Biodiversity

Question 1

What is biodiversity?

Answer 1

The range and variety of genes, species and habitats in a particular region
(Species diversity, genetic diversity and ecosystem diversity)

Question 2

What is species diversity?

Answer 2

The number of different species and individuals within each species in a community

Question 3

What is genetic diversity?

Answer 3

The variety of genes amongst all the individuals in a population of one species

Question 4

What is ecosystem diversity?

Answer 4

The range of different habitats

Question 5

What’s a hybrid?

Answer 5

A sterile offspring produced by the mating of two different species (offspring infertile)
eg. Zonkey, liger, mule, wholphin

Question 6

What is species richness?

Answer 6

The number of different species in a given area at a time

Question 7

What is specie evenness?

Answer 7

The number of organisms of each species in a given area at a given time

Question 8

How do you calculate the index of diversity?

Answer 8

d = N(N - 1) / the sum of n(n - 1)

N = total number of organisms of all species
n = total number of organisms of each species

Question 9

What impact does agriculture have on species diversity?

Answer 9

Continuous pop growth leads to pressure on food production :

Reduces species richness and diversity
- farmland typically generates a monoculture
- use of pesticides and herbicides

Question 10

What impact does farming have on genetic diversity?

Answer 10

Farming reduces genetic diversity
- Select species with specific qualities/characteristics which reduces alleles in the population

Question 11

How is creating a monoculture a problem for biodiversity?

Answer 11

Replacing natural meadows with a single species of crop reduce species richness
Boosts profit for the farmer as they only need nutrients for one species

Question 12

What are the solutions for greater biodiversity once a monoculture has been created?

Answer 12

Cut verge/field edges after flowering
Create natural meadows and use hay not grass for silage
Plant native trees on land with low species diversity

Question 13

What’s a solution to overgrazing of land to help increase biodiversity ?

Answer 13

Rotation with a field left fallow

Question 14

What’s a solution for removal of hedgerows (and replace,ent with fences as field boundaries)?

Answer 14

Maintain existing hedgerows in A shape
Plant hedges rather than erect fences

Question 15

What are the advantages of planting hedgerows?

Answer 15

Increase biodiversity so increase predators
Increase predators = more yield and less damage to crops
Increase pollinators increases yield and income
Attract tourists/subsidiaries (income for diversification)

Question 16

What are the disadvantages of planting hedgerows?

Answer 16

Reduced land area for crop growth
Increased biodiversity of pest population reduces yield
Increase interspecific competition lowers income
More difficult to farm

Question 17

What can pesticide and inorganic fertiliser use lead to?

Answer 17

Eutrophication

Question 18

What is eutrophication?

Answer 18

Fertiliser runs off into bodies of water where it dissolves and gives plants nutrients (leads to algal bloom) preventing sunlight reaching other plants and aerobic decomposition of algae suffocates the fish by using the oxygen

Question 19

How do you reduce/stop eutrophication?

Answer 19

Limit fertiliser use near bodies of water
Use organic fertilisers (manure)

Question 20

How can we solve the problem of fertiliser and pesticide use reducing biodiversity?

Answer 20

Reduce pesticide use by using biological control
Use organic rather than inorganic fertiliser
Use crop rotation
Use intercropping
Introduce conservation headland

Question 21

What is crop rotation?

Answer 21

Different species of crops are grown in different fields and alternated to supply different nutrients to the soil (nitrogen fixing crop)

Question 22

What is intercropping?

Answer 22

Used instead of herbicides to control weeds - where 2 or more crops are grown in close proximity

Question 23

What is a conservation headland?

Answer 23

An area at field edges where pesticides aren’t used so wild flowers/insects can breed

Question 24

What is a solution for filling in ponds and draining marshes/wetland?

Answer 24

Maintain existing ponds and where possible create new ones
Leave wet corners of fields rather than draining them

Question 25

Name 4 ways we can measure genetic diversity?

Answer 25

Frequency of observable characteristics
Base sequence of DNA
Base sequence of mRNA
Amino acid sequence

Question 26

What is meant by gene technology?

Answer 26

Sampling DNA or mRNA in order to read nd compare base sequences or organisms
Alternatively the amino acid sequence can be studied which will also provide information on DNA and mRNA sequences of the organisms

Question 27

Why is gene technology better than observation?

Answer 27

Simply inferring DNA differences by observing an organism characteristics is not reliable, the characteristics could be coded for by more than one gene/influenced by the environment

Question 28

What is interspecific and intraspecific variation?

Answer 28

INTERspecific - difference between individuals of different organisms

INTRAspecific - difference between individuals of the same species

Question 29

How do you randomly sample an area to calculate biodiversity?

Answer 29

Use a random number generator to create a coordinate to place the quadrat

Question 30

Why is a large random sample used when calculating biodiversity.

Answer 30

It removes the sampling bias
The number of samples improves how representative of the population the results are