paper 1 - biodiversity, taxonomy and species

Question 1

what is species richness

Answer 1

a measure of the number of different species in a communiity

Question 2

what is biodiversity

Answer 2

the number of different species and the number of individuals of each speces within any one community

Question 3

how to calculate index of diversity

Answer 3

d= N ( N-1 ) / all of n( n - 1 )

N = total number of organisms of all species
n = total number of organisms of each soecies

Question 4

how do farming techniques reduce diversity

Answer 4

• natural plants and animals lost when they land is cleared, ploughed etc
• these activities may reduce variety of food sources, volume of food available and habitats/ niches
• growth of specific crops / animals occurs and growth of other species is controlled or stopped (monoculture)
• pesticides and herbicides may be used to kill unwanted species and fertilisers are designed to encourage growth of specific crops

Question 5

what is taxonomy

Answer 5

• science of classification
• involves naming, grouping organsims according to shared characteristics
• smaller groups are placed in larger groups with no overlap

Question 6

how is each species identified

Answer 6

• biomial name consisting of its genus and species
• written in italics and underlined

Question 7

what is the classification system

Answer 7

• organisms placed into taxa (groups) based on their shared characteristics, so based on their evolutionary relationships
• hierarchal system in which smaller groups are placed within larger groups and there is no overlap
• organisms are found in one taxa only at each level of the hierarchy

Question 8

what are the levels in a hierarchy

Answer 8

domain
kingdom
phylum
class
order
family genus
species

Question 9

how is evolution shown through a phlogenic tree

Answer 9

oganisms which shared the same common ancestor more recently have branches which are closely together

Question 10

how does courtship show relation between organisms

Answer 10

courtship behaviour is genetically determined so organisms more closely related display similar patterns of courtship behaviour

Question 11

why can you not always observe reproductive behaviour

Answer 11

• they are extinct
• they produce asexually
• practical or ethical issues

Question 12

how can we make genetic comparisons

Answer 12

• the base sequence of DNA via genome sequencing
• the base seqeunce of mrna
• the amino acids sequence of the protines encoded by dna and mrna

Question 13

how can you make immunological comparisons

Answer 13

• antibodies are protiens with complementary binding sites to the antigen which stimulated their production by b cells of the immune system
• they bind to the antigen specifically and cause it to clump together (agglutination)
• these clumps are solid and precipiate out of solution
• if antibodies made in response to one species protine are able to bind ot the protien for another species and clump, they shared an ancestor more recenlty in time.