Classification and biodiversity Flashcards

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1
Q

why is classification needed?

A
  • before, organisms named bases of physical characteristics - not useful for international scientists as more than one name
  • helps predict characteristics
  • provides info about evolutionary links between organisms
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2
Q

taxonomic groups

A

domain
kingdom
phylum
class
order
family
genus
species

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3
Q

5 kingdoms

A

animal, plant, protist, fungi, prokaryote

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4
Q

3 domains

A

archaea, bacteria, eukarya

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5
Q

species

A

group of organisms able to reproduce to produce fertile offspring

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6
Q

characteristics of fungi

A
  • unicellular or multicellular
  • nucleus and other membrane bound organelles - cell wall made of chitin
  • no chloroplasts - saprophytic feeders - absorb decaying matter
  • store food as glycogen
  • most have body of myecelium made of threads or hyphae
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7
Q

characteristics of plants

A
  • store food as starch
  • get nutrients by photosynthesis - autotrophic
  • chloroplasts and chlorophyll
  • nucleus and membrane bound ourganelles
  • multicellular
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8
Q

characteristics of animals

A
  • get nutrients by digestion - heterotrophic
  • move with aid of cilia, flagella, contracting proteins
  • multicellular
  • nucleus and membrane bound organelles
  • no chloroplasts
  • food stored as glycogen
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9
Q

characteristics of protists

A
  • mainly unicellular
  • photosynthesis - autotrophic or ingestion of other organisms or parasitic
  • some have chloroplasts
  • nucleus and membrane bound organelles
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10
Q

prokaryotes

A
  • nutrients absorbed by cell wall or photosynthesis
  • no nucleus or membrane bound organelles
  • unicellular
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11
Q

why is phylogeny helpful?

A
  • shows us who has common ancestors
  • shows how closely related organisms are
  • classification can imply all organisms in same group are equivalent
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12
Q

how was theory of evolution developed?

A
  • Lyell - suggested fossils evidence of animals millions of years ago
  • Lyell and Hutton - uniformitarianism - idea that natural processes today were always present
  • Darwin - Galapogus islands
  • Wallace - worked on theory of eveolution
  • Darwin and Wallace came to similar conclusions and published ‘The Origin of the Species’
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13
Q

natural selection

A
  1. Mutation - random - produces variation
  2. competition - eg. outruns predator - due to selelction pressure
  3. survival of the fittest - allele gives advantage for the selection pressure
  4. Live long enough to reproduce - allele passed onto offspring
  5. Larger proportion of population have advantageous allele over time
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14
Q

palaeontology - evidence for evolution

A
  • fossil record - bones of dead organisms make imprints in rocks from millions of years ago
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15
Q

Comparative anatomy - evidence for evolution

A
  • study of similarities and differences in anatomy of species
  • homologous structure - appears different and may have different functions but has same underlying structure
  • provides evidence for divergent evolution - species evolved from common ancestor
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16
Q

comparative biochemistry - evidence for evolution

A
  • comparing proteins and DNA and biological molecules
  • looking at order of DNA bases or amino acids
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17
Q

evolutionary embryology - evidence for evolution

A
  • embryos of many different animals look similar - implies embryonic development has common origin
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18
Q

continuous variation

A
  • characteristic that can take any value in a range
  • gradual rather than distinct categories
  • represented in frequency table then histogram
  • controlled by genes and/or environment
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19
Q

discontinuous variation

A
  • a characteristic that can only result in certain values
  • variation determined purely by genetic factors
  • eg. sex, blood groups
  • represented in pie chart/ bar graph
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20
Q

when would you use a Spearman’s rank coefficient?

A
  • when you want to know if there is an relationship between different measurements from the same sample
21
Q

when would you use a T-test?

A
  • to decide if there is a significant difference between 2 populations
  • p=0.05—> then 95% not due to chance
22
Q

when would you use standard deviation?

A
  • to measure how spread data is from the mean
23
Q

interspecific variation

A

varaition between different species

24
Q

intraspecific variation

A

variation within a species

25
Q

anatomical adaptations

A
  • eg. teeth, bod covering, camouflage
  • physical characteristics, visible
26
Q

behavioural adaptation

A
  • innate or learnt behaviours
  • eg. playing dead, courtship, migration, hibernation
27
Q

physiological adaptations

A
  • eg. water holding, antibiotic production, poison
  • non-visible processes in the body
28
Q

analogous structures

A
  • structures adapted to perform same function but have different genetic origin
  • eg. tails of whales and fish
29
Q

convergent evolution

A
  • whe unrelated species develop similar traits
  • happens when they live in same environment or have similar selection pressures
  • eg. placental and marsupial mole - last common ancestor 100 million years ago - evolved separately in Americas and Australia
30
Q

monoculture

A

growing just one species/variety of crop
eg. Irish potato famine - potatoes wiped out by a disease

31
Q

species richness

A

no. of species living in an area

32
Q

species evenness

A

a comparison of no. of individuals of each species in a community

33
Q

endemism

A

group of organisms unique to particular habitat like an island or type of vegetation
eg. kiwi birds endemic to New Zealand

34
Q

why is Simpson’s index used?

A

to measure level of biodiversity in an area

35
Q

selective breeding

A
  • choosing what to breed together o create desirable characteristics very similar to each other to give high yield and low wastage
  • lack of genetic diversity - highly susceptible to pests and diseases
36
Q

importance of genetic biodiversity

A
  • larger gene pool - higher likelihood of advantageous allele for if environment changes
  • all members of species have same genes but different alleles of that gene - more alleles then more genetically diverse
37
Q

factors affecting genetic diversity

A
  • mutations
  • gene flow - interbreeding between population leading to alleles transferring
  • selective breeding
  • captive breeding programmes
  • artificial cloning
38
Q

genetic bottlenecks

A
  • few individuals survive an event or change in environment reducing the gene pool
  • eg. extinction event at end of last ice age wiped out lots of cheetahs - forced to inbreed reducing gene pool
39
Q

genetic drift

A
  • alleles lost due to chance in meiosis
  • random nature of alleles passed on
40
Q

founder effect

A
  • small no. of individuals create new colony geographically isolated - reduces gene pool
41
Q

how does climate change affect biodiversity?

A
  • warming trend over last 50 years - more xerophytes
  • at 3km sea temps rising - water expands - sea levels rise - floods low level land, extinction of plant and animals on ice caps
42
Q

how does deforestation affect biodiversity?

A
  • animals forced to migrate to other areas
  • reduces species diversity
  • reduces no. of trees
43
Q

how does agriculture industry affect biodiversity?

A
  • select few species grown eg. wheat with most grain
  • deforestation to make room for crops
  • removal of hedgerows
  • monoculture - farms specialise in production of one crop that a limited no. of animals can eat
  • pesticides and herbicides
44
Q

in-situ conservation

A
  • eg. marine conservation zones, wildlife reserves
  • cheaper, organisms in natural habitat, maintains genetic biodiversity and evolutionary adaptations, preserves interdependent relationships
  • require active management - restricting human access, feeding animals, controlled grazing, controlling poaching
45
Q

ex-situ conservation

A
  • seed banks - dried and stored at -20 degrees C to maintain viability, some die if frozen
  • botanic gardens - plant provided with best resources to grow, wild relatives of selectively bred species underrepresented
  • captive breeding programmes - zoos, aquatic centres, hard to maintain genetic diversity- artificial insemination to maximise diversity, aim to create stable population then release into natural environment - diseases, behaviour not learnt, different genetic makeup so may not breed
46
Q

IUCN

A
  • red list with conservation status of animals
  • involved in CITES
47
Q

CITES

A
  • convention of international trade of endangered species
  • international agreement limiting trade of endangered species
  • may lead to increased price of species and lead to people breaking the law
48
Q

Rio de Janeiro agreement

A
  • signed by 150 countries to promote biodiversity
  • in UK areas were chosen as Sites of special scientific interest - SSSIs
  • when a new development is planned, an environmental impact assessment is submitted