Biodiversity

BIODIVERSITY
  •  The term biodiversity refers to the wealth of plants, animals and micro organisms that contain precious genes and formulate delicate ecosystems.

Definition

  • Biodiversity refers to variety and variability among the living organisms and ecological complexes in which occur. This includes diversity within species, between species and of the ecosystem. It is defined as the totality of genes, species and ecosystems of a region.
  • Biodiversity or Biological diversity comprises Genetic diversity, Species diversity and Ecosystem diversity.

Genetic diversity

  • It refers to the variation of genes within the species stores as immense amount of genetic information. Genetic variation is seen among the individuals within a species . For instance, in cattle there are many varieties with respect to colour, milk yield, size or disease resistance.
  • The genetic variation may be in alleles, entire genes or in chromosomal structures. It leads to better adaptation of species to the changed environment. New species are formed due to genetic variation.

Species diversity

  • It refers to the various species found within a region. Variability found within a species or between different species of a community. Species diversity is measured by species richness (number of species per unit area) and evenness or equitability (evenness in the number of individuals of a species).
  • In the case of species richness, higher species diversity represents greater species diversity. In the second case, evenness of species represents higher species diversity.

Ecosystem diversity

  • It refers to the variations in the biological communities in which the species live. The diversity within a community is called alpha diversity. The diversity between communities is called Beta diversity. Examples are Tropical Rain Forest and Boreal Forest.
  • The present diversity has developed over millions of years of evolution and therefore ecological balance should not be disturbed. The diversity of the habitats over total landscape or geological area is referred to as Gamma diversity (or) Landscape diversity. For example Forest ecosystem, aquatic ecosystem, Grasslands, Deserts, mangroves etc.
Last modified: Tuesday, 8 March 2011, 6:50 AM