Identify the benefits of biodiversity. A. Contribution to human food supplies…
2024
Identify the benefits of biodiversity.
A. Contribution to human food supplies
B. Providing important medicines
C. Supporting ecosystem stability
D. Aesthetic and cultural value
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer: D. A, B, C and D — Concept — The worth of biological diversity is set out through the ecosystem-service framework. Living variety yields provisioning services (material goods…
- A.
A, B and C only
- B.
B, C and D only
- C.
A, B and D only
- D.
A, B, C and D
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept — The worth of biological diversity is set out through the ecosystem-service framework. Living variety yields provisioning services (material goods such as food, fibre and medicine), regulating and supporting services (processes such as pollination, nutrient cycling and climate moderation that keep ecological systems working), and cultural services (non-material returns such as recreation, art, identity and spiritual practice). In value terms these are the direct-use, indirect-use and non-use values of biodiversity.
Application — Each statement listed in the stem maps onto one of those service classes:
Listed statement | Service class | Basis |
|---|---|---|
A. Contribution to human food supplies | Provisioning | Crops, livestock, fisheries and the wild relatives of crops that supply breeding traits for pest, disease and drought resistance |
B. Providing important medicines | Provisioning | Compounds isolated from wild species: salicin from willow behind aspirin, artemisinin from Artemisia annua, vincristine from Catharanthus roseus |
C. Supporting ecosystem stability | Regulating and supporting | Species richness adds functional redundancy, so pollination, nutrient cycling and productivity keep running when one species declines — the diversity–stability relationship |
D. Aesthetic and cultural value | Cultural | Landscape beauty, ecotourism, sacred groves, folklore and art built around living species |
Cross-check — Run the test in reverse. Drop the food statement or the medicine statement and the provisioning class is left incomplete; drop the ecosystem-stability statement and the regulating and supporting class disappears; drop the aesthetic and cultural statement and the cultural class disappears. Every statement in the stem names a value class that the framework recognises, so no partial set survives the test.
Result — All four statements are benefits of biodiversity: A, B, C and D.