Not all species are negatively affected by our impact on the environment. While warblers and thrushes breeding in forest interiors may decrease with increased forest fragmentation, edge species will take advantage of the more open habitat and increase. As towns form tree-dominated islands across the Great Plains, many eastern species like the Baltimore Oriole expanded their ranges westward. Feed-grains sustain larger numbers of blackbirds than would not have naturally survived the stress of winter before the development of a large cattle feedlot industry. Dredge spoil offers dependable nesting sites for terns along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Airports in the northeast provide perennial grasslands for Upland Sandpipers that traditionally had to rely on limited larger patches on the coastal plain or the ephemeral meadows of forest succession. Yet, the general trend of our effect on the environment is toward uniform sameness; we have reduced the heterogeneity of the landscape. This, in turn, reduces the richness of bird species we experience in our daily lives.

Question

Not all species are negatively affected by our impact on the environment. While warblers and thrushes breeding in forest interiors may decrease with increased forest fragmentation, edge species will take advantage of the more open habitat and increase. As towns form tree-dominated islands across the Great Plains, many eastern species like the Baltimore Oriole expanded their ranges westward. Feed-grains sustain larger numbers of blackbirds than would not have naturally survived the stress of winter before the development of a large cattle feedlot industry. Dredge spoil offers dependable nesting sites for terns along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Airports in the northeast provide perennial grasslands for Upland Sandpipers that traditionally had to rely on limited larger patches on the coastal plain or the ephemeral meadows of forest succession. Yet, the general trend of our effect on the environment is toward uniform sameness; we have reduced the heterogeneity of the landscape. This, in turn, reduces the richness of bird species we experience in our daily lives.

(from "Migration of Birds: Future Directions" published by the U.S. Geological Survey)
The underlined word in the passage, heterogeneity, comes from the Greek root hetero-, meaning "other" or "different."
What is the meaning of heterogeneity as it is used in the passage?
• 1. balance
• 2. conflict
• 3. desirability
• 4. diversity

Answer 1