Category:Biodiversity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Biodiversity is the shortened form of two words "biological" and "diversity". It refers to all the variety of life that can be found on Earth (plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms) as well as to the communities that they form and the habitats in which they live.

The Convention on Biological Diversity gives a formal definition of biodiversity in its Article 2: "biological diversity means the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems".

Biodiversity is not only the sum of all ecosystems, species and genetic material. Rather, it represents the variability within and among them. Thus, the term encompasses different ecosystems, species, genes, and their relative abundance and differences.

Genetic diversity refers to the variation of genes within species. This covers distinct populations of the same species (such as the thousands of traditional rice varieties in India) or genetic variation within a populations (high among Indian rhinos, and very low among cheetahs)...

Species diversity refers to the variety of species within a region. Such diversity can be measured in many ways, and scientists have not settled on a single best method. The number of species in a region -- its species "richness" -- is one often- used measure, but a more precise measurement, "taxonomic diversity", also considers the relationship of species to each other. For example, an island with two species of birds and one species of lizard has a greater taxonomic diversity than an island with three species of birds but no lizards...

Ecosystem diversity refers to the diversity of habitats, communities and ecological processes within the biosphere. It is harder to measure than species or genetic diversity because the "boundaries" of communities -- associations of species -- and ecosystems are elusive. Nevertheless, as long as a consistent set of criteria is used to define communities, habitats and ecosystems, their numbers and distribution can be measured..."