5.1-5.3 version B Flashcards
What are the three types of biodiversity?
Genetic diversity, species diversity, and ecosystem diversity.
Why is biodiversity important?
Biodiversity increases the stability of ecosystems, maintains a healthy biosphere, and provides direct and indirect value to humans.
What are the direct and indirect values of biodiversity?
Humans depend on plants and animals for food, clothing, energy, and medicine.
Most of the world’s food crops come from just a few species.
Wild species serve as reservoirs of desirable genetic traits that might be needed to improve commercial crop species.
Scientists continue to find new extracts from plants and other organisms that help in the treatment of human diseases.
Green plants provide oxygen and remove carbon dioxide.
Natural processes provide drinking water that is safe for human use.
There is value in maintaining healthy ecosystems that are beautiful or interesting to study.
What are the threats to biodiversity?
Overexploitation, unsustainable use, pollution, invasive species, edge effects, and habitat destruction and disruption in general.
How is the current extinction rate different from the background extinction rate?
It is rapid, affects more species, and is mostly caused by humans.
How can the decline of a single species affect an entire ecosystem?
This can start a chain reaction that affects all species in the ecosystem by changing the relationships among organisms in the food web
What are the two classes of natural resources?
Renewable and nonrenewable.
What are the methods used to conserve biodiversity?
Sustainable use, laws that protect endangered species, protecting biodiversity hot spots, and building corridors between habitat fragments.
What are two techniques used to restore biodiversity?
Bioremediation and biological augmentation.
