Biodiversity Within A Community

Question 1

What is biodiversity?

Answer 1

The measure of the variety of living organisms within a particular habitat, ecosystem, biome or all over the earth

Question 2

What is species diversity?

Answer 2

The number of different species within an area

Question 3

What is habitat diversity?

Answer 3

The number of different habitats within an area

Question 4

What is intra-specific genetic diversity?

Answer 4

The diversity in genes within a species

Question 5

What is inter-specific genetic diversity?

Answer 5

The diversity in genes between species

Question 6

What does species richness measure?

Answer 6

The number of species within a particular region/habitat

Only measures the number of different species not the number of different individuals in each species

Question 7

What does species evenness measure?

Answer 7

• takes into account the number of individuals of each species and the number of different species
• we can develop a distribution of all the species in a region and how equal their populations are

Question 8

What does Simpson’s diversity index (D) measure?

Answer 8

Measure of the relationship between species richness and species evenness

Question 9

What is the formula used to calculate Simpson’s diversity index?

Answer 9

D = N(N-1)/ ∑ n(n-1)

Question 10

What do D, N, n and ∑ stand for in the formula for Simpson’s diversity index?

Answer 10

D = Simpson’s diversity index
N = total number of organisms of all species
n = total number of organisms of each species
∑= sum of

Question 11

What are the two problems with farming that end up decreasing the biodiversity of a community?

Answer 11

Deforestation

Pesticides/herbicides

Question 12

Why is deforestation such a big problem?

Answer 12

• habitats are destroyed resulting in loss of shelter and resources which can lead to extinction within the ecosystem so there is a loss of biodiversity
• results in a less healthy ecosystem
• loss of trees leads to soil erosion since roots hold soil so wind + rain can now remove soil
• less nutritional soil so impact on plant growth

Question 13

What is the problem with pesticides?

Answer 13

They kill other animals than the ones they were targeted at

Can also end up getting into the soil or river systems where they affect fish and other aquatic animals

Question 14

What is the problem with herbicides?

Answer 14

Can kill plants other than weeds which reduces the plant biodiversity and affects animals who eat the weeds

Question 15

How do fertilisers affect biodiversity?

Answer 15

• fertilisers used by farmers are carried by rainwater + enter lakes/rivers
• results in an overgrowth of plants
• nitrogen spike kills and results in a large loss of aquatic animals

Question 16

What is selective breeding?

Answer 16

Selecting plants and animals with the best traits and breeding them more

Question 17

What is the consequence of selective breeding?

Answer 17

Leads to loss in genetic diversity of the plants + animals so there is an increased susceptibility to diseases which can wipe out large number of plants + animals which can result in food shortage
Farming of selectively bred organisms can also lead to poor nutritional quality of the soil so eventually a shortage of food will occur since the soil will be nutritionally wasted

Question 18

What are 3 ways of conserving biodiversity?

Answer 18

1 conservation of wild species of domesticated animals
2 preventing deforestation
3 preserving habitats

Question 19

Why is conserving wild species of domesticated animals good?

Answer 19

It allows for a genetically diverse population of animals which can be used later on

Question 20

Why is preventing deforestation important?

Answer 20

Because it improves soil quality which promotes better farming

Question 21

Why is preserving habitats important?

Answer 21

It promotes biological diversity which also helps domesticated plants + animals

Question 22

What are the effects of global warming on biodiversity?

Answer 22

1 organism aren’t adapted to new climate so loss of suitable habitat which can lead to extinction
2 certain organisms can outcompete others resulting in loss of biodiversity
3 increase in diseases due to proliferation of disease-causing organism being promoted