9.1 intro to biodiversity Flashcards
what are the major categories of organisms?
what are the issues with estimating global species richness?
-many species have multiple names (synonymy)
-little morphological differences between species (cryptic species) stay hidden or classed under the same name
-lots of species are just hard to find
-exploration is uneven across the planet
-there are relatively few classical taxonomists to review new species as they come up
what are examples of formal descriptions of species?
-atraptes fulgerator
-grebes
what are atraptes fulgerator?
-after 25 years of field observations, scientists were not convinced that astraptes fulgerator was really just one species of butterfly
-using DNA they were able to identify 10 distinct species
-individuals from each species look remarkably similar, but the caterpillars feed on different plants, and the different species are often in difference ecosystems and do not interbreed
what are grebes?
western grebes and clark;s grebes were formerly identified as one species
are all canadian geese the same?
many different species
what is the brookesia micra?
recently discovered species of chameleon from madagascar
-its diminutive size likely “hid” it from researchers for years
how many new mammals have been discovered in the past 10 years?
10
-new species of monkey=lesula
-small deer=saola
-sundaland clouded leopard
what are the estimated number of eukaryotic species on earth?
-land species: 86% of land species are estimated to be undiscovered
-marine species: 91% of marine species are estimated to be undiscovered
-ocean species: estimate range from a few hundred thousand to over 10 million
-mammals: roughly 80% of mammals have been described, but there may be thousands more undiscovered
-15,000 species added to “known” each year
-estimates vary 8.7+-1.3 (SE) million living species, of which only 1.2 million are described
what is the graph of described versus estimated species?
what are the planetary biodiversity estimates?
what is the updated infographic showing the distribution of different types of organisms on the planet based on recent estimates?
how can we estimate global species richness?
-a researcher fogs trees with insecticide in a rainforest in panama to collect insects
-wildlife cameras
what is E-DNA sampling?
what is bioprospecting?
species-abundance relationship (number of diff taxa collected vs. number of individuals collected in each taxon)
this graph shows a relationship between different species and their abundances for aquatic invertebrate taxa collects from Big Chico Creek, California
-note that many of the taxa are rare (only single individuals are collected), whereas some are very common (significantly more than 40 individuals collected)
-the study included a total of 5,726 total invertebrates from 99 taxa
species-abundance relationship (percentage of individuals versus species rank)
common species often account for the bulk of any taxonomic sample
-of 52,000 individual insects, representing 148 species collect, just 15 species accounted for more than 80% of all the collected individuals
what is the species-area relationship of plants example?
what is the species-area relationship example of birds?
what is the equation for species-area relationship?
what is alpha, beta and gamma diversity?
