System Earth Ch 13

Question 1

What are our main data sources for biodiversity?

Answer 1

fossil records, which are grouped by body shape

Question 2

what do biodiversity records show?

Answer 2

that biodiversity is increasing but with its fluctuations.

Question 3

important diversity events

Answer 3

Cambrian explosion
Stable Ordovician then dropped
drop in late devonian
late permian - 95% of species extinct

Question 4

problems with fossils for biodiversity?

Answer 4

fairly unreliable, they could have been destroyed etc.

Question 5

taxonomy

Answer 5

domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.

Question 6

evolution

Answer 6

the change from one generation to the next of inherited characteristics of a population of organisms.

Question 7

adaptation

Answer 7

changes in the body to fit the location

Question 8

natural selection

Answer 8

a principal driver of evolution

Question 9

origination

Answer 9

when evolution goes so far that the species is unable to breed with the original species, it becomes a new species.

Question 10

extinction

Answer 10

the loss of all individuals of a certain species.

Question 11

largest mass extinction

Answer 11

permian 252 M y ago
Siberian volcanic eruption
massive basalt flow
Siberian traps
anoxic conditions
toxic hydrogen sulphide released?

Question 12

K-T mass extinction

Answer 12

dinosaurs
65 M y ago
75% species extinct

Question 13

possibilities for K-T extinction

Answer 13

meteorite impact
volcanic eruption
sea level

Question 14

iridium

Answer 14

levels were very high around K-T extinction but there are many possibilities for this, including a 65 M y cycle

Question 15

evidence K-T

Answer 15

charcaol from fires
dead plants
high temp impacts
clay composition
fossil locations
no preferential survival

Question 16

what is the name of THE crater?

Answer 16

the Chicxculub crater

Question 17

Environmental consequences of K-T extinction

Answer 17

equator to pole gradient decrease
destroyed stratospheric ozone from NO
acid rain
global average temp rises by 10-15K
delayed reestablishment of the active oceanic biological pump for the next hundreds of thousands of years

Question 18

impacts of extraterrestrial influences

Answer 18

comets - dirty snowballs
asteroids - minerals and metals

Question 19

periodicity of extinctions?

Answer 19

roughly 62 million years

Question 20

Q1. how to deal with incomplete records?

Answer 20

statistically alter the data to correct for discrepancies in fossil availabitility.

Question 21

Q2. processes that cause evolution?

Answer 21

natural selection (evolution)
mutation

Question 22

Q3. How does fossil diversity change over time?

Answer 22

some records get destroyed

Question 23

Q4. explanations for K-T extinction

Answer 23

volcanic eruptions, meteorite, sea level change

Question 24

Q5. environmental consequences of meteorite impact?

Answer 24

world goes to hell: fires, acid rain, no ozone, NO soars

Question 25

Q6. Other mass extinctions?

Answer 25

volcanoes, sea level change etc.