The Importance Of Conserving Biodiversity Flashcards
What resources do we get from nature?
Wood
Fibres
Oils
Fuels
Food
What can wood be used for?
Manufacturing of buildings, tools and furniture
Fuel
What can fibres be used for?
Cotton
Wool
Paper
Silk
Rayon
What can oils be used for
Food
Lubricants
Soap
What types of fuel come from nature
Wood
Charcoal
Alcohol
Vegetable oils
What types of food comes from nature
Plants
Animals
Algae
Fungi
Why must new food species be considered?
Very few known species of plant or animal are used for food
Most are kept in areas where not well adapted so productivity is low
What are usually better adapted indigenous or introduced?
Indigenous as they are usually better adapted to local conditions
What local conditions my affect plant growth
Climate, pests and soil conditions
What can be doen to increase desirable characteristics?
Selective breeding
What plants have potential commercial cultivation?
Yeheb tree- somalia, produces nuts, drought resistant, grows in poor soil
Morama bean- dry south africa protein smilar to soya, drought resistant
What is biomemetics?
The use of knowledge and of the adaptations of other pecies to improve the design of manufactured intems
How has vehicle design been altered by biomemetics?
Wing tip feathers of soaring birds reduce turbulence and drag this has helped aircraft wing design and help fuel effciency
Shark skin has scales that reduce friction while swimming. The ridges created by the scales have been copied in design for aircraft and ship hulls to reduce fuel consumption
How can biomemetics be used for infection control?
Bacteria do not stick easily to shark skin, coating that imitates shark skin is used in hospitals operating theatres to help contorl bacterial infections
How has architecture used biomemetics
Termite mounds absorb sunlight and become hot creating convestion currents drawing out stale air from the lower mound, lower air pressure on the outside draws the air out.
Copied in shopping centres and office blocks to create natural ventiliation and colling without air conditions
How can biomemetics be used for adhesion
Seeds of plants that have burrs and hooks that stick to fur of passing animals used to develop velcro
How might plants defend themselves?
Thorns, spikes bad taste or chemicals
Why are the plant chemicals important?
Some have beneficial medical effects in humans
What can poppies be used for?
Painkillers like morphine
Where does aspirin come from?
The bark of willow trees now synthetically produced
Where does AZT come form?
Tropical marine sponge in carribean used to treat HIV/AIDS
What is physiological research
Studiying the adapdations of other organims to give humans a better undertsanding of health problems
How have we researched marsupials?
Give birth to young very early then develop in pouch
Easier to study than a human baby of the same age in its motehr womb
What research has been doone on hippos?
Their skin secretes hipposurduric acid which is a natural sunscreen and antimicrobial agent. Studied for burn treatment
How are armadillos studied?
They can catch leprosy
Studied for info anout disease and vaccine production
What are pest control species
A wide range or preadators, herbivores and parasites that control agricultural pests can be indigenous or introduced
How can natural predators be increased>
Ladybirds and beetles can be increased by providing suitable habitats like hedgerows and beetle banks
What is Encarsia formosa?
A parasitic wasp that is released in greenhouses to control whitefly pests on crops like tomatoes
What genetic resources in nature is unused?
Many populations of wild plant have desirable characteristics that may be used in cultivated crops to ikprove variety
What is the problem with domesticated crops?
Lack genetic diversity because they have been produced from a limited number of orginal plants
What does CWR stand for?
Crop wild releative
What are crop wild relatives
Wild plants of the same species or close relatives to domesticated crops
Where CWR usually found
In areas where environmentl degradation threatens their survival (middle east, central america and south easta asia)
How has sugar cane been made disease resistant?
Protected from sugar cane mosaic virus by cross-breeding with wild sugar cane variety from indonesia
How has sea kale be used as a CWR?
Sea kale is salt tolerant and been studied for breeding programmes with close relatives
How has the cacao plant been made resisatnt to drought?
Cacao (chocolate) made drought tolerant by cross breeding with relative from amazon rainforest
What characteristics have been introduced by CWR
Disease resitance
Salt-tolerance
Resitant to drought
High yield
Improved taste/ apperance
Nutrient uptake
How has yield of oil palm been increased?
Increased by 25% by cross breeding with wild relatives form central Africa
How were pineapples made more attractive?
Sweeter pineapples with yellower flesh produced by selective breeding since 1990
How has mycorrhizal fungi been used to improve nutrient uptake in wheat?
Cross breeding wih wild wheat that have a relationship with the fungi so the fungi will utake nutrinets for the more domesticated wheat and provide nutrients
What are centres of diversity?
Russian biologist Nikolai Vavilov studied crop gentics in early 1900’s
Realised soem areas had high concentrationd of close relativs of important crop species
Areas were named centres of diveristy
What is a gene pool?
The total number of different genes present in all individuals in a popualtion of a particular specie s
Will a large population have a large geen pool?
Not necessarilyas all decendants may be closely related
What is the problem with a small gene pool
The population may all be susceptible to the same environmental changes
Risk of interbreeding exposing unwted reccessive genes
What must happen to maintain a large gene pool
A wide range of of genetically different comparitively distantly-related indiduals must be protected
What are ecosystem services?
How species influence the condtions on earth that are beneficial to humans
How is atmospheric compostion an ecosystem service
Regulated by many abiotic and biotic processes which act and cancel each other out creating ‘dynamic equilibrium’
Importance goes unoticed due to said ‘balance’
Concentration of CO2 and O2 is regulated by photosynthesis and respiration
How is the hydrological cycle an ecosystem service
Evapotranspiration frpm from vegetation produces a large amount of water vapour that forms clouds, controls surgace temperatures and increases percipitation
Why are biogeochemical cycles important
Without these processes waste products would build up and important nutrient resources would become depleted
Why is soil maintenance important
Vital for growth and survival of almost all plants providing support, water and nutrients
Rehulated the water cycle, even water flow and reducing flooding
Matter produced from decomposition produces organic acids which aid the weathring and breakdown of rocks producing more soil and more nutrients
Why are interspecies relationships important
No species can live in ecological isolation becuase their survival relies on other species for a range of resources and ecological services
Why is food important for plants and animals
All heterotrophs rely on other organisms as a source of energy and nutrients
Why is pollination by insects important
Allowed dispersed plant populations as insects travel far distances for flowers
More successful than wind pollination (unreliable)
Insect pollinating plants save energy as less pollen as wind pollinators
Why is pollination by animals important
Important in forests where trees reduce wind velocity so wind pollinative would be ineffective
What types of insects pollinate flowers?
Bees
Butterflies
Moths
Beetle
Wasps
What aniamls take part in pollination?
Birds
Bats
Insects
How do animals pollinate plants
Visit flowers and drink sugar rich nectar picking up pollen in the process
How is the Darwin orchid specialised?
Pollen at the end of 30cm tube only one insect (Sphinx moth) carries pollen between the orchids
Stops less speciliased feeders wasting the pollen
Why is seed dispersal by animals important?
Seeds are carried longer distance (over wind)
As animals live in the same habitat they will take seeds where the plant can survive
Larger seeds can also be carried (wind cannot)
How can plants attract animals
Using good tasting and and brightly coloured fruit
How do animamls disperse seeds (larger animals)
Dropped by animal
Or pass through the gut and left in feacal matter which acts as a fertilser for germination
What is habitat provision
When one species mayprovide habitats for other species
What are examples of habitat provision
Trees provides nests for birds
Hermit crabs live in shells of dead molluscs
