Natural Selection - Half Term 2 (9Ad, 9Ae) Flashcards
What is natural selection?
When organisms better suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce.
What is evolution?
Natural selection happening over a long period of time
What can cause species to become endangered or extinct?
Changes in an ecosystem
What are some examples of changes in an environment that can cause species to become endangered or extinct?
- changes in physical environmental factors
- competition from other species
- disease
- human actviities
How can we stop species from becoming endangered or extinct?
- protecting areas and setting up nature reserves
- setting up breeding programmes in zoos
- banning the hunting of some animals or the collecting of wild plants
- setting up gene banks to store parts of organisms such as seeds and gametes
Why should we preserve biodiversity?
- organisms depend on on eanother (scientific word: interdependent)
- we won’t be able to make use of organisms if they become extinct (selfish, no? i hate humans)
- more biodiverse areas recover better from natural disatststers
What is adaptation?
The features that something has to enable it to do a certain job or survive in a particular place
What is biodiversity?
The range of different species of organisms in an area
What is competition?
There is competition between organisms that need the same organisms as each other. We say that they ‘compete’ for these resources
What is an ecosystem?
All the physical environmental factors and all the organisms that are found in a habitat
What does endangered mean?
When a type of organism is in danger of ceasing to exist
What does extinct mean?
An organism that no longer exists (alive) is extinct
What is a food web?
Many food chains linked togteher, showing the flow of energy through organisms in a habitat
What is a gene bank?
Any facility that stores genetic material from different organisms (e.g. seeds, gametes, tissue samples)
What does native mean?
Naturally found in a certain area (obviously please tell me you know this)