Which describes the location of earth’s biosphere, which includes all of earth’s living things?
a. throughout the geosphere
b. at the boundary of the geosphere and atmosphere, and throughout the hydrosphere
c. throughout the geosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere
d. at the boundary of the hydrosphere and atmosphere, and throughout the geosphere

The phlogiston theory in the 17th century attempted to explain burning. the theory stated that combustable objects contained a material called phlogiston, a substance without mass, color, odor, etc. after objects burned, the objects were dephlogistonated and were then in their true form. the phlogiston theory was accepted until the 18th century, when lavoisier proved that combustion requires a gas that has mass. phlogiston is considered a) to be scientific knowledge b) not to be scientific knowledge c) to be proven by scientific method d) to be accepted in the modern scientific community

To answer this question, researchers studied populations of the dusky salamander (desmognathus ochrophaeus) living on different mountain ranges in the southern appalachian mountains. the researchers tested the reproductive isolation of pairs of salamander populations by leaving one male and one female together and later checking the females for the presence of sperm. four mating combinations were tested for each pair of populations (a and b)—two within the same population (female a with male a and female b with male b) and two between populations (female a with male b and female b with male a). the proportion of successful matings for each mating combination was measured. for example, when all the matings of a particular combination were successful, the researchers gave it a value of 1; when none of the matings were successful, they gave it a value of 0. then the researchers calculated an index of reproductive isolation that ranged from 0 (no isolation) to 2 (full isolation). the reproductive isolation value for two populations is the sum of the proportion of successful matings of each type within populations (aa + bb) minus the sum of the proportion of successful matings of each type between populations (ab + ba). the table provides data for the geographic distances and reproductive isolation values for 27 pairs of dusky salamander populations.

In 1992, hurricane andrew left a wake of destruction through florida. one victim of the storm was a reptile-breeding facility. over 900 burmese pythons were set free, and today thousands of pythons live in florida. these pythons are an invasive species, or a harmful species not native to the region. 1. what impacts do you think the burmese pythons might have on local ecosystems