Download Sustainability and Interdependence Success Criteria

Sustainability and Interdependence Success
Criteria
1. Food supply, plant growth and productivity.
(a) Food supply
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State that the human population is increasing.
State that there is concern about the ability of human
populations to access food of sufficient quality and quantity.
Explain why food production must be sustainable.
Explain why food production must not degrade the natural
resources on which agriculture depends.
State that most human food comes from a small number of
plant crops.
State that all food production is dependent ultimately upon
photosynthesis.
Define a cultivar (cultivated variety) as a plant or group of
plants selected for desirable characteristics and easily
propagated.
Give examples of plant crops i.e. cereals, potato, roots and
legumes.
Explain how plant breeders seek to develop crops with higher
nutritional values.
Explain how plant breeders have developed plants with
resistance to pests and diseases.
Describe how plant breeders have produced plants with
physical characteristics suited to rearing and harvesting.
Outline how plant breeders can produce plants that can thrive in
particular environmental conditions.
Explain why livestock produce less food per unit area than plant
crops in terms of loss of energy.
State that there are fewer energy losses in food chains that
have fewer trophic levels.
Explain why livestock production can be an alternative in
managed and wild habitats unsuitable for cultivation of crops.
(b) Plant Growth and Productivity
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State that photosynthetic pigments capture light energy from the
sun.
State that this energy is used to generate ATP.
(photophospshorylation)
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State that water is split into hydrogen and oxygen. (photolysis)
State that only some of the light is absorbed and used in
photosynthesis.
State that some of the light hitting a leaf is reflected.
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State that light that is not absorbed can be transmitted.
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State that a leaf contains a number of pigments that absorb light.
State that visible light is electromagnetic radiation that has a
wavelength between 4,000 and 7,700 Å.
State that each photosynthetic pigment absorbs light of a
different wavelength.
State that chlorophyll a and b are the main photosynthetic
pigments and they absorb mainly the blue and red region of the
spectrum.
State that the accessory pigments, known as the carotenoids
extend the range of wavelengths absorbed by photosynthesis.
State that these pigments pass the absorbed energy to the
chlorophyll.
Describe how the absorption of the different wavelengths of lights
is displayed in an absorption spectrum.
Explain that the rate of photosynthesis at each different
wavelength is displayed in an action spectrum.
Compare the action spectra and absorption spectra of the
accessory pigments to the chlorophyll.
State that as light hits the chlorophyll, the absorbed energy
excites the electrons.
State that these high energy electrons are released and
transferred through an electron transport chain.
State that the energy released generates ATP from ADP and Pi
and that the enzyme ATP synthase catalyses the reaction.
State that the energy also splits water into oxygen and hydrogen.
State that both the ATP and hydrogen produced are used in the
Calvin Cycle.
State that oxygen is released.
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State that the hydrogen is transferred to the coenzyme NADP.
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State that this is NADPH2.
State that RuBisCO is an enzyme involved in the fixation of
carbon dioxide to RuBP.
State that RuBP is the carbon dioxide acceptor.
State that during the Calvin Cycle, 3-phosphoglycerate is
phosphorylated by ATP and reduced by the hydrogen from the
NADPH2 to form glyceralaldehyde-3-phosphate (G3P).
State that some G3P is used to regenerate RuBP.
State that some G3P is converted into sugars and that these
sugars can be converted into starch and cellulose.
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State that G3P can be converted into other metabolites in plants.
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Explain that the area to grow crops is limited.
Describe that increased food production will depend on factors
that control plant growth.
Give examples of these factors i.e. breeding of higher yielding
cultivars, use of fertiliser, protecting crops from pests, diseases,
competition.
Describe how each factor will increase food production.
State that plant productivity is the rate of generation of new
biomass per unit area per unit of time.
State that net assimilation is the increase in mass due to
photosynthesis minus the loss due to respiration.
State that the biological yield of a crop is the total plant biomass.
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Describe the economic yield as the mass of desired product.
State that plant productivity is the rate of generation of new
biomass per unit area per unit of time.
State that net assimilation is the increase in mass due to
photosynthesis minus the loss due to respiration.
State that the biological yield of a crop is the total plant biomass.
Describe the economic yield as the mass of desired product.
Calculate the harvest index by dividing the dry mass of economic
yield by the dry mass of biological yield.
State that the harvest index can fall between a range of 0.350.79.
State that the harvest index is affected by abiotic factors.
State that the harvest index will be lower when grain yields are
reduced as a result of either excessively wet or dry conditions.
State that with advanced breeding, genetics and intensive
farming methods, higher crop yields are achieved and the harvest
index increases.
2. Plant and Animal Breeding by Manipulation of
Heredity
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 State that plant crops and animal breeds can be improved by
manipulation of heredity.
 State that the “new and improved” organisms can provide
sustainable food sources.
 Explain how breeders develop crops that have higher yields,
higher nutritional values and improved resistance to pests and
diseases.
 State that crops are developed to ease rearing and harvesting.
 State that crops are developed to thrive in particular
environmental conditions.
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State that in addition to selective breeding, GM is now a
recognised mechanism to improve quality of bot h crops and
livestock.
Explain how breeders develop livestock to aid rearing.
State that this livestock will produce better quality products (i.e.
leaner pork) and higher yields (i.e. increased volume of milk).
Evaluate crop trials to draw conclusions on crop suitability.
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Comment on validity and reliability of the trial design.
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Comment on the control of variability within the trials.
Identify a selection of crop treatments to ensure fair
comparisons.
Recognise the importance of replicates as a means of
accounting for variability within a sample.
Recognise the need for randomisation in treatments to eliminate
bias when measuring treatment effects.
State that sexual reproduction in animals and plants is naturally
outbreeding.
State that in artificial selection, plants and animals are in-bred
over several generations.
State that inbreeding results in elimination of heterozygotes.
State that inbreeding results in the population breeding true to
desired type after several generations.
State that a consequence of inbreeding is loss of vigour,
general health and reduced fitness.
State that inbreeding depression is observed in small
populations as well as in successive inbreeding programmes.
Explain how inbreeding depression will reduce a population’s
ability to survive and reproduce.
State that in large populations, many deleterious genes can be
carried but few will be expressed.
State that as population becomes smaller, mating take place
between related members and that those relatives may carry
the same recessive deleterious alleles.
Explain how the offspring of the mating between two closely
related family members will have an increased chance of
inheriting both recessive deleterious alleles.
State that although self-pollinating plants are naturally
inbreeding they remain less susceptible to inbreeding
depression because deleterious alleles are eliminated in natural
selection.
State that inbreeding depression can be avoided by
outbreeding.
Explain that in outbreeding species only the desired
characteristic is selected for and otherwise genetically diverse
organisms are selected in the breeding programme.
State that hybrids are the offspring of parents that are different
in genetically determined traits.
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State that new alleles can be introduced to plant and animal
lines by crossing a cultivar or breed with an individual with a
different, desired genotype.
State that the introduction of mutations can provide disease
resistance in crops.
State that the introduction of dwarf habit is through the
introduction of mutation.
State that improved chemical and nutritional composition can be
introduced through mutation.
Give an example of an improvement to a crop i.e. erucic acid
levels being reduced in rape seed.
State that F2 populations may have a wide variety of genotypes.
State that a backcross involves the mating of a hybrid organism
with one of its parents or an organism genetically similar to the
parent.
Explain in order to maintain the new desired breed a process of
selection and backcross is necessary.
Explain that an alternative to backcross and selection is to
maintain the parent breeds and produce crossbred animals.
Describe a test cross as a cross between an organism
exhibiting the dominant phenotype of a trait and an organism
that is homozygous recessive for that trait.
State that a test cross can be used to identify unwanted
individuals with heterozygous recessive alleles.
Describe how the crossing of two different inbred lines produces
F1 hybrids that are relatively uniform and heterozygous.
State that F1 hybrids have an increased vigour and yield.
Explain that the F2 generation will be too diverse genetically
and subsequently of little use for further production.
State that the F2 can provide a source of new varieties.
State that the process by which the genetic material within an
individual cell is altered by incorporation of foreign DNA is
known as genetic transformation.
State that genetic transformation techniques allow one or more
genes to be inserted into a genome.
State that the transformed genome is used in breeding
programmes.
Give examples of genetic transformations to include Bt toxin
gene for pest resistance.
State that Bt is a soil dwelling bacterium.
State that Bt lives in the guts of moth and butterfly larvae
(caterpillars).
State that Bt produces toxic crystal proteins that act as
insecticides.
State that crops can be genetically modified to incorporate the
gene that produces the toxin.
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Give examples of crops that can be genetically transformed with
the Bt gene i.e. potatoes and maize. glyphosate resistance
gene for herbicide tolerance and golden rice, a cultivar that
contains a pre cursor of vitamin A.
State that data from a collection of overlapping DNA fragments
(genome sequencing) can be entered into a computer
programme.
State that organisms possessing a gene of interest can then be
identified.
State that this gene can then be incorporated into a new cultivar
of crop or breed of domestic animal.
3. Crop Protection
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 Explain how weeds, plants and diseases compete with crop
plants to reduce productivity.
 State that a wide diversity protects this balance.
 State that in agricultural ecosystems supporting a monoculture
this balance is disrupted
 State that a crop monoculture creates perfect growing
conditions for weeds, pests and diseases.
 State that plants will compete for space, light, water and soil
nutrients.
 State that competition for space will be reduced by appropriate
spacing of seeds during sowing.
 State that these spaces maybe come occupied by weeds.
 State that a weed is any plant that grows where it is unwanted.
 State that weeds may release chemical inhibitors (allelopathy)
that reduce crop growth.
 State that the seeds of weeds can contaminate the main crop’s
yield and reduce the economic value.
 State that annual weeds possess characteristics that make
them very successful: rapid growth, short life cycles, production
of large numbers of seeds, production of seeds that can remain
dormant (yet viable) for long periods of time.
 State that perennial weeds possess characteristics that make
them even more successful: they often are already established
within the soil as they can have storage organs that remain in
the soil for extended periods of time and these storage organs
can reproduce vegetatively.
 State that most of the pests of crop plants are invertebrates i.e.
insects, nematode worms and molluscs.
 State that the larval stage of many insects cause damage by
feeding on the leaves, stem, roots and underground storage
organs of plants.
e.g. cabbage white caterpillar feeds on cabbage leaves
 State that some insects pierce plant tissues and suck out
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sugary solutions from the phloem.
e.g. aphids will suck on stems of busy lizzie plant
State that nematode worms are abundant in soil.
State that many nematode worms are parasitic and will invade
the plant in the roots.
e.g. the potato cyst nematode invades the potato roots
State that molluscs (slugs and snails) are voracious feeders of
the leaves of many crop plants.
e.g. keeled slug and potato tuber
State that plant diseases include those caused by fungi,
bacteria and viruses.
State that herbicides can be either selective or systemic.
State that they over-stimulate the rate of growth and metabolism
of broad leaved plants.
State that the food reserves are exhausted and the plant dies.
Give an advantage of selective herbicide i.e. they are effective
against broad leaved weeds; they are biodegradable.
Give a disadvantage of selective herbicide i.e. they are
ineffective with narrow leaved weeds; they may leave traces
that can enter a food chain.
State that systemic herbicides enter the transport systems of
the plant.
State that the chemical is transported within the plant and has a
lethal affect on all the plant tissues.
Give an advantage of systemic herbicide i.e. they are effective
on narrow leaved plants; they are more effective as they can
reach underground storage organs and roots and kill a greater
variety of weeds.
Give a disadvantage of systemic herbicide i.e. they are slower
to act than selective herbicides.
State that pesticides are chemicals that are used to control
pests: insecticides used to target insects; molluscicides used to
target molluscs and nematocides used to target nematodes.
State that a contact pesticide kills the invertebrate on contact.
State that a disadvantage of the contact pesticide is that it
remains as a protective layer on the plant.
State that systemic pesticides are absorbed by the plant and
transported to all of the plant.
State that the sap-sucking pest is then killed when it ingests the
poison as it feeds.
State that a fungicide is a chemical used to kill the fungal
parasites of crop plants.
State that contact fungicides are sprayed onto crops, when
fungal spores land on the crop, they absorb poison and die.
State that systemic fungicides are absorbed by the crop plant
and transported throughout its body.
State that systemic fungicide give better protection than contact
fungicides.
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Outline the problems of pesticide use in terms of persistence
and resistance.
State that disease forecasts are used in effective application of
fungicide.
State that fungal spores are airborne and that certain
environmental conditions encourage their distribution.
State that conditions will be ideal for spread when temperatures
are above 10oC and relative humidity is greater than 90% for
more than two consecutive days for periods of 11 hours or
longer.
State that this period is known as the Smith Period.
State that air temperature and humidity across the UK are
currently monitored by the FAB service.
Explain that warning systems are made available to crop
growers and crops can be sprayed in advance when the
likelihood of infection spread is high.
State that the advantage of this preventative measure is more
effective than treatment and it minimises the use of pesticides
when the crop is not actually under threat.
Explain that plant protection chemicals should be specific, shortlived and relatively safe.
State that in ideal conditions, the chemical should break down
into simple harmless chemicals relatively quickly.
State that in reality, this rarely happens.
State that many plant protection chemicals create a number of
problems.
State that many plant protection chemicals are persistent.
State that they are also toxic.
State that many plant protection chemicals do not breakdown in
the plant.
State that the chemicals can accumulate in bodies of producers
and consumers.
State that the chemicals can become more and more
concentrated as they pass through the food chain
Give an example of a pesticide that is persistent i.e. DDT
Outline how the use of pesticides may also result in a
population selection pressure producing a resistant population.
State that biological control is the reduction of a pest population
through the introduction of a natural predator or parasite of the
pest.
Give examples of biological control mechanisms.
i.e. ladybird (control) and aphid (pest)
Bt bacterium (control) and caterpillar(pest)
Parasitic wasp(control) and whitefly(pest)
State that the most effective control of pests will involve a
combination of chemical and biological controls.
State that this is known as IPM.
(Integrated Pest Management )
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State that IPM is a control measure rather than a complete
eradication of the pest.
State that IPM will cause the least impact on surrounding
wildlife.
4. Animal Welfare and Behavioural Indicators of Poor
Welfare.
I can
 Describe how the welfare of an animal is dependent on both its
physical and mental state; good welfare of an animal implies
fitness and a sense of wellbeing.
 State that animals kept by man must be protected from
unnecessary suffering.
 State that all animals in captivity must have their basic needs
met.
 State that these needs are summarised as the “Five Freedoms”
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List the “Five Freedoms”
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Outline the associated costs of meeting these demands.
Explain that on the longer term these costs will result in greater
benefits.
Explain that animals that are contented and unstressed will
grow better, breed more successfully and produce a greater
yield of higher quality products.
State that humans have a moral responsibility to regulate and
oversee the welfare of domesticated animals.
State that animals kept in confined and unnatural conditions
display behaviour patterns that are differ from animals in their
natural habitat.
State that these exhibited behaviours are known as behavioural
indicators.
State that behaviour that takes on a repetitive movement such
as a lion pacing up and down in its pen is known as stereotypy.
State that stereotypy can be alleviated through enrichment of
the environment in which the captive animal is kept.
State that when an animal self injures or mutilates itself, this is
known as misdirected behaviour. e.g. excessive licking,
plucking or chewing of own feathers.
State that misdirected behaviour can be avoided through
enrichment of the animal’s environment.
State that enrichment of an animal’s environment might include
an adequate size of enclosure, with space for exercise and
additions of objects, sound and scents found in its natural
environment and the provision of companions.
State that animals kept in isolation and in poor surroundings
may fail to reproduce successfully.
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Describe how that failure to reproduce may be through either an
inability to mate with another or the inability to be an effective
parent.
Explain how failure in sexual or parental behaviour can be
overcome by ensuring animals are given social contact with
members of their own kind.
State that an ethogram is list of observed behaviours.
State that behaviours of domesticated animals can be observed
in natural and semi-natural settings.
State that attributing human behaviour to an animal is
anthropomorphism.
State that information from studies of animal preferences can be
used to improve environmental conditions for domesticated
animals.
State that motivation is the process that arouses and directs the
behaviours of an animal in the pursuit of meetings its basic
needs. (adequate food, water, sleep, no discomfort etc.)
5. Symbiosis
I can
 Define symbiosis as a close association between two species.
 State that symbiotic relationships are coevolved and intimate.
 Define a parasitism as an interaction between 2 species where
host is harmed (-) and parasite benefits (+)
 Describe the benefits of a parasite in terms of energy and
nutrients.
 Describe how the parasitic host is harmed by the loss of energy
and nutrients.
 Describe how parasites are transmitted to new hosts by using
direct contact, resistant stages and vectors.
 Describe how some parasitic lifestyles involve secondary hosts.
 State that parasites often have limited metabolism so often
cannot survive out of contact with a host.
 Define mutualism as a close/intimate/long-term relationship in
which both species benefit.
 Explain the theory of mutualism in the evolution of mitochondria
and chloroplasts.
 Describe the benefits that mutualistic partners have from their
interdependent relationship.
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6. Social Behaviour
I can
 Define social hierarchy.
 Define cooperative hunting as hunting that occurs as a social
group/pack/team when animals work together to obtain food
 Describe the advantages of cooperative hunting eg larger
prey/more successful, less energy used/pursuit time per
individual, net gain of energy is greater than by foraging alone.
 Explain how cooperative hunting may benefit subordinate
animals as well as dominant.
 Define altruism as a relationship that has costs to one to
improve the chances of another.
 Altruism generally involves kin selection / close relatives.
 Define kin selection as behaviour which helps relatives.
 Describe how altruistic behaviour can harm the donor individual
but benefit the recipient.
 Describe how altruistic behaviour can be common between a
donor and a recipient if they are related (kin).
 State that reciprocal altruism often occurs in social animals
where the roles of the donor and recipient later reverse.
 State that in kin selection, the donor benefits in terms of the
increased chances of survival of shared genes in the recipient’s
offspring or future offspring.
 Define what is meant by social insects.
 Outline the evolution of the societies of social insects such as
bees, wasps, ants and termites, in which only some individuals
contribute reproductively.
 State that most members of the colony are workers who
cooperate with close relatives to raise relatives.
 Explain the ecological importance of social insects within their
environment.
 Describe how some species of social insects show ecological
importance to humans in providing ecosystem services such as
pollination and pest control.
 Define primate behaviour.
 Describe primates as a mammalian order that commonly
possess hands and feet adapted for grasping, they have a
relatively large brain and will have forward looking eyes.
 Give examples of the primate groups as the lemurs, the tarsiers
and the anthropoids.
 List examples of the anthropoids as monkeys, apes and
humans.
 State that the long period of parental care in primates give an
opportunity to learn complex behaviours.
 Outline the behaviour methods of reducing unnecessary
conflict; these should include ritualistic display and
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appeasement behaviours.
State that alliances may be formed to increase social status
within the group.
Explain how the complexity of the social structure is related to
ecological niche, resource distribution and taxonomic group.
7. Mass Extinction, Regaining Biodiversity and
Measuring Biodiversity
I can
 State that fossil evidence indicates that there have been several
mass extinction in the past and give examples.
 Describe how biodiversity has been slowly regained following
each mass extinction due to speciation of survivors.
 Outline the difficulties in estimating past and current species
extinction rates.
 Highlight that the escalating rate of ecosystem degradation
caused by humans is causing the rate of species extinction to
be much higher than the natural background rate.
 State that the measurable components of biodiversity include
genetic diversity, species diversity and ecosystem diversity.
 State that genetic diversity can be measured by the number and
frequency of alleles in a population.
 State that genetic diversity includes the genetic variation
represented by the number and frequency of all the alleles in a
population.
 Outline that genetic diversity may be lost if one population dies
out how this may limit its ability to adapt to changing conditions.
 State that species diversity includes the number of different
species in an ecosystem (the species richness) and the
proportion of each species in the ecosystem (the relative
abundance).
 The effects of degree of isolation and area of habitat islands on
their species diversity.
 Outline the effects of isolation and area of habitat islands on
their species diversity.
 State that ecosystem diversity refers to the number of distinct
ecosystems within a defined area.
8. Threats to Biodiversity
I can
 Define the term ‘exploitation’.
 Describe how it is possible for populations to recover from
exploitation and the impact this would have on genetic diversity.
 Explain ‘the bottleneck effect’ in relation to evolutionary
responses brought about by environmental change, particularly
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in small populations.
Some populations may decrease to a level that can still recover,
discuss the effect that this loss of genetic diversity may have on
the population.
Define habitat loss and habitat fragmentation.
Outline the impact of habitat fragmentation on species richness
with reference to degradation at the edges of the habitat
fragments.
Describe how to remedy widespread habitat fragmentation
using habitat corridors.
Define introduced (non-native) species as those that humans
have moved either intentionally or accidentally to new
geographic locations.
Provide examples of introduced species.
Define naturalised species as those that become established
within wild communities.
Provide examples of naturalised species.
Define invasive species as groups of naturalised species that
have spread rapidly and eliminated native species.
Provide examples of invasive species.
Discuss their advantages over other species to include lack of
predators, parasites, pathogens and competitors that would
normally limit their population in their native habitat.
With reference to climate change, analyse its impact on
biodiversity
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