Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Chapter 4
Key Concepts
• Origins of life
• Ecological niches
• Species formation
• Species extinction
Section 4-1
Ecological Services
• Pollination
• Pest control
• Important roles in
biological community
Fig. 3-1, p.
Species Diversity
Known Other animals
species 281,000
1,412,000
Insects
751,000
Fungi
69,000
Prokaryotes
4,800
Species Total?
Estimated 3.6 - 100
million (8.7 + Plants
bacteria widely Protists 248,400
accepted)
57,700 Fig. 3-2, p.
Functional of Diversity
Fig. 3-15, p.
Genetic Diversity
Ecological Diversity:The Major
Biomes Found Along the 39th Parallel Across
the U.S.
Section 4-2
HOW DO GEOLOGICAL
PROCESSES AND CLIMATE
CHANGE AFFECT EVOLUTION?
Geologic processes affect
natural selection
• Tectonic plates shift slowly on the planet’s mantle, changing the
earth’s surface, affect climate and species distribution, allowing
the spread and evolution of species.
• Earthquakes and volcanoes lead to geologic isolation or wipe
out populations of species.
Climate change and catastrophes
affect natural selection
• Cooling and warming periods have covered
much of the earth with glacial ice, or melted the
ice and drastically raised sea levels.
– Long-term climate changes determine where different
types of plants and animals can survive, and caused
the extinction of some species.
• Catastrophic events, such as collisions with
large asteroids, have caused:
– Destruction of ecosystems and extinction of large
numbers of species.
– Shifts in the locations of ecosystems and created
opportunities for the evolution of new species.
Glacial Ice Coverage During the
Past 18,000 Years
Section 4-4
HOW DO SPECIATION,
EXTINCTION, AND HUMAN
ACTIVITIES AFFECT
BIODIVERSITY?
How do new species evolve?
• Speciation is the process where one species
splits into two or more different species.
• Geographic isolation occurs when different
groups of the same population of a species
become physically isolated from one another for
a long period of time.
• Reproductive isolation occurs when mutation
and change by natural selection operate in the
gene pools of geographically isolated
populations.
Geographic Isolation
Sooner or later all species
become extinct
• Biological extinction is the process by which an
entire species ceases to exist.
• Local extinction occurs when a population of a
species becomes extinct over a large region, but
not globally.
• Endemic species are found in only one area and
are thus especially vulnerable to extinction.
• Background extinction has occurred over most of
Earth’s history (rate of 1 species per 1 million)
There have been several mass
extinctions of life on the Earth
• Mass extinction is a significant rise
in extinction rates above the
background level, in which large
groups of species are wiped out.
• Five mass extinctions during the
past 500 million years
• Mass extinctions have been
followed by an increase in species
diversity.
• NOW: 6th mass extinction due to
human activities? (1000x more
extinctions than “background”
level).
Section 4-5