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Biology > Module 3 - Biological diversity > Flashcards

Module 3 - Biological diversity Flashcards

1
Q

What are biotic factors?

A

The living components of an ecosystem, such as plants, animals, fungi, protists, and unicellular organisms.
Competition for resources, predator/prey relationships, disease, and parasitism.

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2
Q

What are abiotic factors?

A

The non-living components of an ecosystem, such as rain, sunlight, nutrient availability, availability of gases.

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3
Q

What are producers?

A

Autotrophs at the bottom of the food chain.

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4
Q

What are consumers?

A

Organisms that eat producers or other consumers to gain energy.

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5
Q

What are decomposers?

A

Organisms that break down dead material to return the nutrients back to the soil.

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6
Q

What are selection pressures?

A

An abiotic or biotic factor that influences the survival of an organism in a given area. `

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7
Q

What is abundance?

A

How many individuals are present in an ecosystem.

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8
Q

What is an adaption?

A

A favourable characteristic is inherited by an organism to suit an environment and provides
an advantage over others in the population.
This is not done intentionally, but rather over a large period of time through the process of
natural selection, where favourable characteristics are passed on to offspring over many
generations.

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9
Q

What are the three types of adaptations?

A

-Structural
-Behavioural
-Physiological

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10
Q

What is structural adaptations?

A

An external characteristic, or the way an organism looks.

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11
Q

What is behavioural adaptation?

A

An action, or the way an organism acts/behaves.

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12
Q

What is physiological adaptations?

A

An internal function, or the way an organism functions.

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13
Q

What does VERA stand for and what does each letter mean?

A

V - variation between organisms
E - environmental pressures are experienced by the organisms.
R - reproduction of organisms that have favourable characteristics occurs.
A - adaptations are naturally selected (favourable characteristics become dominant over
time)

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14
Q

EXAMPLE- Peppered moth VERA

A

V - physiological variation of change in colour.
E - factories were built, and produced soot.
R - the black, mutated moth had a greater chance of survival
A - the peppered moth was found to be predominantly black

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15
Q

What is the theory of evolution by natural selection and who introduced it?

A

It was introduced by Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace.
- Different species come from common ancestors.
- When populations move to a new habitat, the favourable characteristics adapt to better suit that environment and are then passing onto offspring.

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16
Q

What did charles darwin observe?

A

Darwin observed the differences in
structural adaptations of finches on
the Galapagos Islands.

He examined the size and length of
bird beaks and concluded that the
finches came from a common
ancestor and were naturally selected
due to the availability of food sources.

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17
Q

What did alfred wallace observe?

A

Wallace observed the differences in
similar organisms in the Malay
Archipelago, including marsupials
and placentals in trees of nearby
islands.
He concluded that the
movement of continents isolated
organisms and the different selection
pressure in the new location further
lead to different traits being naturally
selected over time.

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18
Q

What is biodiversity?

A

The variety of all forms of life on earth.
Evolution relies on biodiversity as there needs to be variation for there to be natural selection.

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19
Q

What are the three types of diversity that can affect the biodiversity in an area?

A

-Genetic diversity
- Species diversity
- Ecosystem diversity

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20
Q

What is genetic diversity?

A

the genetic characteristics
create the genetic make up of the species.

21
Q

What is species diversity?

A

the variety of different species in
an ecosystem.

22
Q

What is ecosystem diversty?

A

the variety of different
ecosystems in an area.

23
Q

What are the major stages in the evolution of living organisms?

A
  • Formation of organic molecules
  • Formation of membranes
  • Formation of prokaryotes
  • Formation of eukaryotic cells
  • Formation of multicellular organismsq
24
Q

What were the major changes in abiotic factors on earth?

A
  • Atmosphere changed from ANOXIC (no free oxygen) to OXIC (free oxygen)
  • Fluctuations in temperature (Cooling and heating)
  • Formation of ozone layer that protected the earth from radiation.
25
Q

What is speciation?

A

The result of many microevolutionary changes over a long period of time (a new species is formed).

26
Q

What is microevolution?

A

Small changes to a population that result in different
breeds/races rather than new species.

27
Q

Describe the evolution of the horse and what characteristics changed?

A

The first horse, 55mya, was 20-
50cm tall and had a long tail
and short legs.
34mya the environment
changed from swam to
grasslands and the horse
became taller. They also had 3
toes to make them faster. This
acted as a favourable
characteristic that was passed
on to offspring during
reproduction.

28
Q

Describe convergent evolution?

A

Members of different species
(different ancestors) that live in
similar environments have similar
adaptations and therefore undergo
similar selection pressures.
Eg. Whales, Dolphins and Sharks.

29
Q

Describe divergent evolution?

A

When members of the same species
become isolated from one another.
Those that are best suited to the new
environment pass on favourable
characteristics to offspring, until the
populations become so different that
they can no longer interbreed,
resulting in the formation of a new
species.
Eg. Galapagos islands finches.

30
Q

What is gradualism?

A

It suggests speciation occurs
slowly over a long period of time
in response to selection
pressures.

31
Q

What is punctual equilibrium?

A

Suggests speciation occurs in
rapid bursts followed by long
periods of stability due to
selection pressures. This is a
more recent theory that is based
on fossil evidence. It is believed
that if evolution happened
gradually there would be a lot
more variation in species.

32
Q

What are the five pieces of evidence for evolution?

A
  • Biochemical evidence
  • Comparative anatomy
  • Comparative embryology
  • biogeography
  • Fossil evidence
33
Q

What is biochemical evidence?

A

-It was known through the theory of evolution that all living things shared a
common ancestor, but not until recently were they found to share macromolecules,
such as proteins, DNA etc.
-The degree of biochemical differences allows scientists to determine how closely
related two species are.

34
Q

What is DNA-Hybridisation?

A

This technique is used to directly determine how similar the sequences of DNA
are between two species. The method is;

  1. DNA from both species are heated to become two individual strands.
  2. Strand from each species are combined so they can hybridise
  3. The mixture is heated to separate the new hybrid DNA
35
Q

What is comparative anatomy?

A

Comparative anatomy is the study of the similarities and differences of anatomy of living
organisms.

The more similarities implies a recent common ancestor.

36
Q

What are analogous and vestigial structures?

A

Analogous structures occur in convergent evolution. These structures are similar but not due to a recent common ancestor. (Echinda and Hedgehog)
Vestigial structures are remnants of body parts that no longer have a function in the current organism. (Appendix or coccyx)

37
Q

What is comparative embryology?

A

Comparative embryology is the comparison of the development of different stages
of different species.

Similarities found during the embryonic stage of species is linked to recent
common ancestors.

38
Q

What is biogeography?

A

Biogeography is the study of geographical distribution of species, both living and
extinct.
These types of studies are based on the theory of evolution and the observation
that geographical isolation gives rise to speciation within a population.

39
Q

What is wallaces line?

A

Wallace proposed that organisms from islands
were similar to the mainland nearby and different
from mainlands farther away.

40
Q

What is fossil evidence?

A

Before the theory of evolution, palaeontologists recognised differences in organisms now and extinct ones and were able to determine how long ago they existed.

41
Q

What techniques does relative dating use to date fossils?

A

Relative dating use multiple techniques in order to date fossils.

  1. Stratigraphy is one of the main methods of dating fossils. Lower down the fossil
    is in the rock, the older the fossil.
  2. Chemical analysis can determine the presence of certain elements. Old fossils
    will have low nitrogen and high uranium and/or iodine and vice versa..
  3. Biostratigraphy uses index fossils, that have a known existence period to aid in
    dating other fossils in other rock formations
  4. Palaeomagnetism uses changes in the earth’s magnetic field over time and the
    orientation of iron formations to determine the age of nearby fossils.
42
Q

What is Absolute dating?

A

Absolute dating, or radiometric dating, uses radioactive
particles found within fossils to determine age.

43
Q

Structural adaptations in plants example

A

Eucalypts- have thick waxy leaves to prevent water loss through evaporation and transpiration.

44
Q

Structural adaptations in animals example

A

Thorny Devil
- Large spikey apprerance making it look like a difficult meal.
- Tucks its head away between its legs to reveal a fake head which has thick protective scale
- colours match its environemnt

45
Q

Behavioural adaptations in plants example

A

Turgor pressure- plants use this to harden or relax cells by filling or emptying large vacoles.

46
Q

Behavioural adaptations in animals

A

Reptiles
- they are ecotherms so they move into certain areas depending on the temp and time of day.
many will undergo brumination where this activity is stopped during winter.

47
Q

Physiological adaptations in animals example

A

Blubber layer in cold environments- thick layers of stored fat to insulate animal

Secretion of water- either very dilute or very concentrated depending on the environment (Desert animals or Freshwater fish)

48
Q

Physiological adaptations of plants example

A

Temperature-
-Have bulbs that only begin germination in winter
-Anti freeze compounds to stop cytoplasm from freezing
- drop their leaves

Biology (4 decks)

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