Example 1 · difficulty 3/5
In the species-area relationship log S = log C + Z log A, the regression coefficient Z is usually 0.1 to 0.2 for small islands (e.g., plants in Britain) but rises to 0.6 to 1.2 for vast continental tracts such as tropical forests. A very steep slope (high Z value) indicates that:
- A. species richness climbs sharply with area, so even a moderate shrinkage of habitat eliminates a disproportionately large number of species
- B. species richness stays practically unchanged as the sampled area increases
- C. beyond a certain point, exploring additional area yields virtually no new species
- D. the community is dominated by generalist species with very wide geographic ranges