問題詳情

第 44 至 47 題為題組Some of the world’s largest beetles are getting smaller because their habitats are warming up,according to new research from the University of British Columbia, Canada. The study, published in theJournal of Animal Ecology in January 2018, shows that climate change is having an impact on these “teenytiny” organisms.The study began with a deep dive into the scientific literature. Evolutionary ecologist Michelle Tsengand her students combed through all the articles they could find, looking for laboratory studies oftemperature effects on insects. They found 19 that indicated at least 22 beetle species shrank when raisedin warmer than normal temperatures.To see whether this pattern held true in the wild, the team made use of the university’s 600,000-specimen insect collection, which included thousands of bugs collected locally since the late 1800s. Theresearchers took photographs of more than 6,500 beetles from the eight species with the most extensiverecords. They also looked at climate records to determine trends in rainfall and other factors besidestemperature. Sorting the beetles into size categories, they found that five of the eight species have shrunkover the past century. The four largest species of beetles, including the snail-killer ground beetles, shrank20% in the past 45 years. In contrast, smaller beetles were unaffected or even slightly increased in size.Some ecologists are cautious about Tseng’s findings, saying that it hasn’t yet been proved whether thewarming temperatures are the actual cause for the beetle shrinkage. UK biologist Alan Ronan Baudron,however, is convinced. Baudron’s studies have documented shrinkage of certain fish species due to climatewarming. His account is that warmer temperatures lower the concentration of oxygen in the water, causingfish to burn energy faster and mature at a smaller size. But neither he nor Tseng is convinced that decreasedoxygen can explain the shrinkage in the beetles.
44. What is the best title for the passage?
(A) Large Beetles Are Shrinking, Thanks to Climate Change
(B) Beetles vs. Fish: Are They Becoming Smaller?
(C) What We Know About Evolutionary Ecology
(D) Animal Ecology: Past and Present

參考答案

答案：A
難度：適中0.5
統計：A(0),B(0),C(0),D(0),E(0)

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