Biodiversity Flashcards
Define species
A group of organisms that can interbreed to produce fertile offspring
What are the advantages of courtship behaviour?
Individuals can recognise sexually mature members of their own species of the opposite sex, synchronise mating, form a pair bond and successfully breed
Define classification
The process of arranging organisms into groups
Name the eight groups in the classification heirarchy from largest to smallest
Domain - kingdom - phylum - class - order - family - genus - species
What system is used to give species a universal name?
Binomial naming system
What are two components to a binomial name?
Generic name = the genus the organism belong to. Two closely related species will share the same genus
Specific name = the species the organism belongs to
How are binomial names handwritten?
The first letter of the generic name should be capitalised with the rest in lower case. The whole name should be underlined
What is phylogenetic classification?
The process of arranging organisms into groups based on their evolutionary origins and relationships
How can we clarify evolutionary relationships between organisms?
Analyse their molecular differences.
Advances in immunology/genome sequencing provide clear pictures of how related two organisms are
Explain hierarchical classification
Groups within groups
No overlap between groups
What is biodiversity?
The variety of living organisms. It can be measured in terms of species diversity, ecosystem diversity and genetic diversity
Define community
All the different species that live in one area and interact with each other
How do you calculate index of diversity?
N = total number of organisms of all species
n = total number of organisms of each species
What impact does agriculture have on species diversity?
Decreases species richness
Farmland is typically used for only 1 species
Use of pesticides/ herbicides
What impact does agriculture have on genetic diversity?
Decreases
Farmers select for certain characteristics, which reduces number of different alleles in the population
How can biodiversity be increased in areas of agriculture?
- Use of hedgerows instead of fences
- Grow different crops in the same area or rotate crops around after a season
- Limit use of pesticides and herbicides
Name four ways we can measure genetic diversity
- Frequency of observable characteristics
- Base sequence of DNA
- Base sequence of mRNA
- Amino acid sequence
What is meant by gene technology?
Sampling DNA or mRNA in order to read and compare the base sequence of organisms. Alternatively the amino acid sequence can be studied as this will also provide information on the organisms mRNA and DNA sequences
Why do scientists prefer to use gene technology instead of observation?
Simply inferring DNA differences by observing and organisms characteristics is not reliable; the characteristics could be coded for by more than one gene, or could be influenced by the environment
What is meant by interspecific and intraspecific variation?
Interspecific = differences between individuals or different species
Intraspecific = differences between individuals of the same species
What is sampling?
Selecting a group of individuals to measure that will represent the whole target population
How can a random sample be achieved?
Create a grid for the sample area and randomly generate coordinates where the quadrat can be placed. Repeat until required sample size is reached
