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Conservation Biology > What is Biodiversity? (End of Test 1) > Flashcards

What is Biodiversity? (End of Test 1) Flashcards

1
Q

What is biodiversity?

A

the sum of an area’s organisms, considering the diversity of species, their genes, their populations, and their communities

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2
Q

What are the components of biodiversity?

A
  • genetic diversity
  • species diversity
  • ecosystem diversity
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3
Q

What is species diversity?

A

the number or variety of species in a particular region

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4
Q

What is species richness?

A

number of species

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5
Q

What is evenness, or relative abundance?

A

extent to which numbers or different species are equal or skewed

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6
Q

What is a species?

A
  • a particular type of organism
  • a population of group of populations whose members share certain characteristics and can freely breed with one another and produce fertile offspring
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7
Q

What is genetic diversity?

A

includes the differences in DNA compositon among individuals within a given species

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8
Q

What can weed out genetic variants that are not successful?

A

adaptation to particular environmental conditions

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9
Q

Why do populations benefit from genetic dievrsity?

A

avoid inbreeding or disease epidemics

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10
Q

What does ecosystem diversity include?

A

diversity above species level

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11
Q

What are some ways to categorize diversity above species level?

A

community, habitat, and landscape diversity

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12
Q

What is taxonomy?

A

each species is classified within a hierarchy reflecting the evolutionary diversification of life

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13
Q

What are the 3 types of spatial scales and diversity?

A
  • alpha, beta, and gamma diversity
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14
Q

What is alpha-diversity?

A
  • measured locally, at a single site (richness)
  • number of species that can coexist in the same ecosystem by using different portions of it
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15
Q

What is beta-diversity

A
  • measures the uniqueness; the difference between two sites
  • the number of species unique to one region relative to another
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16
Q

What is gamma diversity?

A

measured over a large scale, same concept as alpha-diversity (richness within a large region)*

17
Q

Where is beta diversity highest?

A

in region with savanna and wetlands (as opposed to*

18
Q

What are subspecies?

A

geographic variations of species

19
Q

How many species have been described by science?

A

1.75 million

20
Q

How many more species likely exist?

A

3 to 100 million

21
Q

Why are we unsure of the number of species on Earth?

A
  • some areas are little explored
  • many species are tiny and inconspicuous
  • some species are very similar in appearance
22
Q

Are species evenly spread among different groups?

A

no, half of all species on earth are insects

23
Q

What is adaptive radiation?

A

when an ancestral species give rise to many species that fill different niches, adapting to them by natural selection

24
Q

What is latitudinal gradient?

A

species richness increases toward the equator

25
Q

What leads to an uneven distribution of biodiversity?

A
  • adaptive radiation
  • latitudinal gradiant
26
Q

What is a theory for why latitudinal gradient exists?

A

tropical climates encourages specialist species that can pack tightly in a community (greater solar enegery, heat, and humidity promotes more plant growth; stable climate favors specialist species)

27
Q

What does endemic mean?

A

a species is endemic to a certain region if its distribution is restricted to that region

28
Q

What does endemism contribute?

A

to the uniqueness and special importance of the biodiversity in particular areas

29
Q

What place has high levels of endemism?

A

Madagascar (100% primates, 95% reptiles, and 99% amphibians)

30
Q

What does extinction mean?

A

last member of a species dies and the species vanishes forever from Earth

31
Q

What is extirpation?

A

disappearance of a particular population, but not the entire species globally

32
Q

What is the background rate of extinction?

A

one species goes extinct naturally every 500-1000 years

33
Q

How many mass extinction events has earth experienced?

34
Q

Is Earth undergoing a sixth mass extinction?

35
Q

How do we know we are undergoing a mass extinction?

A
  • humans have increased extinction rate by a factor of 1000
  • 1,100 species are known to have gone extinct in the past 400 years
  • species of large mammals and birds plummeted with the arrival of humans independently, on each of 3 continents (Australia, NA, Madagascar/NZ) which suggests human hunting was the cause
36
Q

What are the criteria to qualify as a biodiversity hotspot?

A
  • contain at least 1500 species of endemic vascular plants
  • site has to have lost at least 70% of its primary native vegetation
37
Q

Who came up with concept of biodiversity Hotspots

A

Norman Myers

38
Q

What was the most recent biodiversity hotspot?

A

NA coastal plain

Conservation Biology (9 decks)

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