Earth and Life Science Practice Test

Pollination by insects is an ecosystem service that directly enables plant reproduction. When a diverse community of pollinators—bees, butterflies, beetles, and others—visit flowers, they transfer pollen from the male structures to the female structures, allowing fertilization and seed or fruit production. This link between biodiversity and reproduction is crucial because many plants rely on animal visitors to move pollen between flowers, boosting seed set and genetic diversity. Without these pollinators, many crops and wild plants would produce far fewer seeds or fail to reproduce at all, reducing biodiversity and food resources.

The other options don’t directly relate to reproduction through a biological service provided by biodiversity: soil bacteria purify water through microbial processes, which is about water quality rather than plant breeding; weather prediction and satellite communication are human technologies and do not describe ecosystem services from biodiversity.