Biodiversity (U3, T1)

Question 1

What is an abiotic factor?

Answer 1

A non living part of the environment and their interactions

Question 2

What is a biotic factors?

Answer 2

A living part of the environment and their interactions

Question 3

What is biodiversity?

Answer 3

genetic variation and diversity between living things in an ecosystem.
(this includes the amount of variety within a species, variety of species, or a variety in ecosystem types in a specific location)

Question 4

What are adaptations?

Answer 4

each organisms has structures and behaviours that have allowed them to live in certain environements

Question 5

What are the four types of behavioural adaptations?

Answer 5

Innate, learned, survival, seasonal

Question 6

Why is buoyancy an advantage of living in water?

Answer 6

Organisms can grow with little supporting structures

Question 7

TRUE OR FALSE: Salt water easily passes through cell membrane

Answer 7

True

Question 8

TRUE OR FALSE: sexual reproduction occurs easily in water

Answer 8

True

Question 9

List three limitations of living on land

Answer 9

Any of the following:
transporting water around the body
preventing water loss
materials only pass through cell membrane in solutions
body needs support with gravity
reproduction with little water
variable weather conditions

Question 10

TRUE OR FALSE: CO2 is not readily available on land

Answer 10

False.
CO2 and O2 are readily available due to the atmosphere

Question 11

Define communities

Answer 11

an ecosystem that contains populations of organisms (biotic) that interact with their physical (abiotic) factors

Question 12

List the four categories of organisms

Answer 12

Producers (autotrophs), consumers (heterotrophs), detritivores, decomposers

Question 13

What are producers?

Answer 13

self feeding organisms that form complex organic compounds containing carbon and hydrogen atoms

Question 14

TRUE OR FALSE: producers are the primary energy source for ALL organisms

Answer 14

True

Question 15

What are consumers?

Answer 15

feed on other living organisms with already formed organic molecules

Question 16

What are first order consumers called?

Answer 16

Herbivores. These eat producers

Question 17

What are second/third order consumers called?

Answer 17

Carnivores. These eat living animals

Question 18

What do omnivores eat?

Answer 18

A plant and animal diet

Question 19

What do detritivores do?

Answer 19

They decompose organic matter such as rotting leaves or animal remains

Question 20

What do decomposers do?

Answer 20

They release enzymes onto dead plant/animal remains to absorb externally digested matter

Question 21

What do decomposers leave behind?

Answer 21

They leave behind simple molecules which are reabsorbed into the environement

Question 22

List five ways to determine the diversity of species

Answer 22

Species richness, relative species abundance, percentage cover, percentage frequency, Simpson’s index`

Question 23

What is the formula for species richness?

Answer 23

S = s/sqr(N)

S = species richness
s = number of species
N = total individual organisms

Question 24

What does species richness measure?

Answer 24

the number of species present in a specific area with random samples taken to be an indication of the greater population

Question 25

How is relative species abundance measured?

Answer 25

the number of each species counted in proportion to other species sampled

Question 26

How do you tell if an ecosystem is healthy (using species abundance)?

Answer 26

if various species in the same area are similar in number

Question 27

Define asexual reproduction

Answer 27

the production of a genetically identical offspring from a single parent

Question 28

What is a large gene pool?

Answer 28

a species which has many different alleles for it’s genes

Question 29

What is a biome?

Answer 29

a large geographic region characterised by the form of the species living there. these species are typically influenced by latitude, rainfall and temperature. biomes often contain several ecosystems

Question 30

How is species richness measured?

Answer 30

by counting the number of species within a quadrat

Question 31

What is percentage cover?

Answer 31

an estimate of what percentage each species occupies within a quadrat

Question 32

What is percentage frequency?

Answer 32

the percentage of quadrats in which a species is counted. this is very useful as it indicates the evenness of species distributions and abundance

Question 33

What is Simpson’s Diversity Index (SDI)?

Answer 33

a calculation that determines the probability two species in an ecosystem will be different. the higher the value, the more diverse an ecosystem is.

Question 34

What is the formula for SDI?

Answer 34

SDI = 1 - n(n-1)/N(N-1)

Question 35

TRUE OR FALSE: species interactions impact the spatial distribution of individuals within an ecosystem

Answer 35

True.
When there is a uniform distribution, it is often an indication of competition. Species interactions impact where individuals may be when sampled.

Question 36

List two examples of abiotic factors

Answer 36

temperature, rainfall, soil type, soil pH, availability of water, humidity, light intensity, salinity of water or soil

Question 37

How does a limiting factor affect distribution of species?

Answer 37

They restrict the range and distribution of one species by impacting growth and abundance

Question 38

What is a limiting factor?

Answer 38

A limiting factor is an environmental factor that falls outside the tolerance limit of the species

Question 39

What is the difference between species abundance and species richness?

Answer 39

species richness refers to the number of species in an area. Species abundance refers to the number of individuals per species