Measuring Biodiversity (Patrick's Lecture) Flashcards
(38 cards)
What are the 3 types of biodiversity?
Alpha: species diversity within a community at a local scale
Beta: species diversity between 2 communities
Gamma: The overall diversity of a region
species richness=
the number of species in a given area
What is LUCA?
The last universal common ancestor: all of today’s species have originated from this ancestor
It existed 3.5-3.8 billion years ago
Since then, life has evolved immensely (tree of life!) and organisms has found different niches
Different living organisms will have different ___ to fill niches. How did these evolve?
Give an example
traits
evolved from random mutations in their ancestors DNA that provided an advantage
eg. Darwin’s Finches (trait= beak size)
endemic species=
species that are specific to a limited region
where are endemic species commonly found?
islands, geographically isolated zones, or unique ecosystem types
Canada has ___ endemic species. Give 2 examples
208
eg. Vancouver Island Marmot and Banff springs snail
What is the traditional method of measuring biodiversity? Give 2 disadvantages of this method
go out and count the number of species :(
Very time consuming and is limited by accessibility and time
Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) have been standardized by GEO BON. There are 6 classes of variables (with 21 names). List the 6 classes:
- Genetic composition
- Species populations
- Species traits
- Community composition
- Ecosystem functioning
- Ecosystem structure
Give an example of 1 EBV name from each of the 6 classes
- Genetic composition class: Inbreeding
- Species populations class: species distributions
- Species traits class: movement and reproduction
- Community composition class: trait diversity
- Ecosystem functioning class: primary productivity
- Ecosystem structure class: live cover fraction
T/F
EBVs consider different aspects of biodiversity that don’t require exact inventories of a given region
true!
makes it more useful
____ have been developed to transform relevant data to better amplify certain characteristics like the presence of endemic species
indices
What are the 5 biodiversity indices most used?
Rao’s Q Index
Margalef’s Index
Pielou’s Evenness Index
Shannon’s H Index
Simpson’s S Index
Rao’s Q Index accentuates ___ between numbers
differences
Remote sensing=
observing something without touching it
eg. using electromagnetic radiation to observe objects remotely
Where did many remote sensing technologies originate from?
military applications!
But have seen great advancements for research purposes
List the following remote sensing methods in order from smallest to largest coverage
- satellite
- aerial
- UAV-based
- UAV-based remote sensing
- height <3km
- coverage 0.1-100km2 - Aerial remote sensing
- height: <30km
- coverage: 10-100km2 - Satellite Remote Sensing
- height >150km
- coverage: 10-1000km2
Visible light remote sensing typically uses RGB cameras to take images over a wide area, and the images are then ____…
stitched together with software
this allows for a perspective-less view and data for a large area
multispectral imaging=
captures image data within specific wavelength ranges across the electromagnetic spectrum
So, can see differences in regions by capturing the UV/ infrared of an area (with satellites)
T/F
multispectral imaging is even more powerful than hyperspectral imaging
false
the opposite is true
hyperspectral imaging=
can have hundreds of bands focused on different wavelengths
What’s the use of spectral imagng?
Eg in plants:
- diff plants produce diff spectral responses
- variations in the response allow you to differentiate species
disadvantage of spectral imaging=
highly dependent on lighting conditions
- cloud cover can be an issue: interference= can’t get good data
Radar uses ___ waves, and it often used to detect ___
radio
structure
