L5 - Marine Biodiversity

Question 1

How has the way we view biodiversity changed?

Answer 1

It previously just looked at the number of species in a community at a fixed time and place. Now we also considered evenness and dominance

Question 2

What is Ecological Diversity?

Answer 2

Variations of ecosystems and assemblages

Question 3

Give an example of a community

Answer 3

Macroalgae on a rocky shore

Question 4

What is an assemblage?

Answer 4

Species that have a common ancestor

Question 5

What is an ensemble?

Answer 5

Phylogenetic: species that are related and use the same resources within an ecosystem

Question 6

Give 7 reasons why biodiversity is important

Answer 6

1. Species Richness
2. Survival Rates
3. Food Web Stability
4. Food Web Balance
5. Conservation Quality
6. Resource Quality
7. Legislation

Question 7

Give 6 pieces of legislation behind the use of biodiversity

Answer 7

1. Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981)
2. Convention of Biodiversity
3. Jakarta Mandate on Marine and Coastal Biodiversity
4. Biodiversity Action Plans (UKBAPs and LBAPs)
5. Eu Habitats Directive (1992)
6. Water Framework Directive & The Water Bill

Question 8

What is evenness?

Answer 8

How similar species abundances are

Question 9

What is dominance?

Answer 9

The extent to which one species is most abundant

Question 10

Rarity is a function of what 3 things as said by who?

Answer 10

1. Geographic Distribution
2. Habitat Specificity
3. Local Population Size

(Rabinowitz et al., 1986)

Question 11

Give 3 ways of looking at commonness and rarity

Answer 11

1. K-Dominace
2. Rank Abundance Plot
3. Absolute and Relative Rarity

Question 12

What are the 4 species concepts?

Answer 12

1. Biological Species Concept (reproductively isolated)
2. Cohesion Species Concept (isolated geographically but maybe not biologically)
3. Ecological Species Concept (set of organisms adapted to a single niche)
4. Phylogenetic Species Concept (we don’t really know!)

Question 13

What is Cryptic Biodiversity?

Answer 13

Species that look the same and behave the same but have different genetic make ups

Question 14

What 2 types of evolution need to be considered?

Answer 14

1. Isolated

2. On-Going

Question 15

Give 6 methods of assessing species richness?

Answer 15

1. Species Accumulation Curves
2. Rarefaction
3. Smax
4. Chao 1 and 2 Models
5. Remote Sensing
6. Diversity Indices (Margalefs, Menhinicks,Shannons and Simpsons)

Question 16

What impacts species richness?

Answer 16

Survey Effort, Temporal and Spatial variations and Open or Closed System

Question 17

What is a cryptic species?

Answer 17

Hard to see and therefore under recorded

Question 18

Give 4 types of species surrogate measurements

Answer 18

1. Cross-Taxon
2. Within-Taxon
3. Environmental
4. Body Size

Question 19

How many species are un-recorded?

Answer 19

~3-8million

Question 20

When should Simpsons and Shannons be used?

Answer 20

Simpsons 25 spp.

Question 21

For diversity what does 0 and 1 mean?

Answer 21

0 - no diversity

1 - infinite diversity

Question 22

What value represents a diverse habitat?

Answer 22

0.7-0.8

Question 23

What is alpha diversity?

Answer 23

Spatial diversity

Question 24

What is beta diversity?

Answer 24

Diversity due to changes in species (spatial or temporal change): species gain/loss also known as turnover diversity

Question 25

What can be used to measure % similarity?

Answer 25

Jaccards or Bray-Curtis and Soresnens Index

Question 26

Give a Beta diversity for when you have an unequal sample effort

Answer 26

Harrisons Index

Question 27

Give a Beta diversity for spatial diversity

Answer 27

Whitaker Index

Question 28

Give a Beta diversity for temporal change

Answer 28

Diamond and May

Question 29

Give a Beta diversity for temporal and spatial change

Answer 29

Wilson and Shimda Index

Question 30

What did Gaston (1994) describe rarity as?