Practice question

“Gilpin and Soulé” for the extinction vortex was first described by. This relationship follows from the ecological mechanism represented by the terms in the item, not merely from an association between their names. The mechanism should be evaluated across both local and global scales. Local disappearance can be reversed by recolonization, whereas global extinction is irreversible and requires the loss of every surviving population. The remaining alternatives—“Darwin and Wallace”, “Frankham and Soulé”, “Stephens and Bradshaw”—refer to different states, processes, or scales and therefore do not express the same causal relationship. Human-driven habitat conversion, exploitation, introduced enemies, pollution, and climate change often interact rather than acting independently. Traits such as slow reproduction or ecological specialization can magnify vulnerability. Linking the wording to measurable consequences for fitness, abundance, or flux gives the conclusion its scientific meaning and prevents a purely mnemonic interpretation. Field observations could test this account by measuring the proposed driver and the demographic or ecosystem response while controlling plausible confounding factors.