4B- Biodiversity Flashcards
What is biodiversity?
The variety of living organisms in an area.
What is a habitat?
The place where an organism lives
What is a community?
All the populations of different species in habitat.
What are the two types of biodiversity?
Local biodiversity could be the different species living in a small habitat local to you.
Global biodiversity is the variety of species on Earth. Biodiversity is greatest towards the equator.
How is biodiversity measured?
Using an index of diversity.
What is species richness?
The number of different species in a community.
It is worked out by taking random samples and then counting the number of different species.
How is the index of diversity calculated?
It uses both the number of species in a community and the abundance of each species.
Which agricultural practices can reduce biodiversity?
Woodland clearance reduces the number of trees and species. It destroys habitats, so some species could use their shelter and food source. It may cause animals to die or forced to migrate.
Hedgerow removal is the same.
Pesticides are chemicals that kill pests, meaning they will die and animals will lose a food source.
Herbicides kill unwanted plants which reduce habitat and food sources.
Mono cultures and where farmers only have one type of plant. This reduces biodiversity directly and will support fewer organisms.
Conservations try to protect biodiversity.
Some examples of conservation are…
Giving legal protection to endangered species.
Creating protected areas. These restrict further development.
The environmental stewardship scheme which encourages farmers to conserve biodiversity.
