Causes & Consequences Of Biodiversity

Question 1

What does species richness depend on?

Answer 1

• Range
• Specialists/generalists
• Extent of niche overlap

Question 2

Describe the role of predation.

Answer 2

• Can remove some species
• ‘Empty’ niches, reduces species richness
• Reduced intensity of interspecific competition

Question 3

Describe succession.

Answer 3

• Initially high due to immigration
• Decreases due to competition
• Facilitation
• Each process allows existence of different organisms.

Question 4

Describe the species-redundancy hypothesis.

Answer 4

Idea that if all species are similar in what they do in a community, does it matter if any are lost?

Question 5

What are the factors of biodiversity?

Answer 5

• Geographic
• Latitude-dependent
• Latitude-independent
• Community-dependent