Biodiversity

• What is an ecosystem?

  A community of living organisms and their interactions with each other and their physical environment.
• What is biodiversity?


  The variety of species within a habitat
• What does endemic mean?

  A species that is specific to one location
• What does a niche mean?

  How an organism uses its environment in a way that's unique
• What is a habitat?


  Where an organism lives
• What is a community?

  the total number of the population of all species
• What is a population?

  The number of a particular species
• What is an abiotic factor?

  A non living factor that affects the abundancy of an organism ie temperature, rainfall
• What is a biotic factor?

  A living component that influences an organism's life ie disease
• How can you measure biodiversity?

  • Species richness (number of species)
  • Species evenness
  • Genetic diversity
• What is the species diversity index?


  A measure of the variety of species in a given area.

  • The higher the biodiversity index, the higher the biodiversity of the area. This is useful when comparing different areas
• Species Diversity Index

  $N(N-1)/ sum of n(n-1)$
• What is the heterozygozity index?

  A population with many polymorphic genes will naturally have a greater number of heterozygous individuals
• Heterozygozity Index?

  number of heterozygotes divided by total individuals in the population
• Why can species coexist?

  They have niches that allow them to adapt and avoid competition
• What are examples of niches that can allow species to avoid competition?

  • what they eat
  • where they eat from
  • their sleeping habits- nocturnal or not
  • what season they are present
• What are the 3 types of adaptations?

  Anatomical

  Physiological

  Behavioural
• What are anatomical adaptations?

  Physical features of an organism's body structure that help it survive in its environment.
• What are physiological adaptations?

  Physical changes in an organism's body that help it survive and function in its environment.
• What are behavioural adaptations?

  Changes in behavior that help an organism survive and reproduce in its environment.