Biodiversity Flashcards
How did the idea of kingdoms develop?
- Carl Linneaus: 2 kingdoms (plants and animals)
- Anthonie van Leeuwenhoek: 3 kingdoms (plants, animals and protista)
- Three super kingdoms: bacteria, archaea, eukarya
- 5 kingdoms: monera, plants, animals, fungi, protista
- 6 kingdoms: PAFPBA plants, animals, fungi, protists, bacteria, archaea
What is biodiversity?
The variety of different types of life found on Earth
What is species abundance?
Count of the number of individuals of the same species in a habitat
What is species richness?
The number of species that occur in an area
What is species diversity?
The number of species in a community and their relative abundance
What is a t-test?
- Assesses whether the means to two groups of data are statistically different
- p values must be less that 0.05 to be significant
What is Simpson’s Index of Diversity?
- The probability that two randomly selected organisms from the community are from different taxa
- Takes into account number of species and abundance
- Relative abundance = no. of taxon A/total no. inviduals
- D = 1 - ((relative abundance A)^2 + …)
- 0 is monoculture, 1 is many species present in equal proportions
What are some problems with counting species?
- Inaccessible habitats
- Definition of species keeps changing
- Cryptic species
- Complex lifecycle
- Sampling bias
What does endemic mean?
A species that is found exclusively in an ecosystem
What are reasons for conserving biodiversity?
EMU
Esthetic reasons:
- Species are like works of art and it would be foolish to destroy them
- BUT not everyone ascribes beauty to natural phenomena
Moral reasons:
- Other species have a right to exist
- BUT rights are a human construct
Utilitarian reasons:
- Humans derive material benefit from the existence of other species
- BUT this assumes human survival is enhanced by the presence of a large number of other species
