Biodiversity Patterns & Processes - exam 2 Flashcards
Describe the state of our knowledge about biodiversity on Earth.
Describe a general picture of the distribution of biomass on earth among plants, animals, other organisms, etc.
Define biodiversity in a few different ways.
Name and explain 4 different ways organisms can be divided into species.
What is a morphological species, and what is the biggest challenge to defining species this way?
What is a biological species, and what is the biggest challenge to defining species this way?
What is a genetic species?
How are these determined?
How are these 3 terms related: molecular clock, split, lump
What is phylogeny?
What is a cladogram?
What are the 2 most commonly used species definitions? 3 reasons why?
What is natural selection? Describe how it works, including/defining these terms:
sexual reproduction
adaptive traits
differential reproduction
heritable traits
What is macroevolution, and what are 4 types of evidence we use to study/support it?
What about microevolution (1 type of evidence)?
~4.6 billion years
Biodiversity increases over time (assuming no catastrophes)
See: speciation
Explain stratigraphy
Explain what speciation is, and 4 major contributors to it. What is a good rule of thumb regarding increasing biodiversity?
Explain continental drift
What is GABI and when did it occur?
What do glacial cycles have to do with biodiversity?
What is Allopatric Speciation?
Explain Adaptive Radiation and give a couple examples.
Explain Sympatric Speciation
What is coevolution? Give some examples.
Define:
extant
extinct
global extinction
extinct in the wild
regional/local extinction
ecological extinction
Name the 5 known major (+ 1 minor) extinction events, and when they occured.
What species were lost?
How did these affect plant and animal diversity over time?
Explain the Anthropocene and its effects on biodiversity.
What are the 4 typical scales at which biodiversity is measured? How does complexity change as you move up or down these scales?
What 3 larger scales are often used when categorizing biodiversity?
Name and describe the location of the world’s 8 biogeographic realms.
What is a biogeographic biome? How many are there? How are they defined?
Be familiar with this graph.
What are the most/least protected biomes in the world? Why?
What is an ecoregion?
How many are there according to the WWF?
How does the US EPA classify them?
What biome is Kentucky in?
How many ecoregions are in Kentucky? Name them and describe where they are in the state.
What is a landscape?
Describe a good example of one in Kentucky.
What is an ecosystem?
What are examples in the eastern US and southwestern US?
Explain food webs/trophic models. Use these terms:
primary producer
primary/secondary/tertiary consumer
detritivore
omnivore
herbivore
carnivore
scavenger
parasite
What is a biotic community?
Provide a detailed description/breakdown of a local biotic community in Lexington.
What is a guild or functional group? Give an example.
What is a population? How does it affect management?
How many known species are there? How many are estimated to exist?
What is species richness?
What are genes, in regards to biodiversity classification?
What are the 3 categories of characteristics in the “Biodiversity House”?
Describe what each means.
What is species richness?
What is another term for it?
What does endemic mean?
Why is Madagascar known as the 8th continent? (put some numbers to it)
What is a biodiversity hotspot?
Name a few around the world and in the U.S.
Areas with especially high levels of biodiversity and endemism, and under threat by human causes.
What type of ecosystems typically have the highest species richness?
Why?
Describe latitudinal gradients in biodiversity.
What is the intermediate disturbance hypothesis?
How might old growth forests affect biodiversity?
Describe Island Biogeography.
What is the underlying relationship used to explain it?
* formula
* who described it
* what year
Describe land-bridge islands, oceanic/volcanic islands, some examples and implications.
How does topography affect biodiversity? Give an example.
crossing the Andes mts from sea to tropical rainforest = many ecosystems and niches across a short transect
Explain this graph and the 2 hypotheses shown
Redundant: removal of a single species may not have an immediate severe impact because most species have overlapping functions, so other species will often pick up the slack for the missing species.
Rivet: Every species plays a singular role, and the removal of any species will have a large impact. There’s a linear relationship between richness and function.
Redundant hypothesis is closer to reality.
Explain these terms with regards to the strength of their ecosystem influence:
Dominant species
Keystone species
Ecosystem engineer
Common species
Rare species
Explain how apex predators often act as keystone species within an ecosystem.
What is ecological release?
What is the relationship between species richness and functional diversity?
Explain why species diversity is not a sufficient measure of biodiversity for conservation biology.
What is the name of a common index used to account for unevenness in species distribution when comparing areas for biodiversity assessment? Explain how it works.
What is beta diversity? How is it calculated? What two main factors influence it?
What is gamma diversity? How is it calculated? What is is unique importance?
Describe the relationship among alpha, beta, and gamma diversity.
