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2X Study > 2 - Genomes to Ecosystems > Flashcards

2 - Genomes to Ecosystems Flashcards

1
Q

Give an example of facultative endosymbiosis.

A

Coral relies on zooxanthellae for nutrients. Coral bleaching is the breakdown of this symbiosis - symbionts are the algae within the polyps tentacles. Contains chloroplasts which are damaged during bleaching due to photons. Under stress, the residual photons become ROS which eject the symbiont. Appears white, bleached (oxidative damage). Could be sea surface temperature rise (CO2 makes water too acidic so less carbonate for exoskeleton), increased solar irradiance and prey overabundance.

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2
Q

Why is it important to conserve coral reefs and how could this be done?

A

They provide many ecosystem services like fishery habitats, medicine, carbon sinks etc. This could be done via marine protected areas (MPA).

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3
Q

What is an ecosystem?

A

An ecosystem is a biological community which occurs in some locale, and the abiotic environment and their interactions.

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4
Q

What are the four primary ecosystem functions?

A
  1. Energy transfer 2. Nutrient cycling 3. CO2 cycling 4. Water cycling
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5
Q

Give examples of ecosystem processes.

A

Nutrient uptake/release, decomposition, water uptake/evapotranspiration, photosynthesis, herbivory, pollination, predation etc.

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6
Q

What is a biological carbon pump?

A

Phytoplankton who live on the ocean floor capture/absorb excess CO2, and with sunlight and nutrients, they produce biomass via photosynthesis - regulates CO2.

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7
Q

What is the difference between supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services?

A

Supporting - processes key for production of all other ecosystem services. Regulating - benefits obtained from ecosystem processes which help regulate natural phenomena - climate etc. Provisioning - goods obtained. Cultural - nonmaterial benefits like spiritual enrichment, aesthetics etc.

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8
Q

What is pattern and process in terms of evolution and natural selection?

A

Pattern - The change in fossil record through time, which infers evolutionary relationships between different fossil organisms and descendants. Process - which causes evolution, shows us how this change/pattern is happening.

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9
Q

What is lamarckism?

A

Individuals lose characteristics they do not require (disadvantageous).

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10
Q

What is catastrophism?

A

Series of catastrophic events defines the fossil record (Cuvier).

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11
Q

What is mutationism?

A

Species emerge in large jumps (de Vries).

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12
Q

What is Scalae Naturae?

A

Slime moulds at the bottom, humans at the top.

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13
Q

What is orthogenesis?

A

A directional force driving evolution in one direction, and evolution is non-reticulate (no network) with various proponents.

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14
Q

What is theistic evolution?

A

God has generated everything - divine creation.

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15
Q

What is modern synthesis, who created this principle and what does it result in?

A

Selection due to environmental pressures can be propagated via heritability through evolutionary time - Darwin. Every species is fertile enough that if all offspring survived to reproduce, the population would grow and remain ~the same size. Survival of the fittest ensues with lowered resources, and so those less suited do not survive to reproduce - natural selection. This process results in changing populations to adapt to their environment, and variations accumulate to form new species.

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16
Q

How does selection act and give the three types.

A

Selection acts on phenotypes, not genotypes. 1. Stabilising - selection favours the mean, so phenotypic variation is lost. 2. Directional - mean trait moves in response to direction and intensity of selection to favour one extreme trait. 3. Disruptive - selection favours both extremes against mean, resulting in multi-model trait distribution.

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17
Q

How do we calculate trait heritability?

A

It is the ratio of genetic variation to total phenotypic variation.

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18
Q

What is the breeders equation?

A

The greater the trait heritability, the faster a species responds to selective pressure.

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19
Q

What are the two mechanisms of sexual selection and what will those with sexually selected traits experience?

A
  1. Intrasexual - between members of the same sex (males) to access mates. 2. Intersexual - members of one sex (females) choose members of opposite sex. A species that has evolved sexually selected traits will have high variance in reproductive success between individuals of the same sex.
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20
Q

What does comparative anatomy and the fossil evidence show us?

A

Comparative anatomy shows us that species share a common ancestor, like morphology, and fossil evidence shows us evolutionary change.

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21
Q

What is a molecular clock?

A

Measures the constant rate of change in an organisms genome over time.

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22
Q

Why is mitochondrial DNA important for understanding evolution?

A

It is 100% conserved across generations and is solely from the mother.

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23
Q

What do isolated populations show us about complex disease and how?

A

Isolated populations descend from less ancestors so we see the founder effect - small subset from a larger population becomes an isolated group, creating little genetic variation and so few alleles will be present at a high frequency. This means that rate of certain diseases is higher due to most isolated individuals sharing pre-disposition genes because of highly common ancestor.

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24
Q

How is there genetic variation and why is it key in human populations?

A

We vary in the number/repeats on certain DNA sequences - we all contain the same sequences but someone may have one and another has five. This is key as it allows for adaptation to our changing environment.

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25
Q

What is a species?

A

A species is a group of living organisms that can successfully breed with one another to produce fertile offspring.

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26
Q

What are the two modes of speciation?

A
  1. Allopatric - external barrier separates populations over time until they diverge genetically e.g geography. 2. Sympatric - non-geographical barrier that can cause genetic divergence via assortive mating - different mating times, habitat, behaviour etc.
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27
Q

What are the two mechanisms of speciation processes?

A
  1. Random - both groups of roughly equal size. 2. Non-random - mating system in which some individuals are more/less likely to mate with individuals of a particular genotype than others.
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28
Q

What is adaptive radiation and give an example?

A

Rapid increase in number of species with a common ancestor - great ecological and morphological diversity, filling different niches. e.g. Galapagos finches.

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29
Q

How do we recognise radiation event?

A

Via common ancestry, correlation between phenotypes and environment (advantageous), trait use, and rapid speciation.

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30
Q

What are the three possible causes of adaptive radiation?

A
  1. Environmental - large animals evolve into small dwarves, and small animals evolve into giants. Introduction of a new species can cause an increase in speciation - like the Cambrian explosion - could be due to increase in CO2 levels, or snowball earth. 2. Developmental - regulate development of segregation animals - HOX genes. 3. Ecological - evolution of eyes leading to predation and the arms race between predators and prey (predator adapts and prey counter-adapts, this repeats).
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31
Q

Give two examples of key innovations.

A

Key innovations - development of swim bladder for buoyancy, kinetic skill like pharyngeal jaw in eels.

32
Q

Give four examples of how humans have influenced ecosystems.

A
  1. Hunting - hunting of megaherbivores could have caused extinction in their predators too due to collapse of the food chain. 2. Climate change - could be caused by end of the ice age. 3. Disease - may have affected megafauna stemming from humans and/or associated animals. 4. Second-order predation - humans kill predators, prey overpopulation causes collapse.
33
Q

What is anthropocene?

A

Period of time during which human activities have impacted the environment enough to constitute a distinct geological change.

34
Q

What is de-extinction?

A

Mammoths have been found fully-intact due to being frozen, allowing us to find their DNA and therefore sequence their entire genome - allowed us to find out what they are related to.

35
Q

What is species diversity?

A

The number of different species present in an ecosystem and relative abundance of each species.

36
Q

Why is there worries that species may go extinct before discovery?

A

Driven by overestimations of the number of species that exist and extinction rates.

37
Q

How is there biases in our knowledge of biodiversity?

A

Our knowledge of different species greatly differs, and the number of discoveries in places such as Kenya do not come from the country itself but rather those in other countries and museums - creating a bias.

38
Q

Why is citizen science important and what biases can it create?

A

This is when the general public is used to report species etc. It can be done via accessible technology which can support biodiversity efforts - e.g. iNaturalist - tourists and those with access to a phone. Biases: 1. Sampling issues surrounding those reporting having to own a phone - some areas will have higher proportions of those who do not. 2. What is recorded - birds are most popular, and this does not accurately reflect how many species are in each group. 3. Charismatic life is more recorded.

39
Q

What is DNA barcoding?

A

The idea that a unique set of numbers could be used to identify living organisms - by sequencing genes in species, done with genus, we can see the variation and differences between organisms.

40
Q

Describe the first level of ecosystems - individuals.

A

Key biological processes include growth, metabolism, activity, thermoregulation and reproduction. Ectotherms have more energy for other uses due to no thermoregulation - but limited in distribution and behaviour. The smaller the organism, the more energy expended on maintaining body heat. Reproduction is the only process that affects the population, but as a result of all survival processes, the reproductive resources only make up a small part of the individuals overall energy. Organisms with larger litters will expend more energy on reproduction than growth.

41
Q

Describe the second level of ecosystems - population.

A

Not all individuals classify as a population, sometimes a group of species is separated due to speciation, so despite groups being a part of the same species, they are different - no genetic flow. Populations do not interbreed due to social hierarchy or location.

42
Q

Describe the third level of ecosystems - community.

A

All of the living organisms that live in the same place, they will use the same resources such as food, predators, and the species group.

43
Q

Give the order of primary succession and the relevant species.

A

Initiation > Colonisation > Development > Mature > Climax. Pioneer species > intermediate species > climax community.

44
Q

What is primary succession?

A

The emergence of a new island slowly becoming inhabited. The land begins as bare rock, which lacks nutrients and requires a build-up of low temperatures and moisture before climax stage. First inhabitants are organisms capable of converting inorganic to organic matter via photosynthesis. Selected organisms will use small amounts of these for nutrients and this escalates until an abundance of organic matter has been generated and therefore more variety of species can be supported. The organisms that currently inhabit the land create niches.

45
Q

What is secondary succession?

A

This is when a land that was once inhabited has become destroyed and slowly is being repopulated again. This could be due to wildfire, deforestation etc.

46
Q

What is the carrying capacity?

A

The resource availability of a habitat - populations will increase to a maximum size until they can no longer be sustained by the environment (max).

47
Q

What are the three carrying capacity trends?

A
  1. Exponential growth - increase in capacity causes factors to limit population growth, meaning more competition, and so mortality increases and the birth rates decline. This leads to population growth decreasing or becoming zero (or -ve). 2. Population grows to specific point and stops due to no more resources for reproduction. 3. Boom and bust - once capacity is reached, many organisms die off.
48
Q

What is competition and its two possible outcomes?

A

The negative effects by one organism consuming or controlling access to a limited resource (space, light), causing: 1. Coexistence - good competitors have a broad distribution so there is more space to live, and so the dominant species receive optimal conditions and the subordinate species get suboptimal. 2. Elimination - dominant species outcompetes other.

49
Q

How is biodiversity maintained?

A

Via coexistence within communities and the availability of different environmental niches.

50
Q

What is an invasive species?

A

Those who have evolved under a different set of evolutionary pressures, and so in a new location can outcompete the native species by dominating resources, increasing predation on native, and avoiding it themselves, and spreading disease.

51
Q

What is the difference between a fundamental and realised niche?

A

Fundamental - set of resources under which organisms could survive. Realised - set of conditions under which a group of organisms will survive (based off adaptations).

52
Q

What two types of variation does increased niche availability give?

A

Spatial - patches of stress and disturbances increase habitat and niche diversity, hence creating higher biodiversity. Temporal - changes over a period of time.

53
Q

What part of the brain is associated with migration and give three organism examples.

A

The hypothalamic region e.g. monarch butterflies, blue fin tuna, and Montagu’s harrier.

54
Q

What are the advantages of migration?

A
  1. Exploit new resources 2. Protect vulnerable young 3. Avoid inbreeding depression 4. Reduce competition.
55
Q

What are the disadvantages of migration with reasoning?

A
  1. Bad weather - could cause delays so arrive when resources depleted. 2. Lack of emergency stops - safer over land. 3. Predation. 4. Disorientation - light guides migrators, so if altered it causes issues. 5. Potential lack of final stop - human intervention or natural disaster, means they also may not make it back due to lack of refuel.
56
Q

Give two examples of biomechanical adaptations for migration.

A
  1. If butterflies wings are bigger, then they can fly better which aids ability to last long distances. 2. Albatross - long/broad wingspan with narrow tapered ends which allows them to soar and make use of the wind currents - also have large wing area compared to body weight.
57
Q

Give three examples of physiological adaptations for migration.

A
  1. Energy sources - muscles have adapted to use fatty acids as energy source (less storage for carbs so use fatty tissues). These metabolic pathways provide a lot of ATP - not normal pathway. 2. Body composition - early, middle and later refuelling stage during migration.
58
Q

What is an Albatross?

A

An Albatross has a long/broad wingspan with narrow tapered ends, allowing it to soar and make use of wind currents. It also has a large wing area compared to body weight.

59
Q

What are three examples of physiological adaptations for migration?

A
  1. Energy sources: Muscles have adapted to use fatty acids as an energy source, providing a lot of ATP.
  2. Body composition: Organs and muscles increase in size during early to middle migration, but skeletal muscles are prioritized during middle to late migration.
  3. Diet: Activates membrane-bound enzymes to increase metabolism and regulate lipid metabolism.
60
Q

What is the difference between biomechanical and physiological adaptations for migration?

A

Biomechanical adaptations reduce the cost of transport, while physiological adaptations increase flight performance and fuel reserves.

61
Q

What are point counts?

A

Point counts involve spotters identifying individuals at a specific time and place to track migration patterns, relying on recognizing the same individual again.

62
Q

What is radar and GPS tracking and their differences?

A

Radar and GPS tracking are accurate methods for studying migration. Radar requires proximity for data collection, while GPS can be accessed anywhere.

63
Q

What are the two challenges posed for studying migration?

A
  1. Overexploitation: Species like bison are killed for fur.
  2. Artificial light: Affects nocturnal migrants and can cause disorientation.
64
Q

What is the tragedy of the commons?

A

The tragedy of the commons focuses on the shared use of limited resources, leading to short-term benefits but long-term negative effects.

65
Q

What are the three types of management solutions?

A
  1. Species-based: Focus on one species to prevent extinction through habitat protection.
  2. Community-based: Local communities care for specific species.
  3. Ecosystem-based: Protects whole ecosystems through spatial planning.
66
Q

What are the four types of marine protected spaces (MPA) and why are they difficult to create?

A
  1. Inland waters
  2. Territorial waters
  3. Exclusive economic zones
  4. High seas

Difficulties include finding baseline data, potential conflicts between users, and regulation challenges.

67
Q

What are the five requirements for an MPA?

A
  1. Identification based on presence of key features.
  2. Priority based on feature quality.
  3. Assessment of the scale required to maintain integrity.
  4. Assessment of the ability to effectively manage the features.
  5. Priority according to the contribution to the MPA network.
68
Q

What is the Midway Atoll?

A

The Midway Atoll is a collection of masses of plastics due to ocean currents, leading to garbage patches that grow faster than they are removed.

69
Q

What are primary and secondary plastics?

A

Primary plastics are whole, while secondary plastics are broken pieces.

70
Q

What are the two main sources of plastics and how?

A
  1. Washing machines: Primary source due to synthetic fibers from clothes.
  2. Petroleum: Run-off into oceans via spills and accidents.
71
Q

What are the effects of plastics in marine mammals?

A
  1. Macroplastics can cause entanglement and suffocation.
  2. Macroplastics form rafts, introducing invasive species.
  3. Chemicals accumulate via bioaccumulation.
  4. Plastics mimic fullness, downregulating appetite.
  5. Ingested plastics can obstruct gills.
  6. Large animals affected by macroplastics.
  7. Plastic attracts harmful chemicals, enhancing toxicity.
72
Q

What is photodegradation of plastics?

A

Photodegradation is the breakdown of plastics due to sunlight exposure, making them more brittle and leaving remnants in the environment.

73
Q

What is the benefit of plant-based plastics?

A

Plant-based plastics can degrade fully, unlike synthetic plastics which only break into smaller pieces.

Example: Wooden spoons.

74
Q

What is a K-selected species?

A

A K-selected species has a long gestation period, few offspring, and a high degree of parental care.

75
Q

What are the six stages of vegetation development?

A
  1. Clear Area
  2. Mosses Grasses
  3. Grasses Perennials
  4. Woody Pioneers
  5. Fast Growing Trees
  6. Forest Climax

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