Populations Flashcards
What is a population?
All the organisms of one species in a habitat.
What is a community?
Populations of different spices in a habitat makes up a community.
What is an ecosystem?
All of the organisms in particular area and all of the non-living (abiotic) conditions.
What are abiotic conditions?
The non-living features of the ecosystem, e.g. Temperature and availability of water.
What are biotic conditions?
The living features of the ecosystem, e.g. The presence of predators or food.
What is a niche?
The role of a species within its habitat, e.g. What it eats and where and when it feeds.
What is an adaption?
A feature that members of a species have which increases their chance to survive and reproduce.
Why happens when 2 species try to occupy the same niche?
If 2 species try to occupy the same niche they will compete with each other for food, resources, etc. One species will be better adapted to living in the niche, e.g. It is better at finding food. Therefore, the less successful species will be out competed for food and it won’t get enough food so only the most successful species will be able to occupy the niche.
What is natural selection?
Natural selection is when the organisms with better adaptations are more likely to survive and reproduce and so pass on the alleles for their adaptations. Therefore the advantageous alleles become more common in the population.
Why do you have to take a sample of the area your investigating?
You should take a sample of the area you are investigating because it would be too time consuming to measure the number of individuals and distribution of species in the entire area.
How can you avoid bias when taking a sample?
You can divide the area you are investigating into a grid by laying out 2 tape measures and you can use a random number generator to select coordinates.
What is abundance?
The number of individuals of one species in a particular area.
How can you measure the abundance of an organism?
You can simply count the number of individuals.
You can calculate the frequency by seeing how many of the samples a species is recorded in.
You can calculate percentage cover by seeing how much of the area is covered by a species.
What is frequency?
The number of samples a species is recorded in.
What is percentage cover?
How much of the area is covered by a species. (For plants only).
What is distribution?
Where a particular species is in the area being investigated.
What are quadrats useful for?
Quadrats are useful for quickly investigating areas with plant species that fit within a small quadrat.
How can you calculate percentage cover by using a quadrat?
You can place the quadrat on the ground and count how much of the quadrat is covered by the species. You count a square if it is more than half covered.
Why is percentage cover a good way to investigate populations?
It is a quick way to investigate populations and you don’t have to count the individual plants.
What is the purpose of transects?
Transects are used to find out how plants are distributed across an area, e.g. How species change from a hedge towards the middle of a field.
What are the 3 types of transects?
Line transects, belt transects and interrupted transects.
What is a line transect?
A line transect is when a tape measure is placed along a transect and the species which touch the tape measure are recorded.