Maintaining biodiversity — AQA GCSE Biology
Test yourself on Maintaining biodiversity with AQA GCSE practice questions.
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Maintaining biodiversity explained
Humans interact with ecosystems in ways that can help or harm biodiversity.
Read the full explanation
Negative interactions include deforestation, pollution, overfishing, draining wetlands and introducing invasive species, all of which reduce the variety of species and habitats. Positive interactions include conservation, reforestation, creating nature reserves, protecting endangered species, reducing pollution and sustainable farming. Biodiversity is the variety of different species and the range of habitats in an ecosystem. A healthy biodiversity helps ecosystems remain stable and provides resources such as food, medicine and clean water. Answers should describe both types of interaction and explain how each affects biodiversity.
Your focus
- Describe positive and negative human interactions in an ecosystem.
- Explain how these interactions affect biodiversity.
- Suggest ways that human activity can be managed to maintain biodiversity.
Maintaining biodiversity exam tips
Marking Points
- Biodiversity is the variety of species and habitats in an ecosystem.
- Negative interactions include deforestation, pollution, overfishing and introducing invasive species.
- These reduce habitats and species numbers, lowering biodiversity.
- Positive interactions include conservation, reforestation, nature reserves and protecting endangered species.
- These maintain or increase habitats and species numbers, raising biodiversity.
- Sustainable farming and reducing pollution can also protect biodiversity.
- High biodiversity helps ecosystems remain stable and provides resources for humans.
Examiner Tips
- 💡Structure your answer into positive and negative interactions so both are clearly covered.
- 💡Use named examples such as deforestation or nature reserves to support each point.
- 💡Finish each example by stating the effect on biodiversity, for example reduces or increases it.
Common Mistakes
- Giving only negative examples; correction: the question requires both positive and negative interactions.
- Describing an interaction without linking it to biodiversity; correction: explain how it changes the variety of species or habitats.
- Confusing biodiversity with the total number of organisms; correction: biodiversity is the variety of species and habitats, not just population size.