B18 - Biodiversity and Ecosystems 2️⃣✅ Flashcards
What is biodiversity?
The variety of all the different species of organisms on earth
Why is a high biodiversity desirable?
It ensures the stability of ecosystems by reducing the dependence of one species for another for food or shelter/ surivial
How does climate change/ human activity reduce biodiversity & why is that a negative thing?
Maintaining a high biodiversity is very important for human survival along side that of other if not all species on earth. Many human activities are reducing biodiversity such as deforestation, hunting to extinction & also the individual needs for every human with each human producing some form of waste every day & there being 7.7 billion of us on earth. The decreased biodiversity can affect us as we do rely on food chains to support us as a dominant species & without certian animals our ‘prey’ wont be able to eat so neither will we
What are the 3 main types of pollution?
Land, water & air
What does water pollution include?
- sewage
- fertiliser
- toxic chemicals
What does air pollution include?
- smoke
- acidic gasses
What does land pollution include?
- landfill
- toxic chemicals
Why is pollution bad for maintaining biodiversity?
Pollution kills animals and therefore reduces biodiversity
Why has large scale deforestation occured?
- To make space for factories
- To gain access to more natural resources
- To make space for agriculture
- Grow crops especially for bio fules (which can lead to helping the planet/ environment)
Why does deforestation affect biodiversity/ the environment?
By carrying out deforestation, humans are reducing the ammount of land avainable for other animals & plants - someitimes removing their natural habitat entirely, leading to extinction & therefore affecting biodiversity
Why is the destruction of peat bogs bad for the environment?
Peat bogs are carbon sinks, therfore when they are destroyed/ when peat is burned, it releases carbon into the environment & therefore the atmosphere, consequently adding to climate change
What are some of the biological cosequences of global warming?
Global warming is resulting in a rise in temperature of the earth, this results in ice caps melting (reducing habitat) and then sea levels rising (reducing/ removing even more habitats & therefore possibly leading to extinction of more animal species)
What are in place to help to maintain biodiversity?
- Breeding programmes for endangerd species
- Protection and allowance for regenertaion of rare habitats
- Reintroduction of things like field margins and hedgerows in agricultural reigons to increase the area of habitat for species that dwell in those areas
- Reduction of deforestation
- Recycling resources rather than dumping waste in landfill
What are trophic levels?
Different levels in a food chain; with tropic level one being the 1st organism e.g. grass
What are organisms of trophic level 1 commonly known as?
Plants and algae make their own food and are called producers.
What are organisms of trophic level 2 commonly known as?
Herbivores eat plants/algae (producers) and are called primary consumers
What are organisms of trophic level 3 commonly known as?
Carnivores that eat herbivores (the primary consumers) are called secondary consumers
What are organisms of trophic level 4 commonly known as?
Carnivores that eat other carnivores are called tertiary
consumers. Apex predators are carnivores with no predators/ at the top of their food chain/ highest trophic level
What is an apex predator?
Usually a carniverous animal that has got no predator itself and it at the top of its food chain/ highest trophic level
Why dont omnivores fit into trophic levels neatly?
Because they can be classed as primary or secondary consumers as they eat the producers (plants) and also the secondary consumer (animal)
What is the equation for working out the transfer in biomass between 2 trophic levels?
What are pyramids of biomass?
Diagrams to show the relative ammount of biomass (living mass of organisms) per trophic level/ a food chain
Why do pyramids of biomass get smaller as you get higher up the trophic levels/ food chain?
Because the total mass of each organism is decreasing as there are usuallty alot less predators than prey and not 100% of an organisms biomass is transferred to the next organism
Roughy how much biomass is transferred between trophic levels?
10%
What are the main 3 reasons for loss of biomass between trophic levels?
- Organisms dont normally eat every part of another organism (e.g. skeleton/ teeth)
- Not all the ingested material is absorbed (e.g. scales on snake), some is egested as feaces
- Some material is lost as waste such as carbon dixoide and water in respiration & urea/ urine
What are sustainable fisheries?
Methods to preserve the health and biodiversity of aquatic ecosystems and safeguards the future of the fishing industry.
What is overfishing?
When we fish too much of a certain species & therefore create imbalance in ecosystems/ foochains
Why do we indulge in sustainable fishing/ fish farms?
We use fish farming and sustainable fishing methods as an alternative way of sourcing fish that avoids overfishing.
What are fish farms?
Fish farms are large enclosures or tanks designed to provide controlled environments for the growth of fish for human consumption. Obtaining our fish from fish farms allows wild fish stocks to recover from overfishing
What are 2 practices that help with sustainable fishing?
- Increasing the size of fishing nets - allows for the selective capture of adult fish, while enabling young fish to escape. This allows the young fish to grow and reproduce, maintaining the fish populations and contributing to the overall sustainability of fisheries.
- Fishing quotas - by setting limits on the amount of fish that can be caught, fishing quotas help maintain balanced ecosystems
What is food security?
Food security is having enough food to feed a population.
What are the 6 factors that affect food security?
- Rising populations across the world mean there are now more people to feed
- Diets change as countries become wealthier, and this means food is often transported around the world, and more meat is being consumed
- New pests/ pathogens can kill crops or livestock that therefore affect farming
- Environmental changes due to climate change such as higher temperatures or reduced rainfall, can decrease food yields.
- The cost of agricultural inputs e.g. fuels, pesticides, fertilisers, animal feed wich means food becomes more expensive
- The conflicts that have arisen in some parts of the world which affect the availability of food/water
What can biotechnology/ genetic modification do to meet the demands of the growing human population?
Modern biotechnology techniques enable large quantities of microorganisms to be cultured for food
What The fungus Fusarium useful for?
Producing mycoprotein, a protein-rich foot suitible for vegetarians; its grown on glucose syrup in aerobic conditions & its biomass is harvested & purified
What is geneticallty modified bacterium capable of producing?
Human insulin, when harvested and purified is used to treat people with diabetes
What are GMOs’?
Genetically modified organisms
Give an example & explain a GM crop that has gotten increased amounts of useful vitamins or minerals?
Golden rice - it has been genetically modified to produce a chemical that is converted to vitamin A in the body. This is helpful in regions of the world where vitamin A often causes deficiency diseases, such as blindness.
(Golden rice has improved nutritional values & increase vitamins and minerals)
What do pesticides do?
Kill insects
Give examples of common GMO improved traits
- drought resistence
- Incresed yeild
- herbicide tolerence
- virus resistence
- Production of specific proteins e.g. insulin from GM bacterium/ plasmids
- Insect resitence
What is a herbicide?
A substance toxic to plants/ weeds
What is bioaccumulation?
The build up of toxic/ harmful chemicals/ materials in an organism
What is a bioindicator species?
A species or a group of species that represents the abiotic or biotic state of the environment - e.g. colour change if polluted
What is eutrophication?
When nutrients accumulate in a body of water, resulting in an increased growth of microorganisms that may deplete the water of oxygen
What are 3 factors that contribute to the loss of energy inbetween trophic levels?
- energy lost by heat
- energy lost by movement
- egestion
What is egestion?
The act or process of discharging undigested or waste material from a cell or organism
What are the two types of farming methods?
- Free range farming
- Intensive farming
What is crop rotation?
A natural method some farmers use to increase nutrients in the soil for the next plants to have more - alternative to fertilisers as they take lots of energy to produce
What are legumes?
A series of vegetables that a very good at adding nitrates to the soil for the next plants to have more
What is monoculture?
When farmers grow only one type of crop exclusively, reducing biodiversity etc..
