Classification and biodiversity

• Classification


  • Putting organisms into groups in a logical way to understand the variety and relation of living things.
• five kingdom of living things acronym

  Philip and Becca Share food
• The binomial system 


  • Kingdom
  • Phylum
  • Class
  • Order
  • Family
  • Genus
  • Species
• Scientific name is made up of..


  Made up of the genus and species
• Importance of scientific names


  • Aids identification
  • Same across the world in any language
  • Avoids confusion when talked about in different languages
• What are the five kingdoms of living things ?

  • plants
  • animals
  • bacteria
  • single celled organisms
  • fungi
• Adaptation


  A feature that allows a living thing to survive in its habitat
• Adaptation


  • Morphological (physical feature)
  • Behavioural (adverse environmental conditions)
• Morphological adaptation


  • Camouflage
• Competition


  Occurs when organisms' resources are in short supply
• Resources in short supply


  • Food
  • Territory
  • Mates
  • Light
  • Space
  • Water
  • Minerals
• Organisms that compete


  • Animals
  • Plants
• Intraspecific competition


  • Competition within a species
• Interspecific competition


  • Competition between different species
• Advantages of biological control


  • Biological control agent is usually specific to a particular pest
  • Once the predator is established, no need to re-introduce at a later date
  • Alternative to pesticides, can be more useful than insects such as Dags
• Disadvantages of biological control


  • Delay between introducing the predator and a reduction in the pest
  • The control agent can compete with non-pest native species / become predators to them
  • The biological control agent can introduce new diseases
• Sampling the population using quadrats


  1. Lay two 20m tape measures at right angles, along the edge of the area that you are sampling

  2. Use two 20-sided dice to decide the coordinates

  3. Place the 1m² quadrat at point where the coordinates meet

  4. Count the number of daisy plants within the quadrat

  5. Repeat steps 2-4 for at least ten quadrat samples
• Repeated sampling improves the strength of evidence
• Quadrat


  A square frame used to sample a small area of habitat
• Transect


  A series of quadrat samples taken in a line
• Transect method


  1. Tape measure or rope is laid across the area to be sampled

  2. Quadrats laid down at regular intervals along the transect line

  3. Plants/animals in the quadrats are recorded
• Transects


  • Show the frequency of distribution of a species in a habitat
• Capture-recapture technique


  1. Animals are captured, marked, released

  2. Days later, animals recaptured

  3. Number of marked and unmarked animals recorded

  4. Population size = (number in first sample x number in 2nd) / number in second previously marked
• When capturing organisms for a study, we assume no death, no mass immigration or emigration, and that the marking technique does not affect chances of survival or make the species more visible to predators