More on Biodiversity

Question 1

what is genetic diversity

Answer 1

The variation of alleles within a species

Question 2

low genetic diversity could result in…

Answer 2

• not being able to adapt to change in the environment

- entire population could be wiped out

Question 3

do pedigree animals have high or low genetic diversity

Answer 3

low

- as they are animals purely bred from the same breed

Question 4

Genetic polymorphism is used for what?

Answer 4

• To measure GEnetic Diversity
• alleles of the same gene are found at the same point ( locus) in a chromosome
• Polymorphism describes a locus that has two or more alleles

Question 5

Genetic polymorphism formula

Answer 5

Proportion of polymorphic gene loci= Nu. of
polymorphic gene loci / total number of loci

eg : 40/100 = 0.4
then you can multiply by a 100
to find the percentage ( 40%)

Question 6

3 factors that affect GLOBAL biodiversity…

Answer 6

1) Human population growth
2) Increased use of monoculture in agriculture
3) Climate change

Question 7

How does human population growth affects global biodiversity?

Answer 7

Habitat loss- destroying habitatat, causes decrease in habitat diversity

Over- exploitation- greater demand for resources ( food, water and energy), which means a lot more resources get used up faster than they can be replenished.
EG industrial fishing could cause extinction of certain species of fish , with decreases genetic diversity and species diversity

Urbanisation- sprawling cities and major road developments ISOLATE species, so they can not interbreed, so genetic diversity decreases

Pollution- high amounts of pollutants can destroy habitats and kill species, which can decrease biodiversity

Question 8

How does using monoculture in agriculture affect biodiversity?

Answer 8

Monoculture is the growing of a single variety of crop
why does this decrease biodiversity: 3 reasons

1) Habitats is lost as land is cleared to make way for the large fields, reducing habitat diversity
2) Local plants and animals are destroyed with pesticides and herbicides, reducing species diversity
3) Heritage, varieties of crops are lost because they “ don’t make enough money” and are so not planted anymore, which reduces species diversity

Question 9

How does climate change affect biodiversity?

• we have caused this due to increased emissions of green house gases

Answer 9

1) - change in climate could mean that an area that was previously inhabitable could become uninhabitable ( and vice versa)
- Which may cause an increases or decrease in the “range of species” ( species diversity), which could increase or decrease biodiversity

2) - Some species may be forced to migrate, to a more suitable area, causing a change in species distribution,
migrations USUALLY cause a decrease in biodiversity in the area the migrated from and an increase in biodiversity to the area they migrated to

• if there isnt a suitable place to migrate to, or the change in environment is too fast, then the species could become extinct, decreasing biodiversity