Biodiversity in communites and species + Taxonomy Flashcards
(13 cards)
What is a species?
Organisms belong to the same species if they interbreed in their natural habitat to produce fertile offspring
What is Courtship and what can it include
Courtship is a behaviour that results in mating and reproduction. It plays a major role in species recognition
Courtship can include: A simple process involving a small chemical, physical or auditory stimuli.
A highly complex sequence of acts by 2 or more individuals
What is courtship used for
- Enhances stimuli when mating for fertile offspring
- Allows for recognition of opposite sex
- Plays a major role in species recognition
What is Taxonomy
Is the practise of biological classification
What is the phylogenetic classification system and how is it grouped
It arranges species into groups based on their evolutionary origins and relationships.
- A group hierarchy with no overlaps (each group is called a taxon)
- Multiple smaller taxa can be put into the same larger taxa
What is the highest rank in the phylogenetic classification system
and how is it divided and what did it show
The highest rank is domain (Archaea, bacteria and Eukarya)
They’re divided using analyse of RNA genes
The analyse of RNA genes shown using cell type (prokaryotic and eukaryotic) is insufficient as prokaryotes could be divided into 2 separate groups/domains
What are the 3 domains and explain them
Archaea (prokaryotes) - Extremophile prokaryotes, first discovered in extreme environments (but not all do).
- They were originally classified as bacterial before unique features were discovered
. Unique lipids found in the membrane of their cells
. No peptidoglycan/murein in cell walls
. Ribosome structure are more similar to eukaryotic ribosome structure then that of bacteria
Bacteria - prokaryotes
- vary in size and divide by binary fission
Eukarya - contains a nucleus and membrane bound organelles (eukaryote)
- vary in size from single-celled organisms to large multicellular organisms
- divide via mitosis
What is the hierarchy of Taxa
what are the groups
Organise and group similar organisms together
- Domain
- Kingdom
- Phylum
- class
- Order
- Family
- Genus
- Species
What is a Binomial and what does it allow
What are the rules when writing binomials
Binomials are scientific names of species
They consist of the organisms genus and species names (in Latin)
- It allows species to be identified universally
rules: - Genus name must have a Capital letter at the start
- Species name must all be lowercase
- If typed it must be in italics
- If written it must then be underlined
What is biodiversity and what does it look at
Why is it important
Biodiversity is the variation that exists within a and between all form of life
- It looks at the range and variety of genes, species and habitats within a particular region
It is important for resilience of ecosystems because it allows them to resist natural environmental changes
How can biodiversity be assessed
- Number of species and their relative abundance within a small local area
- Number and range of different ecosystems and habitats
What is species richness
what does it do and why can this be a problem
Number of species within a community
It is the easiest way to measure species diversity. A greater number of species = Greater species richness score
This can be a misleading indicator of diversity as it doesn’t take into account the number of individuals in a species
What can we use instead of species richness for measurements
we often use an index of diversity as it considers both species number and evenness
