Classification & Biodiversity

• The five kingdoms


  • Animal
  • Plant
  • Fungi
  • Single-celled organisms
  • Bacteria
• Vertebrates


  Animals with a backbone, including mammals, amphibians, reptiles, bony fish and birds
• Invertebrates


  Animals without a backbone, including molluscs, annelids, arthropods and nematodes
• The Plant Kingdom


  • Flowering
  • Non-flowering
• Flowering plants


  Produce flowers for reproduction, e.g. grass plants and sunflowers
• Non-flowering plants


  Do not produce flowers, reproduce using spores, e.g. ferns and mosses
• Naming species


  • Kingdom
  • Phylum
  • Class
  • Order
  • Family
  • Genus
  • Species
• Binomial system


  Uses the organism's genus and species to create its name, avoids confusion from common names, uses Latin
• Morphological adaptation


  Structural change which gives an organism a greater chance of survival in its habitat
• Behavioural adaptation


  The way an organism reacts to its environment which aids its survival
• Things organisms compete for

  • Food
  • Territory
  • Mates
• Things plants compete for

  • Light
  • Water
  • Minerals
• Interspecific competition


  Competition between different species
• Intraspecific competition


  Competition between members of the same species
• Other factors that change population size

  • Predation
  • Pollution
  • Disease
• Biodiversity


  A measure of the variety of different species and the numbers of each of those species in a particular area
• Biodiversity is important for humans as a source of food, industrial materials and the potential for new medicines
• Ways to conserve and protect biodiversity and endangered species

  • Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
  • Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)
  • Captive breeding programmes
  • National parks
  • Seed/sperm banks
  • Local biodiversity action plans
• Quadrat


  Used to measure biodiversity
• Assumptions made when using capture-recapture data include no death, immigration or emigration, and that the marking technique does not affect chances of survival
• Predator


  An animal that hunts and eats another species for food
• Prey


  An animal that is eaten by a predator
• Pest


  An organism that eats a crop plant
• Native species


  An organism that lives in the country
• Alien Species


  An organism introduced into a country in which it does not normally live.
• Invasive Species


  An alien organism that has had a negative effect on the native species.