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Biology Y5 > Topic 1: Ecology and Climate Change > Flashcards

Topic 1: Ecology and Climate Change Flashcards

1
Q

What is biodiversity?

A

Biodiversity is the variety of life that exists in a specified area.

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2
Q

What is the effect of biodiversity on ecosystems?

A
  1. Biodiversity is very important for the resilience of ecosystem.
  2. The more biodiverse an ecosystem is, the more stable and resistant to change it will be.
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3
Q

What are the levels of biodiversity?

A
  1. Ecosystem
  2. Species
  3. Genetic
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4
Q

What is species diversity?

A
  1. Species diversity is the measurement of a combination of species richness and species evenness.

2.High species diversity is caused by high species richness and high species evenness.

  1. An ecosystem with high species diversity is usually more stable than an ecosystem with low species diversity, as they are more resilient to environmental changes.
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5
Q

What is species richness?

A

Species richness is the number of species within an ecosystem.

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6
Q

What is species evenness?

A

Species evenness is the number of individuals of each species within an ecosystem.

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7
Q

What is genetic diversity?

A

Genetic diversity is the number of different alleles of genes that are present. This can be in an entire species or in a local population.

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8
Q

What are the factors that contribute to genetic diversity?

A
  1. The proportion of genes that have more than 1 allele.
  2. The number of different alleles that each gene has.
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9
Q

How can genetic differences between populations of the same species be found?

A

When 2 populations live in different areas, they are subject to
1. different selection pressures
2. that affect the allele frequencies in their populations.

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10
Q

How can genetic differences between individuals within a population be found?

A

Because genetic diversity in a species is important as it can help the population to adapt to and survive changes in the environment.

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11
Q

Compare between current number of species on Earth and past levels of biodiversity

A

Millions of species have been discovered, named and described but there are many more species to be discovered. Evidence from fossils suggests that 1. there are currently more species alive on Earth today than at any time in the past (due to speciation)
2. Many species that have existed in the past are no longer present (due to extinction)

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12
Q

How does global biodiversity increase?

A

When speciation occurs at a higher rate than extinction.

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13
Q

What is ecosystem diversity?

A

Ecosystem diversity is the range of different ecosystems, or habitats, within a particular area.

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14
Q

How does ecosystem diversity affect biodiversity?

A

If there are many different habitats within an area, then that area has high biodiversity.

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15
Q

What is anthropogenic species extinction?

A
  1. It is extinction that has been caused by human activities.
  2. Scientists believe that we are currently experiencing a mass extinction event, and that human activities are playing a large role.
  3. There have been 5 mass extinctions in the past, so the current round of extinctions could be the sixth.
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16
Q

Discuss a case study of an anthropogenic extinction.

A

Caribbean monk seals:
1. Caribbean monk seals (Neomonachus tropicalis) lived in the oceans around the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, and were declared extinct in 2008, though it is believed that they may have gone extinct before this.
2. Their docile nature and their habit of lying out on the rocks meant that these seals were easy for European colonists to hunt for their oil and meat.

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17
Q

What is an ecosystem?

A

An ecosystem is used to describe:
1. all of the living organisms in an area,
2. their interactions with each other and the non-living environment.

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18
Q

What are the causes of ecosystem loss?

A

Human activities are responsible for damaging and destroying many ecosystems around the world.

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19
Q

Discuss a case study about anthropogenic ecosystem loss.

A

Dipterocarp forest in Southeast Asia
1. Dipterocarps are a family of trees that occur in the tropics, and that once formed a crucial part of a complex rainforest ecosystem that dominated Southeast Asia.
2. These rainforests are gradually being lost, with some parts of Southeast Asia having lost more than 50% of their forests.
3. Forest is often lost due to a practice known as clear-cutting, where all of the trees in an area are cut down and removed. This provides timber and clears land for agriculture.

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20
Q

How do we ensure that evidence for biodiversity loss is trustworthy?

A
  1. Many reliable biodiversity surveys need to have been carried out in a wide range of habitats.
  2. Repeat survey data is needed over a period of time.
  3. Both species richness and evenness needs to be assessed.
  4. “citizen scientists” can help with survey work.
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21
Q

State 2 sources of information for the evidence of biodiversity loss.

A
  1. IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services)
  2. IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature)
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22
Q

What are the causes of biodiversity loss?

A

Overarching cause: growth of global human population.

Specific causes:
1. Deforestation
2. Pollution
3. Urbanisation
4. Increase in numbers of pests (higher biodiversity increases the number of pest predators, pests will gather in larger numbers in areas of monoculture)
5. Invasive species (due to global transport).

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23
Q

What is in-situ conservation?

A

It is the conservation of wild species in their natural habitat in order to maintain and recover endangered species (onsite conservation)

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24
Q

What is ex-situ conservation?

A

It is conservation of species in the man-made habitats that imitate the natural habitats of species (offsite conservation)

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25
Q

State the differences between in-situ and ex-situ conservation

A
  1. ISC: provides protection to endangered species against predators.
    ESC: provides protection against all hostile factors.
  2. ISC: suitable for organisms that are found in abundance.
    ESC: suitable for organisms that are not found in abundance.
  3. ISC: more dynamic as it involves natural habitats of organisms/
    ESC: less dynamic as it involves man-made habitats.
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26
Q

Identify 3 examples of in-situ conservation

A
  1. Protected areas
  2. Rewilding
  3. Reclamation
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27
Q

How do protected areas conserve biodiversity?

A
  1. Human access is strictly controlled.
  2. Industrial activities like agriculture and building are tightly regulated.
  3. Hunting is limited or completely prohibited.
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28
Q

How does rewilding conserve biodiversity?

A
  1. Active rewilding: involves human intervention (e.g. removing human features such as roads and reintroducing locally extinct species).
  2. Passive rewilding: leaving an area alone to allow ecological processes to gradually restore themselves.
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29
Q

How does reclamation conserve biodiversity?

A
  1. Reclaims and restores areas that have been damaged by human activities
  2. Restores previously existing ecosystems.
30
Q

Identify 3 examples of ex-situ conservation

A
  1. Zoos
  2. Botanic gardens
  3. Seed banks
  4. Tissue banks
31
Q

How do zoos conserve biodiversity?

A
  1. Captive breeding programmes in zoos can increase the number of individuals of a species.
    - by artificial insemination
    => prevents problems that may arise from low genetic diversity.
    => can avoid difficulties with captive breeding.
  2. Zoos are a resource for scientific research.
32
Q

How do botanic gardens conserve biodiversity?

A
  1. They use cuttings and seeds collected from the wild to establish a population of the endangered species in captivity.
  2. The captive population can be used in the future for reintroduction into habitats where they have become rate.
  3. Botanic gardens are a resource for scientific research.
33
Q

How do seed banks conserve biodiversity?

A
  1. By drying and storing seeds in a temperature-controlled environment.
  2. Seeds can be used to grow plants if their species goes extinct.
34
Q

How do tissue banks conserve biodiversity?

A
  1. By storing genetic material from animals at very low temperatures.
    - Germplasm: reproductive tissue
    - Somatic tissue: body cells
  2. Samples are collected from individuals of the same species
35
Q

Why is it important to prioritise species for conservation?

A
  1. There are too many species that need protection
  2. Prioritising species allows us to decide where to allocate limited resources available.
36
Q

Where are conservation efforts focused on?

A

Evolutionary Distinct and Globally Endangered Species (EDGE)

37
Q

What does it mean to be evolutionarily distinct?

A
  1. Species have few close relatives.
  2. Species are unusual in appearance, behaviour and DNA.
  3. Species represent a part of Earth’s evolutionary tree that is not represented anywhere else.
38
Q

What does it mean to be globally endangered?

A
  1. The IUCN red list is used to provide information about the threat level of an evolutionary distinct species.
  2. must be globally threatened, not just threatened on a local level.
39
Q

What is a habitat?

A

The place where a species lives.

40
Q

What is an ecological niche?

A

The role of a species within its habitat.

41
Q

What does the role of a species include?

A
  1. Which other species depend on it for food.
  2. What time of day a species is active.
  3. Exactly where in a habitat a species lives.
  4. Exactly where in a habitat a species feeds.
42
Q

What happens when 2 species fill the same niche within a habitat?

A
  1. No 2 species can fill the same niche within a habitat.
  2. If this ever happens, the 2 species will be in direct competition with each other.
  3. One of the species will out-compete the other, causing the other to die out in that particular habitat.
43
Q

Identify the 3 groups of animals based on their ability to survive using either aerobic or anaerobic respiration.

A
  1. Obligate anaerobes.
  2. Facultative anaerobes.
  3. Obligate aerobes.
44
Q

What are obligate anaerobes?

A

Single-celled organisms that can only carry out anaerobic respiration. They cannot tolerate oxygen.

Include:
1. early bacteria
2. single-celled organisms found in oxygen-free environments (e.g. lower layers of soil, deepwater and inside the bodies of other organisms)

45
Q

What are facultative anaerobes?

A

Organisms that mainly respire aerobically but have the ability to switch to fully anaerobic respiration in the absence of oxygen.

Include:
1. Brewer’s yeast
2. E. coli

46
Q

What are obligate aerobes?

A

Organisms that cannot survive in the absence of oxygen. They rely on aerobic respiration to release energy for food.

Include:
1. Most animals
2. Most fungi
3. Some bacteria.

47
Q

What is photosynthesis?

A

It is the process by which light energy is used to convert carbon dioxide from the air into organic molecules such as carbohydrates.

48
Q

What are photosynthetic organisms?

A

Autotrophic organisms that use light energy to convert carbon dioxide from the air into organic molecules such as carbohydrates.

Include:
1. Plants
2. Algae
3. Photosynthetic bacteria

49
Q

What is holozoic nutrition?

A

It is nutrition that involves internal digestion.

50
Q

What are heterotrophs?

A

Heterotrophs are organisms that gain organic molecules from the tissues of other organisms

e.g. all animals are heterotrophs.

51
Q

Which organisms use holozoic nutrition?

A

Organisms that use holozoic nutrition are heterotrophs that gain organic molecules by
1. Ingesting
2. Digesting
3. Absorbing
4. Assimilating
molecules from the tissues of other organisms.

52
Q

What are autotrophs?

A

Organisms that undergo photosynthesis (producers).

53
Q

What are mixotrophs?

A

Organisms that use more than one method of nutrition, such as autotrophy (photosynthesis) and heterotrophy.

54
Q

What are obligate mixotrophs?

A

Mixotrophs that must constantly have access to both methods of nutrition.

55
Q

What are facultative mixotrophs?

A

Facultative mixotrophs can survive using one method of nutrition, supplemented by the other.

56
Q

What are saprotrophs?

A

Heterotrophs that ingest the tissues of dead organisms and waste material by secreting enzymes into their food and digesting it externally before absorbing the products of this digestion.

57
Q

What are Archaea?

A

Archaea are a diverse group of single-celled organisms that comprise on of the 3 domains.

58
Q

What are the different groups of Archaea?

A

Different groups of archaea vary metabolically:
1. Phototrophic archaea
2. Chemotrophic archaea
3. Heterotrophic archaea

59
Q

What are phototrophic archaea?

A

Archaea that use energy from light to generate ATP.

60
Q

What are chemotrophic archaea?

A

Archaea that use energy released from chemicals in the environment to produce their own carbon compounds using chemosynthesis.

61
Q

What are heterotrophic archaea?

A

Archaea that gain their carbon compounds from other organisms to generate ATP.

62
Q

What is a fundamental niche?

A

The fundamental niche of species is the
1. full range of conditions and resources
2. in which a species could survive and reproduce, 3. based on its adaptations and tolerance limits.

63
Q

What is a realised niche?

A

The realised niche of the species is the
1. actual conditions and resources in which a species exists,
2. Due to biotic interactions.

64
Q

What is the difference between a fundamental niche and a realised niche?

A

Distribution: FN is the potential distribution of a species, RN is the actual distribution of a species.

Competition: FN had no competition for resources, no predation, RN has competition for resources and predation occurs.

Size: FN is large in size, RN is small in size.

65
Q

What is competitive exclusion?

A

Eliminating a competing species from its niche.

66
Q

What are the potential eventual results of competitive exclusion?

A
  1. Out-competed species is forced to occupy a new, slightly different niche.
  2. Made locally extinct.
67
Q

What is a population?

A

A population is a group of organisms of the same species living in an area at one time.

68
Q

What is the purpose of sampling?

A

To find out about the
1. Abundance
2. Distrubition
of populations.

69
Q

What is the purpose of random sampling?

A

Avoids bias by the person carrying out the sampling.

70
Q

What is the purpose of systematic sampling?

A

Acoids accidentally missing out sections of habitat due to chance.

Biology Y5 (5 decks)

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