Biodiversity - exam practice

A student is investigating species richness of plants along a sand dune from the sea edge moving inland.

They are testing the hypothesis that ‘species richness increases with distance from the sea’.

Which sampling method would the student use?

The Dawlish Warren is a conservation area in the UK.

What is an aesthetic reason for maintaining biodiversity in Dawlish Warren?

Biodiversity is important for the development of new medicines.

Which statement about the development of new medicines is not correct?

Tropical rainforests have a very high biodiversity of plant species.

What is an economic benefit of high biodiversity?

Which statement best defines the term species evenness?

Two different fields, field G and H, were sampled for three common species of wildflower.

The results are shown below.

Which option is correct?

What is most likely to increase biodiversity?

Two species of animal are found in the same area of forest and grassland. In the spring and summer they eat the same plant food. However, in the autumn and winter one eats nuts in the forest and the other eats roots on the grassland.

Both species are preyed upon by the same predator. Numbers of root-eating animals are reduced most by this, but they recover faster as they reproduce faster.

What can be concluded about these two species of animals?

1 - they are part of the same community

2 - they are at different trophic levels

3 - they occupy different habitats

4 - they have different niches

Which group could be a population?

What is the ecological definition of the term community?

Termites are insects that build large nests that contain millions of termites of the same species.

These nests are common in tropical savanna, which typically consists of grasses with widely spaced trees. Here, the termites feed on wood and other dead plant material.

Which statement is correct?

A tree carries out photosynthesis and provides organic compounds for other organisms in a forest.

It takes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and returns oxygen to the atmosphere. It takes water from the soil into its roots and its leaves lose water to the atmosphere. Many other organisms live in the tree.

Which term describes the tree?

Barnacles are small animals that live on rocky shores. Adult barnacles are fixed to rocks and do not move about. They catch passing food in the water with modified limbs called cirri when the tide comes in.

Chthalamus stellatus is a species of barnacle found around UK shores.

Two students wished to estimate the population size of C. stellatus on a rocky shore near their school.

What could the students use for estimating the C. stellatus population?

1 - an abundance scale, such as ACFOR

2 - quadrat sampling

3 - mark-release-recapture