4.1.2: Biodiversity Flashcards
What is biodiversity?
Biodiversity is a measure of the range of habitats, species diversity, and genetic diversity.
Define habitat diversity.
Habitat diversity refers to the range of physical, biological, and environmental factors in which a species can live.
What are examples of habitats found in the UK?
- Sand dunes
- Woodlands
- Meadows
- Streams
What is species richness?
Species richness is a measure of the number of different species in a community.
What is species evenness?
Species evenness is the relative abundance of each different species within a community.
What defines a community in ecology?
A community is all the organisms living in a particular area at a particular time.
What is genetic diversity?
Genetic diversity takes into account the number of different alleles and breeds within a species.
Why is large genetic diversity beneficial for species?
Large genetic diversity allows species to adapt to their environment through natural selection and evolution.
What is a gene pool?
The gene pool is all the alleles of all the genes in a population.
What is gene flow?
Gene flow is the sharing of different alleles from each population.
What is captive breeding?
Captive breeding is breeding in zoos that results in a small number of individuals breeding.
What is a genetic bottleneck?
A genetic bottleneck occurs when only a small number of a population survive an event, reducing the gene pool.
What is the founder effect?
The founder effect occurs when a small number of individuals from a population colonize a new, isolated area, leading to a reduced gene pool.
What is a polymorphic gene?
A polymorphic gene is one that has more than one allele.
How can genetic diversity be calculated?
Genetic diversity can be calculated by examining polymorphism using the formula: number of polymorphic gene loci / total number of loci.
What does a higher proportion of polymorphic gene loci indicate?
A higher proportion of polymorphic gene loci indicates larger genetic diversity within the population.
True or False: Species richness accounts for the population size of each species.
False
