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RAS question

The term 'biodiversity' was coined by:

Correct answer: (B) Walter Rosen.

Walter G. Rosen coined the term "biodiversity" in 1985 while planning the National Forum on BioDiversity.

  1. (A)

    Edward Wilson

  2. (B)

    Walter Rosen

  3. (C)

    Norman Myers

  4. (D)

    Charles Darwin

Explanation

The answer is Walter G. Rosen. Rosen coined "biodiversity" in 1985 while planning the National Forum on BioDiversity, and E.O. Wilson later popularised the word through the 1988 edited proceedings of that forum. The PubMed Central article preserves this distinction: the term came into common use in the conservation community after the 1986 National Forum on BioDiversity in Washington, DC, and after the publication of selected papers edited by Wilson as Biodiversity. Wilson credited Walter G. Rosen with coining the term. So Rosen is the originator of the term, while Wilson is linked to its wider circulation.

Why the other options are wrong

  • (A) Edward O. Wilson popularised the term through the 1988 edited proceedings, but Wilson credited Walter G. Rosen with coining it.
  • (C) Norman Myers is associated in the question material with the later term "biodiversity hotspot", not with coining "biodiversity" itself.
  • (D) Charles Darwin predates the term "biodiversity", which dates to 1985 and is linked to the 1986 National Forum on BioDiversity and Wilson's 1988 volume.

Concept

This tests basic Environment and Ecology terminology, especially the origin of key conservation vocabulary. Such terms recur in RAS because biodiversity, conservation priorities and ecological concepts are regular parts of the environment syllabus.

Source

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