Biodiversity

Question 1

How many species have been named?

Answer 1

1.8 million

Question 2

How many species are predicted?

Answer 2

10 to 100 million

Question 3

What are species?

Answer 3

They are capable of breeding to produce living, fertile offspring

Question 4

How are organisms identified?

Answer 4

The binomial system

Question 5

What are the features of the binomial system?

Answer 5

Universal system based on latin or greek, the first name is the generic name (genus) and the second name is the specific name (species)

Question 6

What are the rules for the binomial system?

Answer 6

If written they are underlined and typed in italics, the generic name has a capital letter and the specific name is all lower case and if the specific name is not known it can be written as sp

Question 7

What does courtship behaviour enable individuals to do?

Answer 7

Recognise members of their own species
Identify a mate that is capable of breeding
Form a pair bond
Synchronise mating
Become able to breed

Question 8

Why is courtship behaviour used by males?

Answer 8

Determine whether the female is at the receptive stage

Question 9

What is classification?

Answer 9

The grouping of organisms

Question 10

What is taxonomy?

Answer 10

The theory and practice of biological classification

Question 11

What are the two different types of classification?

Answer 11

Artificial and phylogenetic

Question 12

What is artificial classification?

Answer 12

Divides organisms according to differences that are useful at the time (colour, size, number of legs, leaf shape), they are analogous characteristics where they have the same function but different evolutionary origins

Question 13

What is phylogenetic classification?

Answer 13

Based upon evolutionary relationships between organisms and their ancestors, it classifies species into groups using shared features derived from their ancestors and arranges the groups into a hierarchy, in which the groups are contained within larger composite groups with no overlap

Question 14

What is a taxon?

Answer 14

A group within phylogenetic biological classification

Question 15

What are the three domains?

Answer 15

Bacteria, Archeae and Eukarya

Question 16

What’s the taxon group order?

Answer 16

Domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species

Question 17

How do archeae differ from bacteria?

Answer 17

Their genes and protein synthesis are more similar to eukaryotes
Their membranes contain fatty acids attached to glycerol by ether linkages
No murein in their cell walls
More complex form of RNA polymerase

Question 18

What are the four kingdoms of the Eukarya domain?

Answer 18

Protoctista, fungi, plantea and animalia

Question 19

What is phylogeny?

Answer 19

The Evolutionary relationship between organisms

Question 20

What is biodiversity?

Answer 20

Number and variety of living organisms in a particular area

Question 21

What are the three components of biodiversity?

Answer 21

Species diversity, genetic diversity and ecosystem diversity

Question 22

What is species diversity?

Answer 22

The number of different species and the number of individuals of each species within any one community

Question 23

What is genetic diversity?

Answer 23

Variety of genes possessed by the individuals that make up a population of a species

Question 24

What is ecosystem diversity?

Answer 24

Range of different habitats, from a small local habitat to the whole world

Question 25

What is species richness?

Answer 25

A measure of species diversity, the number of different species in a particular area at a given time

Question 26

What is the biodiversity index equation?

Answer 26

D = Σni(ni-1) / N(N-1)

Question 27

What are the impacts of agriculture?

Answer 27

The number of species and the genetic variety of alleles they possess is reduced to the few that exhibit the desired features

Question 28

What agricultural practices have directly removed habitats and reduced species diversity?

Answer 28

Removal of hedgerows and grubbing out woodland Creating monocultures Filing in ponds and draining marsh and other wetland Over-grazing of land

Question 29

What agricultural practices can have an indirect effect on habitats and diveristy?

Answer 29

Use of pesticides and inorganic fertilisers Escape of effluent from silage stores and slurry tanks into water courses Absence of crop rotation and lack of intercropping and undersowing

Question 30

What are some conservation techniques?

Answer 30

Maintain existing and plant hedgerows Maintain existing ponds and create new ones Leave wet corners Plant native trees Reduce the use of pesticides and inorganic fertiliser Crop rotation of nitrogen-fixing crops Intercropping

Question 31

What is intercropping?

Answer 31

Growing two or more crops on an area of land, this increases the land yield

Question 32

What is the DEFRA and what do they do?

Answer 32

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, they make financial incentives to farmers who practice conservation techniques as they are expensive

Question 33

What does the variety of characteristics within organisms depend on?

Answer 33

The range of alleles of that gene (plus environmental factors)

Question 34

What is the limitation of comparing species by observable characteristics?

Answer 34

A large number of them are coded for by more than one gene (polygenic) and characteristics can be modified by the environment

Question 35

What happens when one species gives rise to a new species during evolution?

Answer 35

The DNA of the new species will be very similar to that of the old one, due to mutations the sequence of nucleotide bases in the DNA will change

Question 36

What else can be used to compare species?

Answer 36

mRNA and amino acid sequence in proteins

Question 37

What is interspecific variation?

Answer 37

If one species differs from another

Question 38

What is intraspecific variation?

Answer 38

Members of the same species differing from each other

Question 39

Why might measurements of species not be representative?

Answer 39

Sampling bias and chance

Question 40

What causes sampling bias?

Answer 40

Making unrepresentative choices either deliberately or unwittingly

Question 41

How can chance affect representative sampling?

Answer 41

Individuals chosen may, by pure chance, not be representative

Question 42

How is random sampling carried out?

Answer 42

Dividing study are into a grid of numbered lines and using random numbers obtain coordinates and take samples at the intersection

Question 43

How can chance be minimised?

Answer 43

Using a large sample size and analysis of the data collected

Question 44

What is the shape of the normal distribution curve?

Answer 44

Bell shaped curve

Question 45

What is standard deviation?

Answer 45

Measure of the width of the curve and indicated the range of values either side of the mean

Question 46

How many measurements lie within +- 1 standard deviation?

Answer 46

68%