Biodiversity
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bi·o·di·ver·si·ty
The term biodiversity was coined as a contraction of biological diversity by E.O. Wilson in 1985. Biodiversity may be defined as the variety and variability of living organisms and the ecological complexes in which they exist. A term that describes the number of different species that live within a particular ecosystem.
(bī′ō-dĭ-vûr′sĭ-tē)n.biodiversity
(ˌbaɪəʊdaɪˈvɜːsɪtɪ) nbi•o•di•ver•si•ty
(ˌbaɪ oʊ dɪˈvɜr sɪ ti, -daɪ-)n.
bi·o·di·ver·si·ty
(bī′ō-dĭ-vûr′sĭ-tē)biodiversity
| Noun | 1. | biodiversity - the diversity of plant and animal life in a particular habitat (or in the world as a whole); 'a high level of biodiversity is desirable' diverseness, diversity, multifariousness, variety - noticeable heterogeneity; 'a diversity of possibilities'; 'the range and variety of his work is amazing' |
biodiversity
[ˌbaɪədaɪˈvɜːsɪtɪ]N → biodiversidadfbiodiversity
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Indonesia: biodiversity Learn about the rich biodiversity in the waters off Indonesia, as well as conservation efforts. Contunico © ZDF Enterprises GmbH, MainzBiodiversity, also called biological diversity, the variety of found in a place on or, often, the total variety of life on Earth. A common measure of this variety, called, is the count of in an area. And Kenya, for example, each have more than 1,000 breeding species of birds, whereas the forests of Great Britain and of eastern are home to fewer than 200.
A off northern may have 500 species of fish, while the rocky shoreline of Japan may be home to only 100 species. Such numbers capture some of the differences between places—the tropics, for example, have more biodiversity than temperate regions—but raw species count is not the only measure of. Furthermore, biodiversity the genetic variety within each species and the variety of that species create. Manu National Park, Peru: reptile and amphibian biodiversity A discussion of the high level of reptile and amphibian biodiversity around Manu National Park, southern Peru. Displayed by permission of The Regents of the University of California.
All rights reserved. Although examining counts of species is perhaps the most common method used to compare the biodiversity of various places, in practice biodiversity is weighted differently for different species, the reason being that some species are deemed more valuable or more interesting than others. One way this “value” or “interest” is assessed is by examining the diversity that exists above the species level, in the genera, families, orders, classes, and phyla to which species belong ( see ). For example, the count of animal species that live on land is much higher than the count of those that live in the oceans because there are huge numbers of terrestrial species; insects many orders and families, and they the largest class of, which themselves constitute the largest animal phylum. In contrast, there are fewer animal phyla in terrestrial than in the.
No animal phylum is restricted to the land, but brachiopods ( see ), pogonophorans ( see ), and other animal phyla occur exclusively or predominantly in marine habitats.Some species have no close relatives and exist alone in their genus, whereas others occur in genera made up of hundreds of species. Given this, one can ask whether it is a species belonging to the former or latter category that is more important.
On one hand, a taxonomically distinct species—the only one in its genus or family, for example—may be more likely to be distinct biochemically and so be a valuable source for simply because there is nothing else quite like it. On the other hand, although the only species in a genus carries more genetic novelty, a species belonging to a large genus might possess something of the evolutionary vitality that has led its genus to be so. A second way to weight species biodiversity is to recognize the unique biodiversity of those environments that contain few species but unusual ones. Dramatic examples come from extreme environments such as the summits of active Antarctic volcanoes (e.g., Mt. Erebus see and Mt. Melbourne in the region), hot springs (e.g., in the western United States), or deep-sea hydrothermal vents ( see ). The numbers of species found in these places may be smaller than almost anywhere else, yet the species are quite distinctive.
One such species is the Thermus aquaticus, found in the hot springs of Yellowstone. From this organism was isolated polymerase, a -resistant crucial for a -amplification technique widely used in research and medical diagnostics ( see ).
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Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription.More generally, areas differ in the biodiversity of species found only there. Species having relatively small ranges are called. On remote oceanic islands, almost all the native species are.
The, for example, have about 1,000 species, a small number compared with those at the same latitude in continental. Almost all the Hawaiian species, however, are found only there, whereas the species on continents may be much more widespread. Endemic species are much more to activity than are more widely distributed species, because it is easier to destroy all the in a small geographic range than in a large one. In addition to diversity among species, the concept of biodiversity includes the genetic diversity within species. One example is our own species, for we differ in a wide variety of characteristics that are partly or wholly genetically determined, including height, and colour, behavioral traits, and resistance to various. Likewise, genetic variety within a plant species may include the differences in individual plants that confer resistance to different diseases. For plants that are domesticated, such as rice, these differences may be of considerable economic importance, for they are the source of new disease-resistant domestic varieties.The idea of biodiversity also encompasses the range of ecological that species form.
A common approach to quantifying this type of diversity is to record the variety of ecological an area may contain. It is generally accepted that an area having, say, both and is more diverse than one with forests alone, because each of these assemblages is expected to house different species. This conclusion, however, is indirect—i.e., it is likely based on differences in vegetation structure or appearance rather than directly on lists of species.Forest and prairie are just two of a of names applied to ecological assemblages defined in a variety of ways, methods, and terms, and many ideas exist regarding what an assemblage. Technical terms that imply different degrees to which assemblages can be divided spatially include association, life zone, ecoregion, landscape, or biotype. There is also no agreement on the boundaries of assemblages—say, where the biome ends and the prairie biome begins.
Nonetheless, especially when these approaches are applied globally, as with the used by the (World Wildlife Fund, WWF), they provide a useful guide to biodiversity patterns. Counting speciesThe catalog of Earth’s biodiversity is very incomplete. About 1.9 million have scientific names. Estimates of the total number of living species cluster around 10 million, which means that most species have not been discovered and described. (These estimates omit because of the practical problems in defining bacterial species.) Simply counting species must be, at best, an incomplete measure of biodiversity, for most species cannot be counted within a reasonable time.
At the present rate of describing new species, it will take about 1,000 years to complete the catalog of scientific names. Of the approximately 1.9 million species now described, perhaps two-thirds are known from only one location and many from examining only one individual or a limited number of individuals, so knowledge of the genetic within species is even more constrained. From just a few well-studied species, it is clear that genetic variability can be substantial and that it differs in extent between species. Biodiversity; conservation Why biodiversity is good for the economy.
© MinuteEarth The named 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB)—a yearlong celebration intended to raise public awareness about the importance of biodiversity and to reinforce conservation efforts. Many of the conservation goals promoted by the IYB have resurfaced periodically in later United Nations awareness campaigns—such as the International Year of (2011), the International Year of (2015), and the International Year of Sustainable for Development (2017).