Biodiversity Flashcards
Describe the binomial naming system
Genus first name - captial letter to start (generic name)
Species is the specific name and comes after with no capital letter
Describe how courtship behaviour is vital for reproduction
Recognise each other
Identify fertility
Forms a pair bond so can look after their offspring
Synchronise mating i.e. When female is in season
Define taxonomy
The practice of biological classification
There are two types of taxonomy, name and explain them
Artificial - different characteristics - analogous characteristics, stuff that is the same between organisms
Phylogenetic
- evolutionary relationships
- a non overlapping hierarchy
List the taxonomic rankings
Domain Kingdom Phyla Class Order Families Genus Species
How do you interpret a phylogenetic tree?
Evolutionary line of desent
Closer branching means more closely related
What is species richness?
The number of different species in a given area at a given time
What is species diversity?
The amount of different species relative to their frequencies within a given area at a given time?
Given by d= N(N-1)/{n(n-1)
Give some examples of how farming reduces biodiveristy
Removal of hedgerows
Monocultures
Pesticides kill other species
Over grazing
Describe how you can improve the biodiversity of a farming area
Maintain hedgerows Create ponds Use less pesticides Grow nitrogen fixing plants Conservation headlands
Describe how species used to be defined, why was this inaccurate?
Through observable characteristics
Based on the fact these characteristics are based on the genes
Many characteristics are polygenic i.e. Made from more than one gene and hence show continuous variation
The environmental conditions may effect the characteristics not the genes
Give three ways of identifying how close species are related using technologies
Read DNA base seauence and analyse two species
mRNA sequence as is complementary to DNA
Amino acid sequence because it is directly coded for by the DNA
