Biodiversity within a community

Question 1

What is meant by biodiversity?

Answer 1

Biodiversity can be thought of as a study of all the variation that exists within and between all forms of life

Question 2

How can biodiversity be assessed on different scales?

Answer 2

• The number and range of different ecosystems and habitats on the entire planet
• The number of species and their relative abundance within a small, local habitat (like a pond)

Question 3

Why is biodiversity important?

Answer 3

Biodiversity if very important for the resilience of ecosystems, in that it allows them to resist changes in the environment

Question 4

What is meant by ecosystem/habitat diversity?

Answer 4

The range of different ecosystems or habitats within a particular area or region

Question 5

What is meant by an area of high biodiversity?

Answer 5

• A large number of different habitats within an area (high biodiversity)
• E.g. coral reef complex with lots of microhabitats and niches to be exploited

Question 6

What is meant by an area of low biodiversity?

Answer 6

• Only one or two different habitats (low biodiversity)

- E.g. large sandy deserts conditions are the same throughout the whole area

Question 7

What is meant by species diversity?

Answer 7

Mix of different species that exist within a particular area or region can be measured to indicate levels of biodiversity

Question 8

How can species diversity be measured?

Answer 8

• Species richness

- Species diversity

Question 9

What is meant by species richness?

Answer 9

• Number of species within a community

- E.g. tropical rain forest high number species richness

Question 10

What is meant by species diversity?

Answer 10

• High species diversity are usually more stable than those with lower species diversity as they are more resilient to environmental changes
• E.g. pine forests of Florida the ecosystem is dominated by one or two tree species

Question 11

Why is maintaining biodiversity important?

Answer 11

Biodiversity impacts all organisms (including humans) on a global scale

Question 12

What are three reasons for maintaining biodiversity?

Answer 12

• Moral and ethical, humans have a responsibility to reduce their impact on the planet and other species
• Agricultural, genetically diverse wild species can rescue crops from catastrophes
• Economic, a range of organisms contribute to medicine, ecotourism, science and technology