CH11 biodiversity

Question 1

What is biodiversity

Answer 1

• the variety of living organisms present in an area
• includes plants, animals, fungi and other living organisms

Question 2

Why is biodiversity important

Answer 2

• maintains a balanced ecosystem for all organisms
• all species are interdependent, so removing organisms can affect others
• well balanced ecosystems provide us with food, oxygen and other organisms needed to survive

Question 3

Why is measuring biodiversity important

Answer 3

• informs scientists of the species present
• provides a baseline for the level of biodiversity in an area
• effect of any change to an environment can be measured from this information

Question 4

Habitat biodiversity

Answer 4

• refers to number of different habitats found within an area
• each habitat can support a different number of species, therefore the greater the number of habitats, the greater the biodiversity

Question 5

Species biodiversity

Answer 5

• has two components: species richness and species eveness

Question 6

Species richness

Answer 6

• the number of different species living in an area

Question 7

Species eveness

Answer 7

• a comparison of the number of individuals of each species living in a community

Question 8

Genetic biodiversity

Answer 8

• refers to the variety of genes that make up a species
• for many genes in living organisms, different alleles exist, leading to genetic biodiversity
• greater genetic biodiversity allows for better adaptation to a changing environment