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Sustainability and Interdependence Success Criteria 1. Food supply, plant growth and productivity. (a) Food supply I can 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 I can State that photosynthetic pigments capture light energy from the sun. State that this energy is used to generate ATP. (photophospshorylation) 1|Page Traffic light 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. State that light that is not absorbed can be transmitted. 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. State that the hydrogen is transferred to the coenzyme NADP. 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. 2|Page State that G3P can be converted into other metabolites in plants. 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. 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 I can 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. 3|Page Traffic Light 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. Comment on validity and reliability of the trial design. 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. 4|Page 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. 5|Page 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 I can 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 6|Page Traffic Light 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. 7|Page 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 ) 8|Page 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” List the “Five Freedoms” 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. 9|Page Traffic Light 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. 10 | P a g e 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 11 | P a g e 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 12 | P a g e 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 13 | P a g e