Chapter 1: Biodiversity Flashcards
What is biodiversity?
The full range of different living things in a particular area
What is an ecosystem?
A self-sustaining unit consisting of the interactions between the species in a community and the environment
What is a species?
A group of organisms that share a gene pool; all members of the same species can breed with each other to produce fertile offspring
What are biotic factors?
The living components of an ecosystem including animals, plants and bacteria
What are abiotic factors?
The non-living components of an ecosystem, including the physical landscape, minerals and weather conditions
What are common measures of diversity?
Species richness, relative species abundance, percentage cover, percentage frequency and Simpson’s diversity index
What is species richness?
The number of species present in an ecosystem
What is relative species abundance?
The number of individuals present for each species in an ecosystem
What is percentage cover?
The percentage of the quadrat that a species takes up
What is percentage frequency?
The percentage of quadrats in which a species appears
What is the Simpson’s diversity index equation?
*Insert equation
What are some faults with using the five measures of biodiversity?
They are only representative of the time and place that are sampled.
What is the spacial scale?
How much area a studied ecosystem covers
What is a macro-level ecosystem?
A large area of land or water (typically a whole continent or ocean) and its inhabitants
What is a meso-level ecosystem?
A medium-sized area of land or water (typically a single-named location, such as a desert or lake) and its inhabitants
