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    2.0 Define About What Is Biodiversity and Its Components.: Genetic

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    K Vinmalar Saravanan
    Biodiversity refers to the variety of living things, including plants, animals, and microorganisms, as well as the genetic information and ecosystems they form. Biodiversity is commonly explored at three levels: genetic diversity within and between populations and species, species diversity in a given region, and ecosystem diversity of biological communities and their physical environments. Genetic diversity is the variation between individuals of the same species. Species diversity counts the number of different species present in a region. Ecosystem diversity considers the number and distribution of ecological systems defined by consistent criteria. Species richness is often used to measure biodiversity because species tend to have independent evolutionary histories, are easier to count than higher taxa, and can act as a proxy for genetic and

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    2.0 Define About What Is Biodiversity and Its Components.: Genetic

    Uploaded by

    K Vinmalar Saravanan
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    Biodiversity refers to the variety of living things, including plants, animals, and microorganisms, as well as the genetic information and ecosystems they form. Biodiversity is commonly explored at three levels: genetic diversity within and between populations and species, species diversity in a given region, and ecosystem diversity of biological communities and their physical environments. Genetic diversity is the variation between individuals of the same species. Species diversity counts the number of different species present in a region. Ecosystem diversity considers the number and distribution of ecological systems defined by consistent criteria. Species richness is often used to measure biodiversity because species tend to have independent evolutionary histories, are easier to count than higher taxa, and can act as a proxy for genetic and

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    Biodiversity refers to the variety of living things, including plants, animals, and microorganisms, as well as the genetic information and ecosystems they form. Biodiversity is commonly explored at three levels: genetic diversity within and between populations and species, species diversity in a given region, and ecosystem diversity of biological communities and their physical environments. Genetic diversity is the variation between individuals of the same species. Species diversity counts the number of different species present in a region. Ecosystem diversity considers the number and distribution of ecological systems defined by consistent criteria. Species richness is often used to measure biodiversity because species tend to have independent evolutionary histories, are easier to count than higher taxa, and can act as a proxy for genetic and

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    36 views2 pages

    2.0 Define About What Is Biodiversity and Its Components.: Genetic

    Uploaded by

    K Vinmalar Saravanan
    Biodiversity refers to the variety of living things, including plants, animals, and microorganisms, as well as the genetic information and ecosystems they form. Biodiversity is commonly explored at three levels: genetic diversity within and between populations and species, species diversity in a given region, and ecosystem diversity of biological communities and their physical environments. Genetic diversity is the variation between individuals of the same species. Species diversity counts the number of different species present in a region. Ecosystem diversity considers the number and distribution of ecological systems defined by consistent criteria. Species richness is often used to measure biodiversity because species tend to have independent evolutionary histories, are easier to count than higher taxa, and can act as a proxy for genetic and

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    2.0 Define about what is Biodiversity and its components.

    Biodiversity is the variety of all living things; the different plants, animals and micro
    organisms, the genetic information they contain and the ecosystems they form. Biodiversity
    is usually explored at three levels - genetic diversity, species diversity and ecosystem
    diversity.
    Genetic - variation between individuals of the same species. This includes genetic variation
    between individuals in a single population , as well as variations between different
    populations of the same species. Genetic differences can now be measured using increasingly
    sophisticated techniques. These differences are the raw material of evolution.
    Species - species diversity is the variety of species in a given region or area. This can either
    be determined by counting the number of different species present, or by determining
    taxonomic diversity. Taxonomic diversity is more precise and considers the relationship of
    species to each other. It can be measured by counting the number of different taxa (the main
    categories of classification) present. For example, a pond containing three species of snails
    and two fish, is more diverse than a pond containing five species of snails, even though they
    both contain the same number of species. High species biodiversity is not always necessarily
    a good thing. For example, a habitat may have high species biodiversity because many
    common and widespread species are invading it at the expense of species restricted to that
    habitat.
    Ecosystem - Communities of plants and animals, together with the physical characteristics of
    their environment (e.g. geology, soil and climate) interlink together as an ecological system,
    or 'ecosystem'. Ecosystem diversity is more difficult to measure because there are rarely clear
    boundaries between different ecosystems and they grade into one another. However, if
    consistent criteria are chosen to define the limits of an ecosystem, then their number and
    distribution can also be measured.
    Genetic diversity

    Organismal diversity

    Ecological diversity

    Nucleotides

    Individuals

    Populations

    Genes

    Populations

    Niches

    Chromosomes

    Subspecies

    Habitats

    Individuals

    Species

    Ecosystems

    Populations

    Genera

    Landscapes

    Families

    Bioregions

    Orders

    Biomes

    Classes
    Phyla
    Kingdoms
    Table 1: Elements of biodiversity

    Biodiversity can be measured in lots of different ways the most commonly used
    measure is that of species richness, there are a number of reasons for this (Purvis & Hector
    2000; Gaston & Spicer 2004):
    1. Species often keep their genes to themselves and thus can have independent
    evolutionary trajectories and unique histories; it thus makes biological sense to
    measure species richness rather than a higher taxonomic grouping.
    2. It is often easier to count the number of species compared to other measures of
    biodiversity. Humans tend to be able to recognise species and these are the units
    typically used in folk knowledge, practical management and political discourse.
    Humans can visualise variation in biodiversity as variation in species richness.
    3. There is a substantial body of information already available on species, for example,
    in museums and herbaria.
    4. Species richness can act as a surrogate for other measures of biodiversity. In
    general as long as the number of species involved is moderate, greater numbers of
    species will tend to have more genetic diversity and will tend to have greater
    ecological diversity as more niches, habitats or biomes will be represented.

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