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NEETBotanyBiodiversity and its Conservation

What is the "rivet popper hypothesis"?

Options

  1. AAn analogy to explain how species extinction affects the functioning of an ecosystem
  2. BA hypothesis about the relationship between species richness and resilience to disturbances
  3. CA hypothesis about the relationship between species richness and resistance to invasions by alien species
  4. DA hypothesis about the relationship between species richness and year:to:year variation in total biomass

Correct answer

A. An analogy to explain how species extinction affects the functioning of an ecosystem

Step-by-step solution

There are no direct answers to such näive questions but we can develop a proper perspective through an analogy (the ‘rivet popper hypothesis’) used by Stanford ecologist Paul Ehrlich. In an airplane (ecosystem) all parts are joined together using thousands of rivets (species). If every passenger travelling in it starts popping a rivet to take home (causing a species to become extinct), it may not affect flight safety (proper functioning of the ecosystem) initially, but as more and more rivets are removed, the plane

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