Topic 4 Flashcards
(82 cards)
What is a habitat?
- The place an organism lives
What is a species?
- A group of organisms which can interbreed to produce fertile offspring.
What is a population?
- A group of interbreeding individuals in an area
What is a community?
- All the populations within a habitat
What is a niche and what does it include?
- It is the way an organism exploits its environment.
- Includes interactions with other organisms and interactions with non living environment.
What is biodiversity?
- It is the variety of species in an area
What is species diversity?
- The number of species and number of individuals in a species within an area
What is genetic diversity?
- Measure of all alleles in the gene pool of a species
What can you look at to measure genetic diversity?
- Genotype, genetics of an organism
- Phenotype, observable characteristics of an organism
What is species richness?
- Refers to different number of species present in an area
What is species evenness?
- Measures the relative abundance of different species in an area
What is Simpsons biodiversity index?
- Quantitative measure of diversity in a habitat to give a comparable score.
- d = N(N - 1)/sum of n(n - 1)
- N = total number of all species, n = number of organisms in a species
What are polymorphic genes?
- Genes that exist in three or more different versions or alleles.
- Greater number of genes have greater genetic diversity.
What does the Heterozygosity Index measure?
- Genetic diversity within a species
What is the equation for the Heterozygosity Index?
H = no of heterozygous/number within population
What is a heterozygous?
- One with a different allele on each chromosome.
Where does genetic diversity come from?
- Mutations
- Random selection
- Meiosis
What are adaptations?
- They enhance survival in a habitat
What are anatomical adaptations?
- Change to structural features of an organism for survival
- eg. otter is streamlined to glide through water
What are behavioural adaptations?
- Actions and behaviour is modified for survival
- eg. earthworm burrows on vibrations to avoid predators
What are physiological adaptations?
- Changes to internal workings and processes for survival
- eg. stomata close during dry conditions to avoid water loss
What is evolution?
- A change in allele frequency over time
What is convergent evolution?
- Evolution in common traits between two phylogenetically distinct species due to similar selection pressures.
How does natural selection occur?
- New alleles created through mutation
- A selection pressure occurs in the environment
- Organisms with advantageous allele are more likely to survive, reproduce and produce offspring
- Their offspring are more likely to have the allele, so it becomes more common in the population