4.7 Biodiversity

Question 1

Define biodiversity

Answer 1

• The variation that exists within and between all forms of life
• Biodiversity looks at the range of genes, species and habitats within a particular region

Question 2

Define ecosystem diversity.

Answer 2

The range of different habitats within a particular region.

Question 3

Define species diversity.

Answer 3

The range of different species in a community.

Question 4

Define genetic diversity.

Answer 4

Number of different alleles of genes in a population of a species.

Question 5

Why should biodiversity be maintained?

Answer 5

• moral and ethical
• ecological stability
• environmental
• economic (medicine/tourism)
• aesthetic
• agricultural

Question 6

Define species richness.

Answer 6

The number of species in a community.

Question 7

What is an index of diversity?

Answer 7

Species diversity looks at the number of different species in an area but also the evenness of abundance across the different species

Question 8

What is the index of diversity formula?

Answer 8

D = N(N-1) / Σ n(n-1)

Question 9

Farming techniques … biodiversity

Answer 9

reduce

Question 10

Techniques to improve biodiversity in agricultural ecosystems.

Answer 10

• use of organic fertilisers
• using nitrogen-fixing crops
• creating ponds
• planting trees/hedges

Question 11

Why is it difficult to find the balance between conservation and farming?

Answer 11

• maintaining biodiversity can be expensive or labour/time intensive
• e.g. stopping the use of pesticides would decrease yield and therefore profit

Question 12

How can biodiversity by investigated?

Answer 12

• comparison of characteristics BUT genetic diversity can only be implied
• comparing DNA base sequence
• comparing mRNA base sequence
• comparing the amino acid sequence of the proteins encoded by DNA and mRNA

Question 13

If standard deviations don’t overlap, results are …

Answer 13

significant.