Biodiversity vocab Flashcards
Habitat
place where an organism lives
Biodiversity
Variety of life - the range of living organisms to be found
Needs to be considered with: the range of habitats, the difference between species and the genetic variation between members of the same species.
Random sampling
studying a small part of the habitat and assuming it contains a representative set of species that can be applied to the whole habitat. Must be random
Species
group of organisms with similar appearance, physicology, biochemistry and genetics, whose members are able to interbreed to produce fertile offspring
Species richness
The number of species present in a habitat
Species evenness
measure of the relative abundance of each species in an area
(smaller the population size - greater the species evenness)
How is species evenness measured?
using a quantitative survey
how is species richness measured?
using a qualitative survey
Simpson’s diversity index
formula used to measure the diversity of a habitat
higher the value - more diverse habitat
What do the values stand for:
D=1-(E(n/N)2)
n= the total number of individuals of a species
N=total number of organisms of all the species
E= ‘the sum of’
D is always a value close to 0-1 (closer to 1 - greater the biodiversity/greater the species richness and evenness)
Biological classification
process of sorting living things into groups.
Taxonomy
study of the principles of classification
Phylogeny
study of the evolutionary relationships between organisms
see this in a evolutionary tree - closer they are on the tree, closer the species are related
Binomal system
Use two names to identify each species - the genus name and the species name
Dichotomous key
Uses a series of questions with two alternative answers to help you identify a speciem
