Reference no: EM132654138

1. On your first week of the job working for the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, it had been brought to your attention that seeds were being sent to American citizens from China. Citizens were warned not to plant the seeds in case they might be a potential invasive species. Regardless, you have been tasked with predicting in which areas of the United States that these seeds might be problematic in terms of their spread if they were planted and happened to establish. For your essay, propose how you might determine this exotic species' potential range given concepts that you have learned in this course so far.

2. A recent study in PNAS suggests that human populations will likely need to re-locate given future shifts in temperature and precipitation due to climate change. Using concepts from this first section of our biogeography course, outline a series of predictions of where humans should relocate resulting from both direct influences on our biology (physiology) and more indirect influences on other aspects of our ecology.

3. The southern Appalachian mountains are the global hotspot of salamander diversity. Dozens of species of salamanders can be found within 10-100 square kilometers. One interesting pattern is where species are replaced along elevational gradients, often resulting with a single species at the tops of a mountain. Some mountain tops will share the same species, while some adjacent mountain tops contain a different high elevation species, though often highly related. What ecological or historical/evolutionary reasons might you use to explain this pattern?