2. Ecology Pt5 Flashcards
What have scientists introduced to reduce the negative effects of humans on ecosystems & biodiversity?
- Breeding programs: for endangered species. Animals are breed in captivity in case it dies out in the wild.
- Protection & regeneration of rare habitats eg. Coral reefs or mangroves protecting the habitat preserves the ecosystem & biodiversity there
- Reintroduction of field margins & hedgerows in agricultural areas where farmers grow only 1 type of crop. (Wild flowers or grasses)
- Reduction of deforestation & CO2 emission by some governments. This could reduce global warming. Regulations & programs.
- Recycling resources rather then dumping waste in a landfill. Reducing the amount of land needed for a landfill so more space for ecosystems
What are the disadvantages of the measures taken to maintain biodiversity?
- it’s expensive eg, paying farmers to have hedgerows
- it come at a cost of local people’s livelihood eg. People employed to cut down trees will be left unemployed. Affecting the local economy
- conflict between biodiversity & food security, eg. Farmers kill foxes to protect livestock so there’s more food, but affecting biodiversity
- land is in high demand, untouched land with high biodiversity is used for development
What does each level of a pyramid of biomass show?
The relative mass of each living material
Why is biomass lost between levels?
- not all ingested material is absorbed, some is egested as faeces
- some biomass absorbed is lost, like glucose during respiration which produces waste, such as carbon dioxide & water and urea in Urine
- organisms don’t each every part of another organism eg, bone
How do you calculate the efficiency between trophic levels?
Efficiency = biomass transferred to the next level/ biomass available at the previous level x 100
What are 6 biological factors which threaten food security?
- increasing birth rate is threatening food security in some places
- changing diets in developed counties means scarce food resources are transported around the world, & become more scarce
- new pests & pathogens that affect farming
- environmental changes can affect food production, eg. famine occurring in some counties due to lack of rain
- the cost of agricultural inputs (eg. seeds, machinery) can be hard for some countries to start farming
- conflicts in some parts of the world that affect the availability of water or food
…………… methods must be found to feed all people on earth
Sustainable
How can food production be made more efficient?
- by restricting energy transfer from food animals to the environment
- this can be done by limiting their movement (small pens) & by controlling the temperature of their surroundings
- some animals are fed high protein foods to increase there growth
What are objections to modern intensive farming methods that people have?
- animals are kept so close together that disease can spread easily
- ethical objections, to make animals live in unnatural & uncomfortable conditions is cruel
What is fusarium useful for?
- it’s a fungus that is useful for producing mycoprotein
- a protein-rich food suitable for vegetarians
- the fungus is grown on glucose syrup, in aerobic conditions and the biomass is harvested and purified
What can modern biotechnology techniques be used for?
It can enable large quantities of microorganisms to be cultured for food
What can genetically engineered bacteria be used for?
To produce human insulin
When harvested and purified this is used to treat people with diabetes
What can GM crops be used for?
- Provide more food
- or food with an improved nutritional value such as golden rice (Vietnam in A)
- or that are resistant to pest-improving crop yields
- or ones that grow better in drought conditions
What are some people against GM crops?
- some people argue that people can’t afford food not that there’s no enough. That we should tackle poverty first
- fears that countries will become dependant on companies who sell GM seeds
- sometimes poor soil is the reason crops fail, even GM crops can’t survive that
