In 125-175 words, describe what the biodiversity in your hometown is like, use the terms from the content just learned.
The city/region I used to live, Beijing, capital of China, can’t be said to be a biodiversity hotspots; but it is definitely a hotspot that only few species are left. Human as well as social norms are to blame for the decrease in number of species for the last several decades. Birds and insects like sparrows and locusts were used to be regarded as two of ‘four pests.’ People used to captured sparrows and locusts to prevent them from biting the crops. This wiped out 90% of their population in only 3 years. Now, their number are slowly recovering as thus social norms no longer exists. This case of threat could fall under the category of ‘human population’ and ‘overharvesting’ of H.I.P.P.O. These days I rarely see the traces of birds in the city. Every time I traveled to other countries, I am so welcomed by the pigeons, birds and squirrels live in the city.
In 125-175 words, summarize the article ‘Probing Question: What’s killing the honeybees?’ and write a reflection about it.
Recently millions of bees that are account of roughly 30% of nation’s pollinator stock are reported missing by bee farmers across the country. Experts call this massive die-out as Colony Collapse Disorder. Honey bee expert from Penn State, Maryann Frazier and entomology professor Diana Lynn Cox-Foster concluded few reasons including varroa mite, a parasite that suck the blood of bees, and mysterious ‘fungal disease.’ In general the true murderer isn’t discovered yet. Bees are a crucial role in biodiversity. Basically, they are one of the keystone species that help many plants and crops to reproduce. If they are missing from this bio-network, many species that rely on bees would go extinct unless they found other species to do the job for them. This reminds me about the coral reefs that they are similar in many aspects. People can’t see the decrease in numbers of both, while they all perform crucial services to the ecosystem.
