Biodiversity Flashcards
what is biodiversity?
The term “biodiversity” has been derived from ‘bio’ and ‘diversity’. “Diversity” means variety within
a species and among species. The variety of living organisms present in an ecosystem.
name some benefits of biodiversity.
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Maintenance of soil water and air quality
pest control
pollination and crop production
provision of food and medicine
what are the main aims and objectives of classification?
To determine similarities and differences among organisms so that they can be studied easily.
* To find the evolutionary relationships among organisms.
what is biological classification?
a method by which biologists divide organisms into groups & subgroups.
what is systematics?
the scientific study of the diversity of organisms & their evolutionary relationships or history.
why do biologists perform classification?
There are more than ten million species of organisms alive on Earth today. In order to make sense of this enormous variety, biologists classify organisms, putting them into groups.
what does biodiversity depends on?
soil, climate, altitude, and the presence of other species.
what is taxonomy?
the branch of Biology concerned with the identification, naming, and classification of organisms.
what are the basis of classification?
Classification is based on the relationship amongst organisms and such relationship is got through
similarities in characteristics. These similarities suggest that all organisms are related to one another
at some point in their evolutionary histories.
When biologists classify organisms into groups and subgroups, similarities are seen
in external and internal structures and stages of development.
what are taxa?
The groups into which organisms are classified.
taxa= plural
taxon= singular
aka taxonomic categories
what is taxonomic hierarchy?
the arrangement of various organisms into successive levels of the biological classification either in a decreasing or an increasing order from kingdom to species and vice versa.
what is the largest taxon?
kingdom
what is the basic unit of classification?
specie
what is a specie?
specie is a group of organisms that can interbreed freely among themselves and produce fertile offspring but are reproductively isolated from all other groups in nature.
what are the basis of classification?
based on similarities & dif. among them. S & D are studied in the internal as well as external features. These similarities suggest that all organisms are related to one another at some point in their evolutionary histories.
how & what kind of modern technology give information to taxonomists about organisms’ features.
Modern genetics provides another type of information to taxonomists.
The similarities and differences in the DNA of two studied organisms can be used for getting idea about similarities and differences in their structures and functions.
Name all the taxa of taxonomic hierarchy. (in both increasing and decreasing manner)
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Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
what is motile
the ability of an organism or a cell to move or exhibit self-propulsion.
what are autotrophs?
an organism that can produce its own food
what are heterotrophs?
an organism that cannot produce its own food, instead eat other organisms for nutrition.
name all the kingdom classification system?
2 kcs-plants and animals
3kcs- plants, animals & Protista
5kcs- plants, animals, Protista, monera & fungi
why was 2kcs not workable?
Many unicellular organisms like Euglena have both plant-like (presence of chlorophyll) and animal-like (heterotrophic mode of nutrition in darkness and lack of cell wall) characters. So there should be a separate kingdom for such organisms.
This system also ignores the difference between organisms having prokaryotic and those having eukaryotic cells.
define monera kingdom?
prokaryotic, asexual, unicellular, small & simple in structure. Bacteria and Cyanobacteria is included. Most are heterotrophic but some perform photosynthesis because they have chlorophyll in their cytoplasm.
cyanobacteria=photosynthetic (autotrophs)
in which kingdom is bacteria put?
Kingdom Monera
what’s bacteria?
Bacteria are microscopic unicellular organisms found in Kingdom Monera. They can have different shapes & are prokaryotic.
Mode of nutrition in bacteria are both autotrophic and heterotrophic.
Some bacteria are beneficial, while others can cause diseases.
what is cyanobacteria?
photosynthetic bacteria found in various environments. They can form colonies.
what does ingest mean?
the intake of food or fluids through the mouth.
take into the body by swallowing or absorbing it.
saprotroph vs decomposer
saprotroph = fungi and bacteria
decomposer= is a broader term