1: What is biological diversity? The variety of life on Earth at all its levels, from genes to ecosystems, and the ecological and evolutionary processes that sustain it.
2: What is a population?
A population is a summation of all the organisms of the same group or species, who live in the same area, and have the capability of interbreeding.
3: What is a species?
A species is often defined as a group of individuals that actually or potentially interbreed in nature
4: What are the 9 reasons why people value biodiversity?
Utilitarian,Public-Service,Ecological,Moral,Theological,Aesthetic,Recreational,Spiritual,Creative.
Define the following:
* Genetic Diversity:
Genetic diversity, the level of biodiversity, refers to the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species.
* Habitat Diversity:
A habitat is a home environment which provides the natural conditions / environment for a plant or animal to live.
* Species Diversity:
Species diversity is the effective number of different species that are represented in a collection of individuals
* Species Richness:
Species richness is the number of different species represented in an ecological community, landscape or region.
* Species Evenness:
Species evenness refers to how close in numbers each species in an environment are.
* Dominant Species:
one of a small number of species which dominate in an ecological community
5: What are the 3 main domains of life?
Eukaryota,bacteria,archaea.
6: What is biological evolution?
Biological evolution is defined as any genetic change in a population that is inherited over several generations.
7: What causes mutations? Explain how this affects biological diversity.
Most of the mutations that we think matter to evolution are "naturally-occurring." For example, when a cell divides, it makes a copy of its DNA — and sometimes the copy is not quite perfect. That small difference from the original DNA sequence is a mutation.
8: What is natural selection? What are the 4 primary factors involved in natural selection?
Natural selection is one of the basic mechanisms of evolution, along with mutation, migr. Inheritance of traits, environmental variability, differential reproduction and influence of environment of survival.
A Closer Look 8.1
1: Discuss the issue with Malaria, Mosquitos and DDT resistance and how this demonstrates natural selection.Malaria infects 300-400 million people a year and kills 1.1 million of them. The use of DDT prevented the mosquitoes from having malaria, thus infecting humans. Through natural selection, these mosquitoes developed a gene that made them resistant to DDT.
.Migration and Geographic Isolation
1: How does Darwin’s Finches demonstrate the idea of Adaptive Radiation?
The finches that were isolated developed different niches.
2: Define: Genetic Drift
Genetic drift is the change in the frequency of a gene variant (allele) in a population due to random sampling.
3: What is the Founder Effect and how does it demonstrate Genetic Drift?
When a group of individuals are isolated from a larger population. The small group will have less genetic variability, making them their affected characteristics different by chance.
Biological Evolution as a Strange Kind of Game
In summary, the theory of biological evolution tells us the following about biodiversity:
1: Adaptation has no rigid rules.
2: Since species are always evolving, species also becoming extinct, biological diversity is always changing.
3: Species and populations become geographically isolated from time to time and undergo the founder effect and genetic drift
4: Species are always evolving and adapting to envrionmental change
The Competitive Exclusion Principle
Two species with same exact requirements cannot coexist in the same habitat
1: Explain how the introduction of the American Gray Squirrel into Great Britain demonstrates the Competitive Exclusion Principle.Measuring Niches
The introduction of the American Gray Squirrel into Great Britain demonstrates the Competitive Exclusion Principle.Measuring Niches is both species of squirrels have almost the same requirements.
1: What is an ecological niche?
a niche is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in an ecosystem.
2: What is the difference between a fundamental and realized niche?
Fundamentals is any factor that could be considered important to the understanding of a particular business.
Symbiosis.Realized niche is an ecology term. It refers to the space or way of life that an organism is reduced to live in due to limiting factors.
1: In ecology, symbiosis describes a relationship between two organisms that is beneficial to
both- each partner in symbiosis is called a: _________________
symbiont
2: What is an obligate symbiont?
Obligate Symbiosis is a not-for-profit short film that aims to reconnect people living in the cities with nature.
3: Explain the symbiotic relationship between people and dogs
Dogs being helpful and companionable to humans make dogs very abundant.
Predation and Parasitism
1: Explain how predation and parasitism actually helps increase species diversity in an ecosystem
When two species are competing in the same habitat, one predator feeds on a more abundant species, it can keep that prey from overwhelming the other.
How Geography and Geology Affect Biological Diversity
1: In general, greater diversity occurs: ______________________
lower latitudes
2: What geographic factors affect species biodiversity?
Elevation,slope, aspect and nearness to drainage basin.
3: How can moderate environmental disturbances increase diversity?
The places affected by moderate disturbances favor different kinds of species and increase their diversity.
4: How do people affect diversity? Explain.
we reduce the number of habitats a species can live in.
FACTERS THAT TEND TO INCREASE DIVERSITY
-Physically diverse habitat
-Modoerater amount of disturbance
-Small variation in enivironmental conditions
-High diversity at 1 trophic level invreases diversity aat another level
-Environment modified by life
-Middle stages of succession evolution
FACTORS THAT TEND TO DECREASE DIVERSITY
-Environmental stress
-Extreme environments
-Severe limitation in supply of essential resource
-Extreme amounts of disturbance
-Introduction to exotic species
-Geographic Isolation
Convergent and Divergent Evolution
1: Define and give an example of each of the following:
* Convergent Evolution
Convergent evolution describes the independent evolution of similar features in species of different lineages.
* Divergent Evolution
Divergent evolution is the accumulation of differences between groups which can lead to the formation of new species, usually a result of diffusion of the same species to different and isolated environments which blocks the gene flow among the distinct populations allowing differentiated fixation of characteristics through genetic drift and natural selection
Invasions, Invasive Species and Island Biogeography
1: What are the 4 main principles in the theory of island biogeography?
-Islands have fewer species than continents
-2 sources of new species on an island are migration from the mainland and evolution of new species in place
-The smaller the island, the fewer the species
-The farther the island from mainland, the fewer the species
2: What is an ecological island?
An ecological island is not necessarily an island surrounded by water, but is an area of land, isolated by natural or artificial means from the surrounding land, where a natural micro-habitat exists amidst a larger differing ecosystem.
Study Questions
1: Why do introduced species often become pests?
They replace native species in the habitat.
2: What is a population?
A population is a summation of all the organisms of the same group or species, who live in the same area, and have the capability of interbreeding.
3: What is a species?
A species is often defined as a group of individuals that actually or potentially interbreed in nature
4: What are the 9 reasons why people value biodiversity?
Utilitarian,Public-Service,Ecological,Moral,Theological,Aesthetic,Recreational,Spiritual,Creative.
Define the following:
* Genetic Diversity:
Genetic diversity, the level of biodiversity, refers to the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species.
* Habitat Diversity:
A habitat is a home environment which provides the natural conditions / environment for a plant or animal to live.
* Species Diversity:
Species diversity is the effective number of different species that are represented in a collection of individuals
* Species Richness:
Species richness is the number of different species represented in an ecological community, landscape or region.
* Species Evenness:
Species evenness refers to how close in numbers each species in an environment are.
* Dominant Species:
one of a small number of species which dominate in an ecological community
5: What are the 3 main domains of life?
Eukaryota,bacteria,archaea.
6: What is biological evolution?
Biological evolution is defined as any genetic change in a population that is inherited over several generations.
7: What causes mutations? Explain how this affects biological diversity.
Most of the mutations that we think matter to evolution are "naturally-occurring." For example, when a cell divides, it makes a copy of its DNA — and sometimes the copy is not quite perfect. That small difference from the original DNA sequence is a mutation.
8: What is natural selection? What are the 4 primary factors involved in natural selection?
Natural selection is one of the basic mechanisms of evolution, along with mutation, migr. Inheritance of traits, environmental variability, differential reproduction and influence of environment of survival.
A Closer Look 8.1
1: Discuss the issue with Malaria, Mosquitos and DDT resistance and how this demonstrates natural selection.Malaria infects 300-400 million people a year and kills 1.1 million of them. The use of DDT prevented the mosquitoes from having malaria, thus infecting humans. Through natural selection, these mosquitoes developed a gene that made them resistant to DDT.
.Migration and Geographic Isolation
1: How does Darwin’s Finches demonstrate the idea of Adaptive Radiation?
The finches that were isolated developed different niches.
2: Define: Genetic Drift
Genetic drift is the change in the frequency of a gene variant (allele) in a population due to random sampling.
3: What is the Founder Effect and how does it demonstrate Genetic Drift?
When a group of individuals are isolated from a larger population. The small group will have less genetic variability, making them their affected characteristics different by chance.
Biological Evolution as a Strange Kind of Game
In summary, the theory of biological evolution tells us the following about biodiversity:
1: Adaptation has no rigid rules.
2: Since species are always evolving, species also becoming extinct, biological diversity is always changing.
3: Species and populations become geographically isolated from time to time and undergo the founder effect and genetic drift
4: Species are always evolving and adapting to envrionmental change
The Competitive Exclusion Principle
Two species with same exact requirements cannot coexist in the same habitat
1: Explain how the introduction of the American Gray Squirrel into Great Britain demonstrates the Competitive Exclusion Principle.Measuring Niches
The introduction of the American Gray Squirrel into Great Britain demonstrates the Competitive Exclusion Principle.Measuring Niches is both species of squirrels have almost the same requirements.
1: What is an ecological niche?
a niche is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in an ecosystem.
2: What is the difference between a fundamental and realized niche?
Fundamentals is any factor that could be considered important to the understanding of a particular business.
Symbiosis.Realized niche is an ecology term. It refers to the space or way of life that an organism is reduced to live in due to limiting factors.
1: In ecology, symbiosis describes a relationship between two organisms that is beneficial to
both- each partner in symbiosis is called a: _________________
symbiont
2: What is an obligate symbiont?
Obligate Symbiosis is a not-for-profit short film that aims to reconnect people living in the cities with nature.
3: Explain the symbiotic relationship between people and dogs
Dogs being helpful and companionable to humans make dogs very abundant.
Predation and Parasitism
1: Explain how predation and parasitism actually helps increase species diversity in an ecosystem
When two species are competing in the same habitat, one predator feeds on a more abundant species, it can keep that prey from overwhelming the other.
How Geography and Geology Affect Biological Diversity
1: In general, greater diversity occurs: ______________________
lower latitudes
2: What geographic factors affect species biodiversity?
Elevation,slope, aspect and nearness to drainage basin.
3: How can moderate environmental disturbances increase diversity?
The places affected by moderate disturbances favor different kinds of species and increase their diversity.
4: How do people affect diversity? Explain.
we reduce the number of habitats a species can live in.
FACTERS THAT TEND TO INCREASE DIVERSITY
-Physically diverse habitat
-Modoerater amount of disturbance
-Small variation in enivironmental conditions
-High diversity at 1 trophic level invreases diversity aat another level
-Environment modified by life
-Middle stages of succession evolution
FACTORS THAT TEND TO DECREASE DIVERSITY
-Environmental stress
-Extreme environments
-Severe limitation in supply of essential resource
-Extreme amounts of disturbance
-Introduction to exotic species
-Geographic Isolation
Convergent and Divergent Evolution
1: Define and give an example of each of the following:
* Convergent Evolution
Convergent evolution describes the independent evolution of similar features in species of different lineages.
* Divergent Evolution
Divergent evolution is the accumulation of differences between groups which can lead to the formation of new species, usually a result of diffusion of the same species to different and isolated environments which blocks the gene flow among the distinct populations allowing differentiated fixation of characteristics through genetic drift and natural selection
Invasions, Invasive Species and Island Biogeography
1: What are the 4 main principles in the theory of island biogeography?
-Islands have fewer species than continents
-2 sources of new species on an island are migration from the mainland and evolution of new species in place
-The smaller the island, the fewer the species
-The farther the island from mainland, the fewer the species
2: What is an ecological island?
An ecological island is not necessarily an island surrounded by water, but is an area of land, isolated by natural or artificial means from the surrounding land, where a natural micro-habitat exists amidst a larger differing ecosystem.
Study Questions
1: Why do introduced species often become pests?
They replace native species in the habitat.