BIODIVERSITY

• ENVIRONMENT


  Everything that affects an

  animal makes up its

  environment – where it

  lives, the weather and all

  the living things it comes

  into contact with.
• ECOSYSTEM


  a dynamic complex

  of plant, animal and

  micro-organism

  communities and

  their non-living

  environment,

  interacting as a

  functional unit.
• Ernst Haeckel


  German

  zoologist who coined the

  term Ecology in 1866.
• ECOLOGY


  - The scientific study of the interactions between organisms and their environment. - It is the science that seeks to describe and explain the relationship between living organisms and their environment.
• Danish botanist,

  Eugenius Warming


  elaborated the idea of

  Ecology
• Biotic Factors


  Made up of all living

  organisms (plants,

  animals, and microorganisms) including

  their reactions, and

  interrelated actions
• Abiotic Factors


  All physical factors

  like temperature,

  humidity, water, soil,

  minerals, gases,

  among others.
• INTERACTIONS


  1. Producers

  (obtain energy by making their own

  food; plants photosynthesis)

  2. Consumers (obtain energy by

  consuming their food)

  3. Decomposers (get energy by

  breaking down dead organisms and

  the wastes of living things)
• TYPES OF ECOSYSTEM


  1. TERRESTRIAL

  (Forest, Grassland, Desert)

  2. AQUATIC

  (Freshwater,

  Ocean/Marine)
• BIODIVERSITY


  A variety of species that exist in all ecosystems.

  - plant biodiversity

  - insect biodiversity

  - animal biodiversity

  - fungi biodiversity

  - bacteria biodiversity
• BIODIVERSITY (Villaggio

  Globale, 2009)


  source of the essential goods and

  ecological services that constitute the source of life for

  all and it has direct consumptive value in food,

  agriculture, medicine, and in industry.
• POPULATION DENSITY


  • the number of people/organisms

  living per unit of an area (e.g. per

  square mile); the number of people

  relative to the space occupied by

  them

  • how full an area is: the

  concentration of people or things

  within an area in relation to its size
• Population Density:


  measures the number of individual organisms

  living in a defined space
• LIMITING FACTORS


  Environmental

  factors that limit

  population sizes

  in a particular

  ecosystem
• DENSITY-DEPENDENT Factors


  1. COMPETITION

  2. SPREAD OF DISEASE

  3.PARASITISM

  3. PREDATION
• 1. COMPETITION


  - food - habitat/space - water - Sunlight - mating (Concerns relate to genetic mutations, and the number of individuals competing for a mate.)
• 3.PARASITISM


  Overcrowding increases the

  possibility of diseases and

  parasites being spread in a

  population.
• 3. PREDATION


  Overcrowding interferes with the

  natural predator/prey relationship

  in an ecosystem.
• CHANGES IN

  BIODIVERSITY


  Alteration in any system could bring varied

  effects.

  • A change in biodiversity could have erratic

  effects not only in wildlife or marine life but

  also in human beings.
• Major threats identified by the United

  Nations’ Environment Programme

  1. Habitat loss and destruction

  2. Alteration in ecosystem composition.

  3. Over-exploitation

  4. Pollution and contamination

  5. Global climate change
• BIODIVERSITY & NUTRITION

  According to the World

  Health Organization,

  biodiversity is a vital

  element of a human

  being’s nutrition

  because of its influence

  to food production.
• Biodiversity is a major factor


  that

  contributes to sustainable food

  production for human beings.

  • A society or a population must

  have access to a sufficient

  variety of nutritious food as it is a

  determinant of their health as

  human beings.
• Some human illnesses that are found to be

  related with its environment include

  Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, cancer,

  chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,

  asthma, diabetes, obesity, occupational

  injuries, dysentery, arthritis, malaria, and

  depression.
• PROPERTIES OF LIFE


  • It’s surprisingly hard

  to come up with a

  precise definition of

  life.

  • Our definitions are

  considered

  operational definition.
• Information transfer


  genetic

  material from one generation to

  the next
• Francis Crick


  “ The origin of life appears…to

  be almost a miracle, so many

  are the conditions which would

  have led to be satisfied to get it

  going”
• The LIMITS of science…


  Questions of identity, the soul, ethics and

  what it means to be “alive” from a

  philosophical or spiritual point of view
• Theories on the Origin of Life

  Spontaneous Generation

  Primordial Soup

  Panspermia (External Source)
• Primordial Soup


  Gases in earth’s early atmosphere + Electricity = Amino

  acids, organic compounds
• Panspermia (External Sources)


  Organic molecules from space

  –92 amino acids – 19 used by

  life on earth

  –All 5 bases used in DNA /

  RNA found

  –Simple sugars and fatty

  acids were found
• What molecules formed life?

  Chemistry probably started everything
• Raw materials:


  Inorganic materials

  (rocks, atmosphere and seas)

  Small molecules

  (water, carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia, hydrogen, sulfur,

  chlorine, nitrogen)

  Larger molecules

  (sugars, amino acids, fats and oils, nucleotides)

  Biomolecules

  (polysaccharides, proteins, lipids, nucleic acids)
• The modern gene


  – protein link becomes established
• So, how were the first cells formed?

  Cooling a warm – water solution of amino acids

  + Forms an enclosed structure

  + Now enclosed, reactions are concentrated

  + Lipids mixed with water spontaneously form membrane droplets

  + Protocells
• Three domains of life

  Phylogenetic Tree of Life

  Bacteria, Archaea, Eakarya
• Charles Darwin


  On the Origin of Species

  by Means of Natural

  Selection in 1859
• Charles Darwin

  Two main points made:

  • Species showed evidence

  of “ descent with

  modification” from

  common ancestors

  • Natural selection is the

  mechanism behind

  “descent with

  modification”
• EVOLUTION


  • One misconception is

  that organisms

  evolve, in the

  Darwinian sense,

  during their lifetimes

  • Natural selection acts

  on individuals, but

  only populations

  evolve

  • Genetic variations in

  populations contribute

  to evolution
• Microevolution


  is a change in allele

  frequencies in a

  population over

  generations
• Unifying Principles of Evolution

  Nature:

  Physical

  and biological

  limiting factors

  acting upon an

  organism