exam 1 study guide material Flashcards
factors that contribute to high biodiversity in a region
- size (bigger size, more diversity)
- location (increasing diversity with decreasing latitude, can come with normal temperatures for these regions are more moderate and less seasonality)
- habitat diversity (more habitat diversity, more biodiversity)
vegetation
physiognomy (appearance) and species composition at a location
“association/community”
flora
all the different types of plants that occur in a location –> “species” is the basic unit of description
how do factors that contribute to high biodiversity apply to plants in California
California has a high diversity for a temperate region. this can be due to the fact that California is very large (size!!) (long latitudinal direction with oregon and mexico borders) and also have many different climates (north California is very different from south California and therefore they can have very different vegetations)
- mountains divide climates and vary elevations
- we have forests, woodlands, shrublands, grasslands, deserts
- majority of California flora are flowering plants (dicots)
MAIN BASIC FACTORS
- size
- location –> increasing diversity with decreasing latitude
- habitat diversity
Composition of California’s flora
majority of california’s flora are flowering plant, i.e., angiosperms and mostly dicotyledonous
around 5867 species –> 4646 dicots (80%)
how a floristic province is defined relative to a state
A floristic province is a geographic area that has plant communities composed of plant species that are characteristic of and best developed in that area or region
Floristic province in california
Three floristic provinces occur in california
1. california floristic province (CFP)
- Cismontane CA as delimited by the Cascades, Sierra Nevadas, Transverse Mountains and Peninsular Ranges. 48% of the species are endemic
2. Great Basic Floristic Province
3. Sonoran Floristic Province
- Includes all the hot dry deserts of california
dendrochronology and its use to determine past climate
dendochronology is the science of technique of dating events, environmental change, and archaeological artifacts by using the characteristic patterns of annual growth rings in timber and tree trunks
- can see rainy periods when the ring is large and dry periods when the ring is thinner
- can even identify scars from forest fires
- can identify compression, competition, insect attacks
biological species – different from ecotypes and subspecies
subspecies are applied to ecotypes (?) page 27 of naming plants 1
why is the use of scientific names preferable to common names for plants
- “French public warned over edible chestnut confusion” –> Horse chestnuts seeds is used to make medicine but contains poison that can cause death if eaten raw
taxonomic species
groups of morphologically and ecologically similar natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups
ecological species
subunits of taxonomic species are ecotypes
-ecotypes represent the genetic response of population to habitat and are distinguished by morphological and/or physiological characteristics. infertile with other ecotypes even of the same species
- ecocline; gradation in the attributes of a species associated with an environmental gradient
definitions that may help me understand:
a set of organisms adapted to a particular set of resources, called a niche, in the environment / set of organisms that share environmental niches, with differences between groups being adaptive behaviors and forms in response to the availability of resources
identify the parts of a scientific name
- Genus name 2. specific epithet 3. author
examples
Quercus (genus) alba (specific epithet) Linnaeus (author)
Cirsium (genus) andersonii (epithet) (A. Gray) (parenthetical author) Petrak (combining author)
Pinus (genus) contorta (epithet) Louden (author) ssp. bolanderi (subspecies) (Parl.) Critchf.
Authority
refers to the individual who named the species
- parenthetical author (in parentheses) is who published the epithet
- combining author (comes after the parentheses) is who transferred the epithet to the current genus
name changes
reasons: name contrary to the rules and therefore illegitimate, additional research has changed definition and delimitation of a taxon
ways: two names united into one, divided into multiple, change in rank, changed in position
evolutionary phylogenetic classification
phylogenetic classification can be evolutionary or cladistics
EVOLUTIONARY
-collect taxonomic evidence
- weight the evidence
- determine which features are primitive versus advanced
-construct the classification
-types: Takhtajan, Cronquist, Thorne, Dahlgren
problems; convergent evolution, lack of appropriate fossils, assumes a monophyletic origin of groups, intuitive (affects reproducibility)
cladistics phylogenetic classification
taxa are grouped on the basis of the branching pattern of evolution. assumes that species arise by ancestral species splitting into two to produce a cladogram. characters are based on shared, derived characters.
-homologous characters; shared by common ancestry, only homologous characters can be used in constructing a cladogram
problems; determining which characters to use, parallel and convergent evolution, selecting relevant outgroup
taxonomic evidence
in selecting/ using characters (variable features of plants), the following must be considered; inherited variation patterns v environmentally induced variation, usefulness of particular variables, convergences and parallelism, and determining and describing the extent of variation.
- all parts of a plant at all stages of development can provide useful taxonomic characters
approaches to classification- factors
morphology, comparative anatomy, embryology, cytology, palynology, paleobotany, macromolecular and macromolecular
artificial classification
based on one character (sometimes a few) chosen a priori
- disadvantages; not natural, does not group together similar or phylogenetically related species, no predictive power to the information
- advantages; very easy to place unknown species, does not change, the basis of most keys
linnaeus classification
- type of artificial classification that is based on one character (or a few) chosen a priori
sexual system– 24 groups based on the number of stamens with subgroups based on the numbers of stigmas
natural or phenetic classification
basis; sum total of as many characters as possible chosen a posteriori
-disadvantages; identification can be difficult, the placing of poorly known species may be difficult, may change with advancement of knowledge
- advantages; high information content and predictive value, closely related to phylogenetic classification, recent advancement in understanding can be added
numeric phenetics / dendrogram
- classified based on numerous characters in large data sets. can be morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical, etc
- determined in unbiased way
- total number of characters in common is the basis for the classification and groups are linked together according to the degree of similarity
- resulting classification is represented in a dendrogram
-disadvantages; convergent evolution is difficult to account for and not phylogenetic
Give examples of characters used in the classification of plants and explain why they may be good or useful
need to answer this
vascular plants
most important in terms of number of species and biomass. dominate most terrestrial environments and show progressive adaptation to a terrestrial habitat
some major evolutionary trends – vascular plant body
- vascular plant body
a. development of root and shoot
b. morphological diversity
c. primary growth supplemented by secondary growth
d. treacheary elements become lignified
e. vessels arose independently from trackeids several times
f. stele
g. leaves
flora
all the different types of plants that occur in a location
- “species” is the basic unit of description
vegetation
physiognomy (appearance) and species composition at a location
-“association/community”
- vegetation types are often named for the dominant growth form
- large number of vegetation types reflects climatic and habitat diversity
native species
naturally occurring prior to colonization by Europeans
alien introduced species
introduced such as tamarisk and mustard. numbers of alien species increasing with increasing anthropogenic (resulting from the influence of human beings on nature) disturbance
naturalized species
alien species that have become established as part of the natural vegetation
endemic species
confined to a specific geography. CA has a high proportion of endemic species (more than 30%)
- reflects habitat diversity
paleoendemics
relict (something that has survived from an earlier time period) species such as redwoods
- used to be broadly distributed and then became restricted
neoendemics
new endemics, evolved recently so no movement yet
extirpated
extinct in one area
Linnaeus
developed the binomial system of nomenclature and named hundred of species
flower
the generalized flower is generally defined as a reduced branch system with the leaves modified into sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels. multiples of these parts are arranged in successive whorls of the slower
1st whorl
sepals
2nd whorl
petals
3rd whorl
stamens
4th whorl
carpels
phylogenetic tree v cladogram
phylogenetic tree shows evolutionary and genetic distance while a cladogram displays related characteristics. a cladogram is a hypothesis about evolution, and a phylogenetic tree is a much more supported and tested hypothesis. neither one is considered a fact
FOCUS
E- degree of advancement and divergence from a common ancestor
C- branching patterns of evolution
APPROACH
E-intuitive
C- analytical
SCIENTIFIC APPROACH
E- does not generate hypotheses, classification influenced by personal research of material
C- generates testable hypotheses about branches and tests by collecting data
