RAS question
The concept of 'biodiversity hotspot' was given by:
Correct answer: (D) Norman Myers.
The biodiversity hotspot concept was proposed by British ecologist Norman Myers in 1988.
Explanation
Norman Myers is the right answer because Conservation International, Conserving Earth's Living Heritage attributes the hotspots concept to his 1988 conservation-priority work. His paper, "Threatened biotas: 'hotspots' in tropical forests," was the starting point, and he used vascular plants as indicators of biodiversity. Myers identified ten threatened hotspots worldwide, all located in tropical rainforests. Myers introduced the concept, and later work by Conservation International, Myers and others refined the analysis and criteria. So the question is testing the origin of the hotspot framework, not the later institutional refinement.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Alexander von Humboldt is not the answer because the 1988 hotspots concept is attributed specifically to Norman Myers.
- (B) Charles Darwin is not the answer because the biodiversity hotspot framework is linked to Myers's 1988 conservation-priority work, not to Darwin.
- (C) E.O. Wilson is not credited as proposing the hotspot concept; Norman Myers is named, with later refinement by Conservation International, Myers and others.
Concept
This tests Environment & Ecology as a biodiversity-conservation prioritisation concept: who introduced the hotspot framework and how it became a basis for selecting priority areas. It recurs in RAS because such questions often connect a named ecological idea with its proposer and later criteria refinement.