Biological Resources

Question 1

What is biodiversity? How is it measured?

Answer 1

It is a measure of the variety of organisms present in different ecosystems. This can refer
to genetic variation, ecosystem variation, or species variation (number of species) within an area, biome, or planet.

Question 2

What are genetic diversity and species diversity? How is species diversity measured?

Answer 2

Genetic diversity: the variety of different versions of the same gene within a
species. (contributes to stability.)

Species diversity: the number of different species within a community or ecosystem

Question 3

What is the difference between species richness and species evenness (or relative abundance)?

Answer 3

Species Richness= total # of species

Species Evenness= relative abundance

Question 4

How are species defined?

Answer 4

A species is defined by its ability to produce viable (fertile) offspring.

Question 5

What are the differences among the various ways in which species are defined?

What are the advantages and/or disadvantages of these approaches?

Answer 5

BSC: Biological Species Concept: emphasizes reproductive isolation from all other species and pretty much required sex.
What’s wrong with concept of asexual reproduction… the concept can’t be used with fossils.

Morphological species concept: species may look alike, maybe not. Helpful for animals that do not sexually reproduce. ONLY AMATOMY IS USED.
Can use external and internal features???

Genetic species concept: compare DNA if we have some or compare different species.

Question 6

Is extinction normal?

Answer 6

Yes. It is needed in order to have evolution.

Question 7

What can cause extinctions?

Answer 7

Mass extinctions/ Habitat destruction, pollution, deforestation, climate change, population growth, etc.

Question 8

What are mass extinctions? (I asked you to remember two of these.)

Answer 8

An event causes this. Even if perfectly adapted, organisms can still go extinct. this has happened
five times in Earth’s history. The two are Cretaceous and Permian

1. Cretaceous mass extinction: 66 mya…when all none bird dinosaurs died…76% of species died in Cretaceous.
2. Permian mass extinction: 249 mya…only 5% survived and 95% were extinct.