Biodiversity Tour

                                Week 1 - Thursday

News Item: http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20110901/NEWS06/709019977/-1/News06/We-thought-we’d-seen-it-all

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8338880.stm

Announcements:

• Send a representative to the front to collect your folders, or to get a folder for any who missed out last time!

• GROUPS:  Time to choose a Conservationally & Biologically Appropriate NAME!!  (for your group)  Then each group member needs to color their folder tab the same color - so your group's folders are color-coordinated.

• During class, make sure you are taking "field notes": if we are working on an activity, be jotting down pertinent notes as you go.  You can augment these later from the online class meeting outlines &/or powerpoints.  When I give a "mini-lecture," you should of course be taking copious notes!

• Questions about the syllabus?

• Supplies for the class

• Long-term assignments for the semester - REVIEW - any questions?

• Postings of upcoming lectures & events for Assignment 1

Question 1 - How do we organize Biological Diversity?

• What are the 3 levels of biological diversity?  consult with your group...

• What are the 3 levels of biological diversity? 

  1. Genetic Diversity

  2. Species Diversity

  3. Community or Habitat Diversity

We use a Taxonomic Hierarchy:

3 Domains:

• Bacteria (prokaryotic cells - no nucleus or other organelles; DNA is free in the cell)

• Archaea (prokaryotic cells - no nucleus or other organelles; DNA is free in the cell)

• Eukarya  (eukaryotic cells - nucleus & other organelles present; DNA is packaged inside nucleus; cells are much larger)

Within each Domain are several Kingdoms  (follow the link above to the UC Berkeley website to learn more!)

The Kingdoms we are most familiar with, those from the Domain Eukarya, are shown above:

• The Protozoa (actually several kingdoms, but still usually treated as one very large, diverse group) - includes single celled organisms with eukaryotic cells

• The Chromista - includes the algae (like kelp, or Nori, or many others)

• The Plant Kingdom

• The Fungi Kingdom

• The Animal Kingdom

The levels of the taxonomic hierarchy:

Question 2 - What are some examples of Biological Diversity from different levels of the taxonomic hierarchy?

Examples of organisms from the various Domains or Kingdoms & Phyla:

Domain Bacteria:

Bacteria are a major group of micro-organisms that live in soil, water, plants, organic matter, or the bodies of animals or people. They are microscopic and mostly unicellular, with a relatively simple cell structure.
Some bacteria cause diseases such as tetanus, typhoid fever, pneumonia, syphilis, cholera, and tuberculosis.
Bacteria play a role in the decomposition of organic matter and other chemical processes.
 www.greenfacts.org/glossary/abc/bacteria.htm

                           
Example: Escherichia coli bacteria                                                                                                 A typical Prokaryotic cell

Domain Archaea

The scientific community was understandably shocked in the late 1970s by the discovery of an entirely new group of organisms -- the Archaea. Dr. Carl Woese and his colleagues at the University of Illinois were studying relationships among the prokaryotes using DNA sequences, and found that there were two distinctly different groups. Those "bacteria" that lived at high temperatures or produced methane clustered together as a group well away from the usual bacteria and the eukaryotes. Because of this vast difference in genetic makeup, Woese proposed that life be divided into three domains: Eukaryota, Eubacteria, and Archaebacteria. He later decided that the term Archaebacteria was a misnomer, and shortened it to Archaea. The three domains are shown in the illustration above at right, which illustrates also that each group is very different from the others.

Further work has revealed additional surprises, which you can read about on the other pages of this exhibit. It is true that most archaeans don't look that different from bacteria under the microscope, and that the extreme conditions under which many species live has made them difficult to culture, so their unique place among living organisms long went unrecognized. However, biochemically and genetically, they are as different from bacteria as you are. Although many books and articles still refer to them as "Archaebacteria", that term has been abandoned because they aren't bacteria -- they're Archaea.
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/archaea/archaea.html

   
Finding Archaea : The hot springs of Yellowstone National Park, USA, were among the first places Archaea were discovered. At left is Octopus Spring, and at right is Obsidian Pool. Each pool has slightly different mineral content, temperature, salinity, etc., so different pools may contain different communities of archaeans and other microbes. The biologists pictured above are immersing microscope slides in the boiling pool onto which some archaeans might be captured for study.

Domain Eukarya

The Eukaryota include the organisms that most people are most familiar with - all animals, plants, fungi, and protists. They also include the vast majority of the organisms that paleontologists work with (i.e. fossil life-forms). Although they show unbelievable diversity in form, they share fundamental characteristics of cellular organization, biochemistry, and molecular biology. The diagram below shows the parts of a typical eukaryotic animal cell.

                          
The FIVE kingdoms of the Eukarya are represented in the figure below. 

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/alllife/eukaryota.html

The Kingdoms of Eukaryotes:

Chromista - Algae; photosynthesizers

Example:
Single-celled algae, such as Diatoms

The richest sources of diatom fossils are deposits of their skeletons known as diatomite, or diatomaceous earth. This mineral was formed as ancient diatoms died and settled to the bottom of lakes or oceans. Today, they form large deposits of white chalky material, which is mined for use in cleansers, paints, filtering agents, and abrasives. Many toothpastes contain bits of fossil diatoms! http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/chromista/diatoms/diatomfr.html

Question 3 - What are some examples of Biological Diversity that we can see here on campus??

Be able to give local examples - that you have seen- of some of the groups listed below (we will not see any sea sponges or jellyfish...!).

Plant Kingdom

        Major Groups (include 10 Phyla):

        Bryophytes (3 phyla: mosses, liverworts, hornworts)

            Pteridophytes (2 phyla: lycopodia, ferns & allies)

            Gymnosperms (4 phyla: ginkgo, cycad, gnetophytes & conifers)

            Anigiosperms (1 phylum: flowering plants)

                        (2 main classes: Monocots & Dicots)

Kingdom Fungi

        4 Phyla:

        aquatic Chytrids

        Zygote fungi (bread mold, hairy mold on fruit, many mycorrhizae)

            Ascomycetes – Sac or Cup Fungi (morels, truffles, yeasts, penicillin, with

algae form lichens; plant pathogens)

Basidiomycetes – Club Fungi (mushrooms, shelf fungi, puffballs,

rusts; wood rotters; plant parasites (rusts & smuts))

Animal Kingdom

Invertebrates (many phyla):

        Sponges (Porifera)

        Cnidaria (sea anemones, jellies, coral polyps)

        Flatworms (Platyhelminthes – e.g. tapeworms!)

        Mollusca (snails, slugs, oysters, clams, octopus & squid)

        Annelids (segmented worms – earth worms, leeches)

        Nematods (roundworms; soil decomposers, root pests; animal

parasites e.g. worm causes trichonosis)

            Arthropods – 4 Phyla (exoskeletons & jointed appendages)

                        Trilobites

                Chelicerates (spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs)

                        Uniramians  (centipedes, millipedes, insects)

                        Crustaceans (crabs, lobsters, shrimps, barnacles, etc.)

            Echinoderms (sea stars, sea urchins, sand dollars)

Vertebrates (1 phylum):

        Chordata

            Many Classes:

                        Hagfish & Lampreys

               Sharks & Rays (cartilaginous fish)

               Bony fishes

               Amphibians (frogs, salamanders, legless caecilians)

                        Reptiles = several classes (turtles, lizards & snakes, crocodiles

& alligators)

                        Mammals

               Birds  - how are birds related to dinosaurs?  See the "family tree" below for one of the current

                                        ideas...!