APES Unit 2 Flashcards
Biodiversity
The diversity of life forms in an environment.
How does Biodiversity exist at different scales?
Biodiversity exists on four scales: genetic, species, habit, and ecosystem.
Genetic Diversity
A measure of the genetic variation among individuals in a population.
Population Bottleneck
When a large population declines in number, the amount of genetic diversity carried by surviving individuals is greatly reduced.
Species Diversity
The number of species in a region or in a particular ecosystem.
Habitat Diversity
The variety of habitats that exist in a given ecosystem.
Specialists
Species that only live under a narrow range of biotic or abiotic conditions. (Panda, koala, salamander, etc.)
Generalists
Species that can live under a wide range of biotic or abiotic conditions. (Deer, raccoons, wolves.)
Ecosystem Diversity
The variety of ecosystems that exist in a given region.
How does biodiversity affect responses to environmental stressors?
Increased biodiversity improves how populations and ecosystems respond to environmental stressors.
High Genetic Diversity
It benefits the long-term persistence of populations because they are better able to respond to environmental change than populations with lower genetic diversity.
Low Genetic Diversity
There is an increased likelihood that the population will decline more when exposed to a disease.
How can we calculate Biodiversity?
We can quantify biodiversity in terms of species richness and evenness.
Species Richness
The number of different species in a given area.
Species Evenness
The relative proportion of individuals within the different species in a given area.
