Biodiversity and Classification Quiz

Lecture 1: Introduction to Biodiversity

• Biodiversity: Organisms adapted to various habitats on Earth via evolution. No single, correct answer for any habitat.
• Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA): Existed about 4 billion years ago. LUCA is the last common ancestor of all cellular life on Earth today. After billions of years of evolution, LUCA diversified into the different forms of life.
• Evolution: What we see today is the result of evolution up until now, making it difficult to directly observe the past process of evolving.

Biodiversity in Everyday Life

• Diversity within mechanisms: Huge diversity exists within the same type of survival mechanism.
• Flowering plants at UTM: Photos of flowering plants at University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) show this diversity. Some are wild-species, others are planted by humans.

Why Study the Diversity of Life?

• Human interest in environment: Humans are inherently interested in our environment
• Human interest in ourselves: Humans are inherently interested in themselves. We learn about ourselves through studying other organisms.
• Learning about Earth: We learn about Earth through studying life.

Why Study the Diversity of Life (Animals)?

• Humans are animals: Humans are also animals.
• Learning about ourselves through other organisms: We learn about ourselves through studying other organisms.
• Learning about Earth through studying life: We learn about Earth through studying life.

Taxonomy & Phylogeny

• Taxonomy: Study organisms, name them, and put them into similar groups
• Phylogeny: Deduce evolutionary relationships between organisms put in similar groups.
• Naming is important: Naming is important for clear and unambiguous communication.

Conservation Ecology

• Constant interactions: Organisms constantly interact with the environment and other organisms.
• Intervening without understanding: We cannot intervene in these systems without knowing the interactions.
• Predator-prey relationships: Changes in predator and prey populations often synchronize, like the snowshoe hare and Canada lynx.
• Woodland caribou: Commercial forest activities like logging, building roads, and pipelines in Ontario and Quebec can disrupt the habitat of woodland caribou populations, affecting their survival.

Human Health

• Parasitic organisms: Some organisms thrive by parasitizing on their host, many infect humans.
• Combating infections: Understanding these organisms is critical to effectively combat them. Examples include Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Staphylococcus aureus, HIV, and Monkeypox virus.

Epidemics and Pandemics

• Natural health detriments: It is natural for a population to be affected by various health detriments like diseases.
• Unusual disease cases: Sometimes, an unusually high number of cases of a particular disease are reported.
• Epidemic definition: An epidemic is a significant rise in the occurrence of a disease, above the normal rate in a local population.
• Pandemic definition: A pandemic is a global epidemic, usually affecting more than one continent.

SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Pandemic

• Coronavirus caused pandemic: The COVID-19 pandemic of the early 2020s, was caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
• Virus identification: SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the virus.
• Disease caused by the virus: COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease 2019) is a disease caused by SARS-CoV-2.
• Previous coronaviruses: SARS-CoV-2 is not the first coronavirus that has impacted humans.
• Prior knowledge: Humans have prior knowledge of coronaviruses, including types that cause less significant infections such as the common cold (around 15%).
• History of other infections and experience of combating them + knowledge on other viruses, vaccination, epidemiology: Prior experience with similar epidemics and knowledge of handling infections are vital resources in responding to this new type of threat.

BIO153 Week 1 To-Do

• Review materials: Review syllabus and Quercus information
• Attend lectures: Attend lectures 1 and 2 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
• Attend tutorials: Attend a Friday tutorial on BIO153 structure (noon-1PM and 2-3PM sessions). Space may be limited.
• No labs this week (Week 1): There are no labs scheduled this week.
• Labs next week: Labs will resume the following week (Week 2). Prepare for these labs by reviewing any assigned pre-lab materials. Lab materials will be posted on Quercus somewhat before the week 2 starts.