novel is reproduced on the followingpage.

The followig passage contains two concepts we havediscussed in class in relation to the effects of mutation onpopulations, one positive and one negative. Describe the twomutation related concepts Heinlein discusses. You must describethese concepts as a biologist - you must use the technical terms wehave used in class properly and explain the positive and negativeeffect of mutation on the evolution and health of apopulation.

(a) What is the positive effect of mutation as describedby Heinlein?

(I.E., what does Heinlein describe as a benefit ofhaving more mutations)

(b) What is the negative effect of mutation as describedby Heinlein?

(I.E., what does Heinlein describe as a problem ofhaving more mutations)

I never have learned the co-ordinates of Sanctuary,nor the name or catalogue number of the star it orbits - becausewhat you don’t know, you can’t spill; the location isultra-top-secret, known only to ship’s captains, piloting officers,and such ... and I understand, with each of them under orders andhypnotic compulsion to suicide if necessary to avoid capture. So Idon’t want to know. With the possibility that Luna Base might betaken and Terra herself occupied, the Federation kept as much ofits beef as possible as Sanctuary, so that a disaster back homewould not necessarily mean capitulation.

But I can tell you what sort of a planet itis. Like Earth, but retarded.

Literally retarded, like a kid who takes tenyears to learn to wave bye-bye and never does manage to masterpatty cake. It is a planet as near Earth as two planets can be,same age according to the planetologists and its star is the sameage as the Sun and the same type, so say the astrophysicists. Ithas plenty of flora and fauna, the same atmosphere as Earth, nearenough, and much the same weather; it even has a good-sized moonand Earth’s exceptional tides.

With all these advantages it barely got awayfrom the starting gate. You see, it’s short on mutations; it doesnot enjoy Earths high level of natural radiation.

Its typical and most highly developed plantlife is a very primitive giant fern; its top animal life is aproto-insect which hasn’t even developed colonies. I am notspeaking of transplanted Terran flora and fauna - our stuff movesin and brushes the native stuff aside.

With its evolutionary progress held down toalmost to zero by lack of radiation and a consequent mostunhealthily low mutation rate, native life forms of Sanctuary justhaven’t had a decent chance to evolve and aren’t fit to compete.Their gene patterns remain fixed for a relatively long time; theyaren’t adaptable - like being forced to play the same bridge handover and over again, for eons, with no hope of getting a betterone.

As long as they just competed with eachother, this didn’t matter too much - morons among morons, so tospeak. But when types that had evolved on a planet enjoying highradiation and fierce competition were introduced, the native stuffwas outclassed.

Now all the above is perfectly obvious fromhigh school biology ... but the high forehead from the researchstation there who was telling me about this brought up a point Iwould have never thought of.

What about the human beings who havecolonized Sanctuary?

Not transients like me, but the colonists wholive there, many of whom were born there, and whose descendantswill live there, even unto the umpteenth generation - what aboutthose descendants? It doesn’t do a person any harm not to beradiated; in fact it’s a bit safer - leukemia and some types ofcancer are almost unknown there. Besides that, the economicsituation is at present all in their favor; when they plant a fieldof (Terran) wheat;, they don’t even have to clear out the weeds.Terran wheat displaces anything native.

But the descendants of those colonists won’tevolve. Not much, anyhow. This chap told me that they could improvea little through mutation from other causes, from new blood addedby immigration, and from natural selection among the gene patternsthey already own - but that is all very minor compared with theevolutionary rate on Terra and on any usual planet. So whathappens? Do they stay frozen at their present levels while the restof the human race moves on past them, until they are livingfossils, as out of place as a pithecanthropus in a spaceship?

Or will they worry about the fate of theirdescendants and dose themselves regularly with X-rays or maybe setof lots of dirty-type nuclear explosions each year to build up afallout reservoir in their atmosphere? (Accepting, of course, theimmediate dangers of radiation to themselves in order to provide aproper genetic heritage of mutation for the benefit of theirdescendants.)

This bloke predicted that they would not doanything. He claims that the human is too individualistic, tooself-centered, to worry that much about future generations. He saysthat the genetic impoverishment of distant generations through thelack of radiation is something most people are simply incapable ofworrying about. And of course it is a far-distant threat; evolutionworks so slowly, even on Terra, that the development of a newspecies is a matter of many, many thousands of years.

I don’t know. Shucks, I don’t know what Imyself will do more than half the time; how can I predict what acolony of strangers will do? But I’m sure of this: Sanctuary isgoing to be fully settled, either by us or by the bugs. Or bysomebody. It is a potential utopia, and, with desirable real estateso scarce in this end of the Galaxy, it will not be left in thepossession of primitive life forms that failed to make thegrade.

CAN I GET THE ANSWER FOR THE 4TH QUIESTION PLEASE.

4- You are a wild-life biologist assigned the task of protecting bats from this disease(WNS). What one question would you like answered before you take on this challenge and why? (1 point)

White-Nose Syndrome Threatens the Survival of Hibernating Bats in North America

Map illustrating the distribution of endangered species of hibernating bats in relation to the expanding distribution of White-Nose Syndrome.

History of White-Nose Syndrome and Diseases in Hibernating Bats

During the winter of 2006–2007, an affliction of unknown origin dubbed “white-nose syndrome” (WNS) began devastating colonies of hibernating bats in a small area around Albany, New York. Colonies of hibernating bats were reduced 80–97 percent at the affected caves and mines that were surveyed. Since then, white-nose syndrome or its causative agent have been detected more than 2,000 kilometers (1,200 mi) away from the original site, and have infected bats in at least 26 U.S. states and 4 Canadian provinces. Most species of bats that hibernate in the region are now known to be affected; little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus), northern long-eared bats (M. septentrionalis), and federally listed (endangered) Indiana bats (M. sodalis) have been hit particularly hard. The sudden and widespread mortality associated with white-nose syndrome is unprecedented in hibernating bats, which differ from most other small mammals in that their survival strategy is to live life in the slow lane: their life history adaptations include high rates of survival and low fecundity, resulting in low potential for population growth. Most of the affected species are long lived (~5–15 years or more) and have only one offspring per year. Subsequently, bat numbers do not fluctuate widely over time, and populations of bats affected by white-nose syndrome will not recover quickly. Epizootic disease outbreaks have never been previously documented in hibernating bats.

An Emerging Disease of Hibernating Bats

White-nose syndrome (WNS) was named for the visible presence of a white fungus around the muzzles, ears, and wing membranes of affected bats. Based upon what is known about typical fungal pathogens of typical mammals, this fungal growth was initially thought to be a secondary infection of bats with compromised immune systems. However, bats are anything but “typical” mammals (see below). Since then, a previously unreported species of cold-loving fungus Pseudogynmnoascus [formerly Geomyces] destructans) has been identified as a consistent pathogen among affected animals and sites. This fungus, now proven to be the causal agent of WNS (Lorch et. al, 2011), thrives in the darkness, low temperatures (5–10ºC; 40–50ºF), and high levels of humidity (>90%) characteristic of bat hibernacula. Unlike typical fungi, Pseudogynmnoascus destructans cannot grow above 20°C (68ºF), and therefore appears to be exquisitely adapted to persist in caves and mines and to colonize the skin of hibernating bats. A consistent pattern of fungal skin penetration has been observed in more than 90 percent of bats from the WNS-affected region that were submitted for disease investigation.

White-nose syndrome was first documented in a cave that is visited by tens of thousands of tourists each year, and the disease has since spread outward from that site. The focal area of origin and subsequent distribution of affected sites, as well as experimental evidence (Werneke et. al, 2013), indicate that P. destructans could be an exotic species with the capacity to spread rapidly among populations of hibernating bats. Researchers in Europe have long noticed similar fungal growth on the faces, ears, and wings of hibernating bats in Europe, but observed no associated mortality. Work is currently underway to assess whether there is any connection between fungi seen on bats in North America and Europe. Recent efforts by researchers in Europe have revealed that P. destructans occurs on hibernating bats in several countries of that continent. An alternative hypothesis for the origin of white-nose syndrome is that this fungus was already present in North America, yet recently mutated to become an emerging disease.

What Makes Bats Susceptible to White-Nose Syndrome?

Pathologic findings thus far indicate that bats affected by white-nose syndrome are infected by P. destructans, and many appear to prematurely run out of the stored body fat that they rely on for winter survival. Species of bats occurring at the higher latitudes of the world rely on insects for food, which disappear from those temperate zones during winter. Most species of temperate zone bats survive the winter by building up fat reserves during autumn and then going to cold places to hibernate and wait out the winter insect shortage. During hibernation, a bat slows down its metabolism so that its body temperature remains just a few degrees above air temperature. This strategy allows a bat to consume very little fat over winter. Bats could easily last several months in this deep state of torpor, but they need to warm their bodies up a few times each winter and arouse from hibernation so that they can drink, urinate, mate, relocate, and probably induce their immune systems to catch up. These natural arousals from hibernation consume a lot of energy, and about 90 percent of a hibernating bat’s winter fat is burned to fuel natural arousals. If anything increases the frequency or duration of such arousals during winter, the energy balance of a hibernating bat can quickly tip toward starvation. Chronic disturbance of hibernating bats is known to cause abnormal arousal patterns, and can result in high rates of winter mortality. For example, certain inappropriate research methods (e.g., poorly applied wing bands and frequent winter visitations) directed toward hibernating bats in the 1950s and 1960s caused chronic disturbance that led to high mortality and population declines in several U.S. bat species (Ellison 2008). Unlike typical microbial pathogens that cause collapse of internal organ systems, the skin infection caused by P. destructans may act as a chronic disturbance during hibernation, and fungal-associated aberrant behaviors likely cause bats to consume critical body reserves too quickly during winter. In addition to disrupting hibernation cycles and prematurely expending energy reserves, it is likely that affected bats suffer other serious physiological problems (e.g., dehydration) associated with the fungus infecting the proportionally huge skin surfaces of their wings during hibernation.

The newly identified cold-loving fungus is now known to be the primary causative agent of white-nose syndrome. Available evidence suggests the fungus establishes itself in the skin tissues of bats when their body temperatures are lowered during torpor (2–10ºC; 35–50ºF). Although life-threatening cutaneous fungal infections of this sort are rare in warm-blooded birds and mammals, they occur more frequently in “cold-blooded” animals (e.g., chytridiomycosis in amphibians, and crayfish plague). The cold-loving fungus seems to be infecting bats when they reduce their body temperatures during hibernation to levels characteristic of “cold-blooded” animals. Fungal infiltration of the wing membranes of bats may be particularly problematic. Wing membranes represent about 85 percent of a bat’s total surface area and play a critical role in balancing complex physiological processes. Healthy wing membranes are vital to bats, as they help regulate body temperature, blood pressure, water balance, and gas exchange—not to mention the ability to fly and to feed. Although white-nose syndrome was named after the obvious sign of white noses on affected bats, bat wings may indeed be the most vulnerable point of infection.

Because the newly identified fungus represents a potential biological invasion or emerging disease, with severe implications for hibernating bats in North America, it is important to focus on the history of its geographic distribution in the context of the distributions of affected species and those of federal concern that are potentially in harm’s way.

Threat Posed by White-Nose Syndrome to Bat Diversity and Abundance in North America

Forty-five species of bats occur in the United States and Canada, and bats represent more than 10 percent of mammalian species diversity in the region. The map at right shows bat species richness in the continental United States and Canada. Warmer colors represent higher species richness, cooler colors represent fewer species.

More than half of the species of insectivorous bats that occur in the U.S. rely on hibernation as a primary strategy for surviving the winter when insect prey is not available. The table at right lists all 45 species of bats known to occur in the continental United States and Canada. Species in the upper list are those that in most areas rely on hibernation to survive the winter. Species in the lower list are those that generally do not rely on hibernation as a winter survival strategy. Those highlighted in bold text are species currently known to be affected by white-nose syndrome.

The emergence and spread of a pathogenic fungus that infects hibernating bats has the potential to undermine the basic survival strategy of more than half the bat species in the U.S. and all species of bats that occur in the higher latitudes of North America. With the exception of 4 species of migratory tree bats, the other 18 bat species that occur above 40ºN in North America (roughly a line running from the top of California across Nebraska to Virginia) hibernate to survive the winter.

The shaded red areas on the map below represent the overlapping distributions of 19 species of bats occurring in the U.S. that do not rely on hibernation as a strategy for surviving the winter. The blue shaded areas of the map below represent the overlapping distributions of 25 species of bats occurring in the U.S. that rely on hibernation to survive the winter. The distributions of four species of migratory tree bats are not shown.

Among the 25 species of bats that hibernate across North America, 4 species and subspecies are federally listed as endangered and an additional 13 are federal species of concern (former Category 2 candidates for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act). All four endangered species and subspecies of hibernating bats in the U.S., which rely on undisturbed caves or mines for successful hibernation, are at risk from white-nose syndrome. Three of these species are currently within the affected area, and the remaining subspecies may be affected in the next few years, if not sooner.

The maps included in the slideshow above show the distribution of endangered species of hibernating bats (shaded areas) in relation to the expanding distribution of the fungus (Pseudogynmnoascus destructans) and the disease white-nose syndrome (yellow counties). Endangered species include Ozark big-eared bats (Corynorhinus townsendii ingens), Virginia big-eared bats (C. t. virginianus), Indiana bats (M. sodalis), and gray bats (M. grisescens). For an updated map of sites affected by WNS see https://www.whitenosesyndrome.org/.

Although the true potential for this fungus to spread is unknown, the possibility of it undermining the ubiquitous survival strategy of bats at higher latitudes has enormous implications. We are just beginning to appreciate the roles that bats play in North American ecosystems, and it is clear that threats like white-nose syndrome have the potential to influence ecosystem function in ways that we currently do not understand.

Since white-nose syndrome emerged during the winter of 2006–2007, a diverse group of scientists, resource managers, and conservation groups have worked diligently to establish its cause. Efforts are now being directed toward developing solutions to the WNS crisis and minimizing its impact on populations of hibernating bats in North America.

USGS scientists at the National Wildlife Health Center and Fort Collins Science Center are supporting the research needs of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other federal and state agencies as they respond to the developing situation.

Map data compiled by Cal Butchkoski, Pennsylvania Game Commission.

© Photos by Alan Hicks, New York Department of Environmental Conservation

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It was the winter of 2006-2007. In what may be the worst calamity to hit bat populations in the United States, a mysterious affliction began to decimate bat colonies in upper New York State. On average, 90 percent of the hibernating bats in four caves and mines in New York succumbed that winter. The affliction, now known as White-Nose Syndrome (WNS), is estimated to have killed over six million bats in the eastern United States and has spread as far west as Missouri since that time. Read the following article about WNS White-Nose Syndrome Threatens the Survival of Hibernating Bats in North America and answer the questions that follow.

1- What is the causative agent of WNS and to what phylum does it belong? (1 point)

Pseudogymnoascus destructans, which is formerly known as Geomyces destructans, is the causative agent of WNS. P destructans belong to Ascomycota phylum from the Fungi kingdom.

2- What is unique about this causative agent that makes it particularly well adapted to its lifestyle (adapted to persist in caves and mines and to colonize the skin of hibernating bats)? (1 point)

Thrives in the darkness, low temperatures (5–10ºC; 40–50ºF), and high levels of humidity (>90%) characteristic of bat hibernacula. Unlike typical fungi, Pseudogynmnoascus destructans cannot grow above 20°C (68ºF)(cold living fungus).

3- What makes a hibernating bat a particularly easy target for the pathogen? (1 point)

Available evidence suggests the fungus establishes itself in the skin tissues of bats when their body temperatures are lowered during torpor (2–10ºC; 35–50ºF). Although life-threatening cutaneous fungal infections of this sort are rare in warm-blooded birds and mammals, they occur more frequently in “cold-blooded” animals (e.g., chytridiomycosis in amphibians, and crayfish plague). The cold-loving fungus seems to be infecting bats when they reduce their body temperatures during hibernation to levels characteristic of “cold-blooded” animals. Fungal infiltration of the wing membranes of bats may be particularly problematic.

4- You are a wild-life biologist assigned the task of protecting bats from this disease. What one question would you like answered before you take on this challenge and why? (1 point)

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