Biodiversity Flashcards
What is a species?
Individuals who can breed together to produce fertile offspring
What does taxonomy mean?
Science of classification
What does phylogeny mean?
Study of how organisms have evolved from a shared common ancestor
What is the purpose of courtship?
- Recognise members of the same species
- Identify a mate that is capable of breeding
- Form a pair bond
- Synchronise mating
What are the three domains?
- Archaea
- Bacteria
- Eukarya
What are the features of the bacteria domain?
- No histones
- No membrane bound organelles
- 70s ribosomes
- cell walls made of murein
What are the features of the archaea domain?
- Membranes contain fatty acids joined to glycerol by ester linkages
- Cell wall does not contain murein.
- Genes and protein synthesis similar to eukaryotes
What are the features of the eukarya domain?
- Membrane bound organelles
- Membranes contain fatty acids joined to glycerol by ester linkages
- Cell wall doesnt contain murein
- 80s ribosomes
- Histones
What is biodiversity?
Variety of life in the living world
What is species richness?
Number of different species in a particular area at a given time
What is a community?
All the individuals living in one area at one given time
What is a species diversity?
Number of different species and the number of each individuals of each species within any community
What is genetic diversity?
Variety of different alleles of genes within a population of a species
What is ecosystem diversity?
The range of habitats in one area
Explain how agriculture has reduced species diversity
- Monoculture
- Removal of hedgerows
- Use of pesticides
- Absence of crop rotation and intercropping
What steps can farmers take to conserve species diversity?
Plant hedges
Maintain existing ponds
Reduce use of pesticides
Use crop rotation and intercropping
What are three ways of investigating genetic diversity?
Compare:
- DNA sequences
- RNA sequences
- Amino acids sequences
How can the effect of chance when sampling be reduced?
Large sample size
What does standard deviation tell you?
Indicates the range of values either side of the mean
What are the different types of variation?
Continuous and discontinuous
