Biodiversity and Conservation (Week 7 Lecture 9) Flashcards
True or False: Life has existed on Earth for over 3.5 billion years.
True
What percent of species that have ever existed have gone extinct?
90
What was the last mass extinction to just happen?
Cretaceous
True or False: The primary cause of today’s loss of biodiversity is habitat alteration caused by human activities.
True
What is biodiversity?
he variety of all forms of life at all levels of biological systems
What are the percents of mammals, amphibians, birds and gymnosperms that are threatened with extinction?
22 M
32 A
14 B
32 G
True or False: Commonly used to refer to the number of species (species richness), and more commonly species diversity (richness and evenness).
False, less commonly species richness
What is the smallest species mentioned in class
Nanoarchaeum equitans
What is Pando?
Giant aspen clone in Utah
What is the humongous fungus and how much area of land does it cover?
Armillaria oysterae, 1500 acres
True or False: The greatest metabolic diversity is found among the prokaryotic organisms of the Eubacteria and Archaea.
True
What are extremophiles?
can survive in saturated salt concentrations
True or False: As populations of species decrease in size or go extinct, unique genetic variants are lost.
True
Why should we consider genetic diversity as a separate category?
Because they hold “genetic potential.” For example, many of the crops that we grow for food are grown in monocultures of genetically homogeneous individuals.
Because all individuals are the same, a disease, insect pest, or environmental change that can kill one individual can extirpate an entire crop.
True or False: Plant breeders look to wild plant relatives and to locally grown landraces to find new genetic varieties.
True
______ ______ allows species to evolve in response to diseases, predators, parasites, pollution, and climate change.
Genetic vaiation
What are three big reason for GMO food?
introduction of genes that enhance the nutritive value of food
create crop resistance to insect pests
alter bacteria so that they can clean up toxic mine wastes through their metabolic activities.
What is a very common GMO crop?
Golden rice
______ ______ is the genetic variation between and within species
gentic diversity
True or False: Genetic variation is necessary for populations to evolve in response to environmental change
True
______ and ______ diversity take into account adaptations that determine what organisms do and how they respond to the environment.
Ecological and funcional
______ is a species whose distributions are limited to small areas.
Endemism
How many species have been described?
1.8 million
How many species are potentially out there?
10-100 million
How many many mammal species have been found in the last 15 years? And what percent of them are reproductively isolated?
408, 60%
What is the chief cause of loss of genetic population and species diversity?
Habitat loss and fragmentation
Why are 2 main contributors to habitat loss and fragmentation?
Agriculture and extraction of materials
Decrease in population of species caused by hunting or overfishing is known as ______.
Overexploitation
What 3 animals are known as conservation success stories?
African elephant, Eurasian beaver, Greater Stick-nest Rat
What 4 animals are considered failures of conservation?
Leopard, Flat-headed cat, Fishing cat, Pygmy Spotted Skunk
How many biodiversity hotspots are there?
25
What are the 6 obstacles of conservation
Cost of protection vs. exploitation Enforcement Public support Education Funds People Matter
True or False: Loss of biodiversity may be a result of global changes during the next century
True
True or False: Local stresses and fragmentation may compound effects of climate change.
True
True or False: Conservation of biodiversity may not help buffer ecosystems against global changes.
False, they do help
What are the 4 values to biodiversity?
Aesthetics/spiritual
Utility: food, fiber, fuel
Buffering against changes
Ecological services etc.
