key area 3.8 - components of biodiversity

Question 1

3 components of biodiversity

Answer 1

• genetic diversity
• species diversity
• ecosystem diversity

Question 2

biodiversity

Answer 2

• the total variation that exists among all living things on earth

Question 3

genetic diversity

Answer 3

• the number and frequency of the alleles that exist in a population
• allows species to adapt to changing environments but this can be limited by loss of members of a population

Question 4

species diversity

Answer 4

• consists of the number of different species in an ecosystem (species richness) and the proportion of each species in the ecosystem compared to the total number of organisms present (relative abundance)

Question 5

ecosystem diversity

Answer 5

• refers to the number of distinct ecosystems within a defined area