The Conditions for Life on Earth Flashcards
Why can population control be necessary?
To help mitigate high or low birth and death rates as well as predation or competition
What is a plagioclimax and how can they be made/maintained?
An area of natural development maintained in its current state by human activities like Burning, Grazing, Mowing, Coppicing, Pollarding
What abiotic features can we provide for new habitats and how?
- Water, pouring it in
- Dissolved oxygen from narrowing rivers
- Temperatures by increasing sunlight
- Light level by clearing areas
- pH by providing acid or alkaline
- Mineral nutrients by providing fertilisers
- Salinity by providing water or salt
Name 2 things taken into consideration during habitat design for in situ conservation
- Habitat area
- Biological corridors
- Habitat shape
- Light level
- Water depth
What are agri-environmental schemes?
Schemes that provide financial support to farmers who invest in conservation and protection of wildlife
What are the three approaches to habitat conservation?
- Land Ownership. The purchase and protection of land by groups like the RSPB
- Designated Protected Areas. Legally protected by organisations or government
- Habitat Creation. Both intentional or unintentional
What is a seed bank?
They store the seeds of wild plants so if they become extinct in the wild they are not globally extinct
What are the two types of release program and how are they different?
Hard and Soft release. Hard has no build up or post-release support where Soft does.
Hard is ideal for reptiles or fish that work off instinct where Soft is better for mammals and birds.
Name 2 methods of increasing breeding success in captivity
- Cryopreservation of eggs, semen and embryos
- Artificial insemination
- Embryo transfer, where an embryo into a closely related female species
- Micropropagation, using a cluster of cells to reproduce a plant
- Cloning
What issues are there with captive breeding programs?
- Conditions for breeding can be specific
- Some species require separation during mating to avoid hurting their peers
- Specific habitats may be required
- Small gene pool of captive populations increase inbreeding risk
- Risk of hybridisation with other animals
Why is it difficult to keep animals in captivity?
- Habitats may need to be very large or are too large to be viable
- Food may be expensive or hard to acquire
- Interspecies relationships may not be available
- Upkeep cost
What do in and ex situ conservation mean?
In or away from their natural habitat respectively
What is CITES and what are its two appendixes.
CITES is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Appendix One: Trade is banned due
Appendix Two: Trade is only allowed from certain areas where a species is well protected
Name 3 forms of protected area
- Site of Special Scientific Interest
- National Nature Reserve
- Special Area of Conservation
- Special protection area
- Natura 2000 sites
- Ramsar sites
- Marine nature reserve
- Local nature reserve
- Marine protected area
- Marine conservation zone
How are species selected for categorisation in the IUCN redlist?
- Keystone species
- Evolutionally uniqueness
- Endemic species
- Flagship species
- Population dispersal degree
What are the IUCN redlist catagories?
- Globally Extinct
- Extinct in the Wild
- Critically Endangered
- Endangered
- Vulnerable
- Near Threatened
- Least Concern
What is the IUCN?
The International Union for Conservation of Nature
How can an introduced species effect an environment?
- Increasing competition
- Increased predation
- New pathogens
- Hybridisation
How can a decrease in one species lead to increasing or decreasing in another?
Food chain impacts, such as an increase in predators leading to a decrease in prey and therefore an increase in plants
Give an example of a seed dispersal species
- Elephant
- Rhino
- Gorilla
- Other large herbivores
Give an example of a pollinator?
- Bee
- Butterfly
- etc
What are two ways animals can be abiotic factors?
Pollinators and seed dispersal species
What are biotic factors?
Living factors (species) that effect their environment
What human activities increase water turbidity?
Ploughing, mining and dredging
What is the biggest cause of pH changes and what threats do they cause?
Acid mine drainage water. They can denature cell proteins of exposed tissue or destroy acid-vulnerable tissues
In what two ways are human making environmental temperatures inhospitable?
Global climate change and hot water discharge
What two things do humans discharge into water that reduces dissolved oxygen
Hot waste water and organic wastes
In what 3 ways do human’s affect water availability (abiotic factor)?
- Drainage of wetlands
- Over-exploitation of groundwater
- Hydroelectric power schemes
What are some traditional medicines?
- Tiger claws as a sedative
- Tiger brain cures laziness
- Rhino horn is supposed to cure basically anything
- Seahorses cure infertility and baldness
What are the direct threats to biodiversity?
- Food
- Fashion
- Pets
- Furniture
- Traditional Medicine
How does the development of transpiration benefit life?
Transpiration returns water vapour to the atmosphere
allowing it to be reused to grow more plants
Why do biogeochemical cycles benefit life?
They mean a small amount of a resource can be used over long periods without being depleted
What is carbon sequestration, what first caused it and how did it help life develop?
The storing of carbon, first done by single cell photosynthetic organisms. It reduces atmospheric carbon, decreasing the amount of heat trapped by the greenhouse effect
Why did increasing atmospheric oxygen result in more life?
The oxygen absorbed UV light, producing the ozone layer
Why did the levels of atmospheric oxygen rise and why did it take so long?
Oxygen released by Archaea was reacted by iron in the water and was only released after it had reacted with all the iron
What were the first photosynthetic organisms
Archaea
In what four ways did life change earth’s environment?
Atmospheric oxygen, sequestering carbon, biogeochemical cycles, transpiration
What controls the amount of infrared energy absorbed and converted to heat?
Atmospheric composition
What controls the absorption of heat from sunlight
The albedo of the surface
What two ways does sunlight benefit life?
It is used in photosynthesis and it produces heat
What two gases were vital for development of life?
Carbon Dioxide for photosynthesis and nitrogen for protein synthesis
What is the earth’s temperature range and why does it allow life?
0-35 degrees C, warm enough for liquid water but not hot enough to denature proteins
What properties of water it a cornerstone for life?
- Solvent for reactions and transport
- Anomalous expansion means convection currents cannot freeze all water
- High specific heat capacity moderates temperatures
- Absorbs UV radiation protecting marine life
When and where did life first appear?
3.5 billion years ago on the seabed
How does earth’s magnetic field make it suitable for life?
It deflects solar wind, preventing biologically damaging radiation from reaching the surface
How does Earth’s speed of rotation make it suitable for life?
The temperature of the surface increases when exposed to the sun and falls when not, meaning we have no temperature extremes
How does Earth’s mass make it suitable for life
The mass creates gravity which prevents gases escaping into space. Among these trapped gases are ones important for life
What 5 features of Earth gave it suitable conditions for life?
Mass, distance from the sun, axis of rotation, speed of rotation and magnetic field
