2 18 14 What is Biodiversity How do we study organize measure biodiversity By taking inventory Determining relatedness o Physical characteristics o DNA sequence o Node identifies which is your last common ancestor Species richness The number of unique species Species abundance how many types Species evenness Species interaction network food pyramid how many species interacting o Ex With a food source if one dies what s the relationship to the other species Global Diversity Patterns Species Richness Environments habitats Species Poor Environments o Ex Tropical rainforests coral reefs large tropical tropical dry o Ex Polar regions some deserts open ocean Latitude Horizontal Tropics to polar and Altitude Vertical tropics to mountains have similar effects on communities o Species diversity decrease with an increase in altitude and latitude Importance of Species Diversity Aesthetics ex snow History organisms that have been there looking up ancestry Ecosystem stable more available Drugs made from plants which they re derived Genetic diversity prevents against extinction ex millennium seed bank Many medicines come from rainforest ex 2 3 of all cancer fighting drugs Ecosystems need diversity to function properly o Water purification and pollination How many Species are there Number of bacterial species o 1990 era study found 16 000 o Recent study over 8 000 000 Issues with Bacteria Size makes them difficult to see and observes Similar morphology impossible to classify based on appearance Determining the number of Species 1 Directly 250 years of taxonomic classification 1 2 million species in central data base 2 Compare little known groups to well known groups 8 7 1 3 million non Indirectly Defining a species is controversial because there are many ways bacterial species still to be identified o Land 86 o Oceans 93 What s a Species Most Common Species Concepts Morphological o Based on appearance Biological Phylogenetic o Based on ability to produce fertile offspring o Based on DNA sequence Originally based on phenotype appearance Currently based on DNA or protein molecules Structure requires computer algorithms mathematical models Problem Different models yield different results Horizontal gene transfer 2 20 14 What re Biomes World s communities Classified by plant communities depends on plant life o Because plants are basic units of all life and influences everything that Characterized by adaptations of organisms to that particular environment Major Themes Understanding the characteristics of each biome o Recognize each biome and characteristics o Know differences Understand adaptations that organisms make in order to live in each biome KNOW 1 Tundra 2 Tropical rain forest 3 Temperate grassland 4 Temperate deciduous forest 5 Desert Factors that influence Biomes Temperature major factor Moisture other major factor Geographic features Soil type o Coastline o Mountains o Earth Earth s axis shifts creating seasonal changes that influence animal distributions and behaviors Earth s rotation creates global wind patterns that influence biome distribution