Biological Diversity Notes

Unit A: Biological Diversity

  • Science 9

Collect Hand Spans

  • Data collection of handspans (cm) within different ranges (12 or less, 13-16, 17-20, 21-24, 25-28, 29 or greater).

  • Record the number of students for each range.

Skill Practice pg. 6

  • Draw a graph in notes provided and answer questions.

  • Question 1: What type of graph would be suitable to plot given the data? Why?

  • Draw the graph.

  • Question 3: What trends, if any, can you see in the data?

Do Now! Guess the Animals Based on the Fur

  • Animal Fur

Examining Diversity

  • North America:

    • Index value (1970 = 1):

      • 1970: 100%

      • 1980: 94%

      • 1990: 52.5%

      • 2000: 17.9%

      • 2010: 14.4%

      • 2016: 10.2%

    • Decline: -33%

    • Causes:

      • Changes in land use, habitat loss, and degradation: 57.9%

      • Species overexploitation: 19.7%

      • Invasive species and disease: 10.9%

      • Pollution: 7.5%

      • Climate Change: 4%

  • Europe and Central Asia:

    • Index value (1970 = 1):

      • 1970: 100%

      • 1980: 94%

      • 1990: 57.9%

      • 2000: 21.8%

      • 2010: 12.5%

      • 2016: 2.3%

    • Decline: -24%

    • Causes:

      • Changes in land use, habitat loss, and degradation: 51.2%

      • Species overexploitation: 12.2%

      • Invasive species and disease: 12.5%

      • Pollution: 11.8%

      • Climate Change: 4%

  • Latin America & Caribbean:

    • Index value (1970 = 1):

      • Causes:

        • Changes in land use, habitat loss, and degradation

        • Species overexploitation

        • Invasive species and disease

        • Pollution

        • Climate Change

  • Biodiversity: Global Plant Species (Barthlott 2019):

    • Diversity zones (DZ), number of vascular plant species per 10,000 km2km^2

      • DZ 1 (<100)

      • DZ 2 (100-200)

      • DZ 3 (200-500)

      • DZ 4 (500-1000)

      • DZ 5 (1000-1500)

      • DZ 6 (1500-2000)

      • DZ 7 (2000-3000)

      • DZ 8 (3000-4000)

      • DZ 9 (4000-5000)

      • DZ 10 (> 5000)

    • Temperature

      • Greater than 27° C

      • Greater than 29° C

Biological Diversity

  • Biological Diversity: refers to all the different types of organisms on Earth

  • Species: a group of organisms that have the same structure and can reproduce with one another

  • Insects have the most species

  • Estimated that there are approximately 11 million species and more than 80% have not been described (discovered) yet

  • All life forms share certain characteristics:

    • Made of cells

    • Need energy (metabolize)

    • Grow and develop

    • Reproduce

    • Adapt to their environment

    • Maintain a balance of necessary life functions (homeostasis)

    • Respond to their environment

Diversity Between Ecosystems

  • Ecosystem: an environment where living things interact with other living things and non-living things

  • Biotic: living things (e.g., plants, animals, insects)

  • Abiotic: non-living things (e.g., air, soil, water, sunlight)

  • Biotic and Abiotic factors interact with each other in an ecosystem

Abiotic or Biotic

  • Identifying whether given elements are abiotic or biotic.

Diversity Within Ecosystems

  • Population: members of a species that live in a specific area and share the same resources (e.g., school of fish, herd of zebras)

  • Community: populations of different species living in the same area (e.g., Sahara Desert: camel, hyena, gazelle, fox, ostrich, cobra all living in the same area)

Diversity within Species

  • Species: group of organisms that all have the same basic structure; however, have subtle variations between individual members (genetic diversity)

  • Examples:

    • People: we are all the same species, do we all look the same?

    • Banded Snail: different colors; different banding patterns

  • Some variation we cannot see (e.g., Blood Types A, B, AB, O)

Which Blood Types Am I Compatible With?

  • Blood type compatibility chart

    • A+ can give to A+, AB+ and can receive from A+, A-, O+, O-

    • O+ can give to O+, A+, B+, AB+ and can receive from O+, O-

    • B+ can give to B+, AB+ and can receive from B+, B-, O+, O-

    • AB+ can give to AB+ and can receive from everyone

    • A- can give to A+, A-, AB+, AB- and can receive from A-, O-

    • O- can give to everyone and can receive from O-

    • B- can give to B+, B-, AB+, AB- and can receive from B-, O-

    • AB- can give to AB+, AB- and can receive from AB-, A-, B-, O-

Species Distribution

  • Species on Earth are not distributed evenly

  • Around the equator, in tropical regions, have the greatest number of plant and animal species—the greatest Biological Diversity!

  • As you move North or South towards the poles, the diversity decreases

  • Example: Mexico has 293 species of snakes; Canada only has 22 species

Classifying Biological Diversity

  • 18th century, Carolus Linnaeus developed a system for naming and classifying organisms using Latin

  • Allowed for consistency in naming species universally

  • Species are arranged into groups based on their physical structure

Naming

  • Two words name each living thing

  • First Word: name of genus (always capitalized)

  • Second Word: the species (never capitalized)

  • No two species have the same name

  • Closely related species have the same genus name, but not the same species name

  • Ex.

    • Upright man – Homo erectus

    • Handy man – Homo habilis

    • Neanderthal man - Homo neanderthaliensis

5 Kingdom System

  • Scientists have further developed Linnaeus’ classification:

    • Kingdoms:

      • Animalia (animals)

      • Plantae (plants)

      • Fungi (yeast, molds, mushrooms)

      • Protista (single-celled organisms)

      • Monera (bacteria)

  • Each Kingdom is then divided into Phyla > Classes > Order > Family > Genera > Species

Brain Break: Memory mnemonic

  • In partners or small groups come up with an acronym to help you remember the order of the classification system: K P C O F G S

To remember the order of classification…

  • Kingdom - King

  • Phyla - Phillip

  • Class - Came

  • Order - Over

  • Family - For

  • Genus - Great

  • Species - Spaghetti

  • You only need to know the order of the classifications, NOT THE LATIN NAMES!

Classification Examples

  • White spruce:

    • Kingdom: Plantae

    • Phyla: Coniferophyta

    • Class: Pinopsida

    • Order: Pinales

    • Family: Pinaceae

    • Genus: Picea

    • Species: Picea glauca

  • Wolf:

    • Kingdom: Animalia

    • Phyla: Chordata

    • Subphyla: Vertebrata

    • Class: Mammalia

    • Order: Carnivora

    • Family: Canidae

    • Genus: Canis

    • Species: Canis lupus

  • Bull Trout

    • Kingdom: Animalia

    • Phyla: Chordata

    • Subphyla: Vertebrata

    • Class: Osteichthyes

    • Order: Salmoniformes

    • Family: Salmonidae

    • Genus: Salvelinus

    • Species: Salvelinus confluentus

  • Compare which categories are similar between different species.

Do Now: Identify the type of symbiotic relationship in each picture

Interdependence

  • Science 9 Unit A

Interdependence

  • No species can survive by itself. Each species is dependent on many other species in its environment.

  • Examples:

    • Plants produce oxygen for other organisms

    • Plants provide shelter for many organisms

    • Animals depend on plants for food

    • Flowering plants depend on insects to transfer pollen from one flower to another

  • Predators reduce prey population which is a benefit.

  • Predators reduce the size of the prey population, which prevents surviving prey from starving due to lack of food.

  • Predators capture old, sick, or weak members; therefore, only strong members will reproduce

Symbiotic Relationships

  • Symbiosis: an association between members of different species.

  • Three types of symbiotic relationships:

    • Commensalism: one organism benefits, but the other does not (neutral) (e.g., A bird that builds a nest in a tree).

    • Mutualism: both organisms benefit (e.g., Oxpecker bird and a rhino - bird eats parasites off rhino).

    • Parasitism: one organism benefits, but the other is harmed (e.g., Tapeworm in human intestine - absorbs nutrients leaving little for human host).

What if no one benefits?

  • Interspecies Competition: happens when two or more species need the same resource.

  • Ex. Two or more species competing for the same food, so now each species has less of that resource. Therefore a smaller amount of that resource available leads to more starvation.

Niche

  • Niche: the role an organism plays within an ecosystem.

  • Includes what the organism eats, what eats it, its habitat etc.

Describe your niche!

Resource Partitioning

  • Resource Partitioning: dividing up the resources

  • Example: Five species of birds all living in one tree. All of the birds have different behavioral adaptations, therefore feed on worms at different parts in the tree. Therefore, they do not directly compete for worms.

  • Resource partitioning could be for food, niches, nesting preference, heat tolerance etc.

Blue Planet Episode 1

  • Identify Symbiotic Relationships

  • Identify adaptations

Variation Within Species

  • Science 9 Unit A

Variation Within Species

  • Stability of an ecosystem relies on the diversity of its communities and species, and on the interactions between species.

  • Variability: variation within a species

  • Ex. Humans vary greatly: hair color, height etc.

Think about it…

  • Imagine we are all giraffes. The only food we eat is high in the trees.

  • Scenario 1: every giraffe is the same. We all have short necks. What will happen to the species?

    • They will all die

  • Scenario 2: some giraffes have long necks and some have short necks. What will happen to the species? (variation)

    • Only the long necks will survive and reproduce

Think about it…

  • Imagine we are all rabbits. We need to be able to hide from predators in both the winter and summer.

  • Scenario 1: we are all the same. We are brown all year round. What will happen to the species?

    • We will get eaten in the winter because we’ll be easily spotted by predators

  • Scenario 2: some rabbits are white all year, some are brown all year, some are white in winter and some are brown in summer. What will happen? Why? (variation)

    • Only the ones who’s fur changes color will survive and reproduce, they can hid from predators in all seasons.

Think about it…

  • Imagine we are all bacteria. We are identical.

  • Scenario 1: A scientist randomly chooses one bacteria to study. The scientist develops an antibody to kill that type of bacteria. The doctor administers the antibody to all the bacteria. What happens to the bacterial?

    • All of the bacterial will be killed

Think about it..

  • Scenario 2: this time, there are three variations of the bacteria. A scientist randomly chooses one bacteria and develops an antibody to kill that bacteria. A doctor then administer the antibody to all the bacteria. What will happen to the bacteria?

    • Only the ones that match the chosen one will die. The rest will survive and reproduce.

Variability & Survival

  • Variability within a species helps some of its individuals to survive changes in the environment

  • Environmental changes could include the introduction of a new predator, spread of new disease, spread of toxic substances or elimination of food sources

  • Variability allows certain strains of bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics

  • Ex. Penicillin is less effective today

  • Over-prescription of antibiotics has allowed bacterial populations with variability to survive. The few resistant bacteria that survive the antibiotic then reproduce new generations of resistant bacteria

  • There is a fear of creating “super bugs” that will be completely resistant, therefore doctors avoid prescribing antibiotics unless absolutely necessary

Natural Selection

  • Natural Selection: when the environment “Selects” which individuals will survive long enough to reproduce

  • “survival of the fittest”