The Importance Of Conserving Biodiversity

Question 1

What resources do we get from nature?

Answer 1

Wood
Fibres
Oils
Fuels
Food

Question 2

What can wood be used for?

Answer 2

Manufacturing of buildings, tools and furniture
Fuel

Question 3

What can fibres be used for?

Answer 3

Cotton
Wool
Paper
Silk
Rayon

Question 4

What can oils be used for

Answer 4

Food
Lubricants
Soap

Question 5

What types of fuel come from nature

Answer 5

Wood
Charcoal
Alcohol
Vegetable oils

Question 6

What types of food comes from nature

Answer 6

Plants
Animals
Algae
Fungi

Question 7

Why must new food species be considered?

Answer 7

Very few known species of plant or animal are used for food
Most are kept in areas where not well adapted so productivity is low

Question 8

What are usually better adapted indigenous or introduced?

Answer 8

Indigenous as they are usually better adapted to local conditions

Question 9

What local conditions my affect plant growth

Answer 9

Climate, pests and soil conditions

Question 10

What can be doen to increase desirable characteristics?

Answer 10

Selective breeding

Question 11

What plants have potential commercial cultivation?

Answer 11

Yeheb tree- somalia, produces nuts, drought resistant, grows in poor soil
Morama bean- dry south africa protein smilar to soya, drought resistant

Question 12

What is biomemetics?

Answer 12

The use of knowledge and of the adaptations of other pecies to improve the design of manufactured intems

Question 13

How has vehicle design been altered by biomemetics?

Answer 13

Wing tip feathers of soaring birds reduce turbulence and drag this has helped aircraft wing design and help fuel effciency
Shark skin has scales that reduce friction while swimming. The ridges created by the scales have been copied in design for aircraft and ship hulls to reduce fuel consumption

Question 14

How can biomemetics be used for infection control?

Answer 14

Bacteria do not stick easily to shark skin, coating that imitates shark skin is used in hospitals operating theatres to help contorl bacterial infections

Question 15

How has architecture used biomemetics

Answer 15

Termite mounds absorb sunlight and become hot creating convestion currents drawing out stale air from the lower mound, lower air pressure on the outside draws the air out.
Copied in shopping centres and office blocks to create natural ventiliation and colling without air conditions

Question 16

How can biomemetics be used for adhesion

Answer 16

Seeds of plants that have burrs and hooks that stick to fur of passing animals used to develop velcro

Question 17

How might plants defend themselves?

Answer 17

Thorns, spikes bad taste or chemicals

Question 18

Why are the plant chemicals important?

Answer 18

Some have beneficial medical effects in humans

Question 19

What can poppies be used for?

Answer 19

Painkillers like morphine

Question 20

Where does aspirin come from?

Answer 20

The bark of willow trees now synthetically produced

Question 21

Where does AZT come form?

Answer 21

Tropical marine sponge in carribean used to treat HIV/AIDS

Question 22

What is physiological research

Answer 22

Studiying the adapdations of other organims to give humans a better undertsanding of health problems

Question 23

How have we researched marsupials?

Answer 23

Give birth to young very early then develop in pouch
Easier to study than a human baby of the same age in its motehr womb

Question 24

What research has been doone on hippos?

Answer 24

Their skin secretes hipposurduric acid which is a natural sunscreen and antimicrobial agent. Studied for burn treatment

Question 25

How are armadillos studied?

Answer 25

They can catch leprosy Studied for info anout disease and vaccine production

Question 26

What are pest control species

Answer 26

A wide range or preadators, herbivores and parasites that control agricultural pests can be indigenous or introduced

Question 27

How can natural predators be increased>

Answer 27

Ladybirds and beetles can be increased by providing suitable habitats like hedgerows and beetle banks

Question 28

What is Encarsia formosa?

Answer 28

A parasitic wasp that is released in greenhouses to control whitefly pests on crops like tomatoes

Question 29

What genetic resources in nature is unused?

Answer 29

Many populations of wild plant have desirable characteristics that may be used in cultivated crops to ikprove variety

Question 30

What is the problem with domesticated crops?

Answer 30

Lack genetic diversity because they have been produced from a limited number of orginal plants

Question 31

What does CWR stand for?

Answer 31

Crop wild releative

Question 32

What are crop wild relatives

Answer 32

Wild plants of the same species or close relatives to domesticated crops

Question 33

Where CWR usually found

Answer 33

In areas where environmentl degradation threatens their survival (middle east, central america and south easta asia)

Question 34

How has sugar cane been made disease resistant?

Answer 34

Protected from sugar cane mosaic virus by cross-breeding with wild sugar cane variety from indonesia

Question 35

How has sea kale be used as a CWR?

Answer 35

Sea kale is salt tolerant and been studied for breeding programmes with close relatives

Question 36

How has the cacao plant been made resisatnt to drought?

Answer 36

Cacao (chocolate) made drought tolerant by cross breeding with relative from amazon rainforest

Question 37

What characteristics have been introduced by CWR

Answer 37

Disease resitance Salt-tolerance Resitant to drought High yield Improved taste/ apperance Nutrient uptake

Question 38

How has yield of oil palm been increased?

Answer 38

Increased by 25% by cross breeding with wild relatives form central Africa

Question 39

How were pineapples made more attractive?

Answer 39

Sweeter pineapples with yellower flesh produced by selective breeding since 1990

Question 40

How has mycorrhizal fungi been used to improve nutrient uptake in wheat?

Answer 40

Cross breeding wih wild wheat that have a relationship with the fungi so the fungi will utake nutrinets for the more domesticated wheat and provide nutrients

Question 41

What are centres of diversity?

Answer 41

Russian biologist Nikolai Vavilov studied crop gentics in early 1900’s Realised soem areas had high concentrationd of close relativs of important crop species Areas were named centres of diveristy

Question 42

What is a gene pool?

Answer 42

The total number of different genes present in all individuals in a popualtion of a particular specie s

Question 43

Will a large population have a large geen pool?

Answer 43

Not necessarilyas all decendants may be closely related

Question 44

What is the problem with a small gene pool

Answer 44

The population may all be susceptible to the same environmental changes Risk of interbreeding exposing unwted reccessive genes

Question 45

What must happen to maintain a large gene pool

Answer 45

A wide range of of genetically different comparitively distantly-related indiduals must be protected

Question 46

What are ecosystem services?

Answer 46

 How species influence the condtions on earth that are beneficial to humans

Question 47

How is atmospheric compostion an ecosystem service

Answer 47

Regulated by many abiotic and biotic processes which act and cancel each other out creating ‘dynamic equilibrium’ Importance goes unoticed due to said ‘balance’ Concentration of CO2 and O2 is regulated by photosynthesis and respiration

Question 48

How is the hydrological cycle an ecosystem service

Answer 48

Evapotranspiration frpm from vegetation produces a large amount of water vapour that forms clouds, controls surgace temperatures and increases percipitation

Question 49

Why are biogeochemical cycles important

Answer 49

Without these processes waste products would build up and important nutrient resources would become depleted

Question 50

Why is soil maintenance important

Answer 50

Vital for growth and survival of almost all plants providing support, water and nutrients Rehulated the water cycle, even water flow and reducing flooding Matter produced from decomposition produces organic acids which aid the weathring and breakdown of rocks producing more soil and more nutrients

Question 51

Why are interspecies relationships important

Answer 51

No species can live in ecological isolation becuase their survival relies on other species for a range of resources and ecological services

Question 52

Why is food important for plants and animals

Answer 52

All heterotrophs rely on other organisms as a source of energy and nutrients

Question 53

Why is pollination by insects important

Answer 53

Allowed dispersed plant populations as insects travel far distances for flowers More successful than wind pollination (unreliable) Insect pollinating plants save energy as less pollen as wind pollinators

Question 54

Why is pollination by animals important

Answer 54

Important in forests where trees reduce wind velocity so wind pollinative would be ineffective

Question 55

What types of insects pollinate flowers?

Answer 55

Bees Butterflies Moths Beetle Wasps

Question 56

What aniamls take part in pollination?

Answer 56

Birds Bats Insects

Question 57

How do animals pollinate plants

Answer 57

Visit flowers and drink sugar rich nectar picking up pollen in the process

Question 58

How is the Darwin orchid specialised?

Answer 58

Pollen at the end of 30cm tube only one insect (Sphinx moth) carries pollen between the orchids Stops less speciliased feeders wasting the pollen

Question 59

Why is seed dispersal by animals important?

Answer 59

Seeds are carried longer distance (over wind) As animals live in the same habitat they will take seeds where the plant can survive Larger seeds can also be carried (wind cannot)

Question 60

How can plants attract animals

Answer 60

Using good tasting and and brightly coloured fruit

Question 61

How do animamls disperse seeds (larger animals)

Answer 61

Dropped by animal Or pass through the gut and left in feacal matter which acts as a fertilser for germination

Question 62

What is habitat provision

Answer 62

When one species mayprovide habitats for other species

Question 63

What are examples of habitat provision

Answer 63

Trees provides nests for birds Hermit crabs live in shells of dead molluscs