Genetic diversity

Genetic diversity, the level of biodiversity, refers to the total number of geneticcharacteristics in the genetic makeup of a species. It is distinguished from genetic variability, which describes the tendency of genetic characteristics to vary. Genetic diversity serves as a way for populations to adapt to changing environments. With more variation, it is more likely that some individuals in a population will possess variations of alleles that are suited for the environment. Those individuals are more likely to survive to produce offspring bearing that allele. The [1] population will continue for more generations because of the success of these individuals. The academic field of population genetics includes several hypotheses and theories regarding genetic diversity. The neutral theory of evolution proposes that diversity is the result of the accumulation of neutral substitutions. Diversifying selection is the hypothesis that two subpopulations of a species live in different environments that select for different alleles at a particular locus. This may occur, for instance, if a species has a large range relative to the mobility of individuals within it. Frequency-dependent selection is the hypothesis that as alleles become more common, they become more vulnerable. This occurs in host-pathogeninteractions, where a high frequency of a defensive allele among the host means that it is more likely that a pathogen will spread if it is able to overcome that allele.

Species diversity
Species diversity is the effective number of different species that are represented in a collection of individuals (a dataset). The effective number of species refers to the number of equally-abundant species needed to obtain the same mean proportional species abundance as that observed in the dataset of interest (where all species may not be equally abundant). Species diversity consists of two components, species richness and species evenness. Species richness is a simple count of species, [1][2][3] whereas species evenness quantifies how equal the abundances of the species are.

Diversity indices[edit]
Often researchers have used the values given by one or more diversity indices to quantify species diversity. Such indices includespecies richness, the Shannon index, the Simpson index and the [4][5][6] complement of the Simpson index (also known as the Gini-Simpson index). When interpreted in ecological terms, each one of these indices corresponds to a different thing, and their values are therefore not directly comparable. Species richness quantifies the actual rather than effective q number of species. The Shannon index equals log( D), and in practice quantifies the uncertainty in the species identity of an individual that is taken at random from the dataset. The Simpson index equals q 1/ D and quantifies the probability that two individuals taken at random from the dataset (with replacement of the first individual before taking the second) represent the same species. The Gini-

Simpson index equals 1 - 1/ D and quantifies the probability that the two randomly taken individuals [1][2][3][6][7] represent different species.

Ecosystem diversity
Ecosystem diversity refers to the diversity of a place at the level ofecosystems. The term differs from biodiversity, which refers to variation in species rather than ecosystems. Ecosystem diversity can also refer to the variety of ecosystems present in a biosphere, the variety of species and ecological processes that occur in different physical settings.

THE BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS

Life on Earth faces a crisis of historical and planetary proportions. Unsustainable consumption in many northern countries and crushing poverty in the tropics are destroying wild nature. Biodiversity is besieged. Extinction is the gravest aspect of the biodiversity crisis: it is irreversible. While extinction is a natural process, human impacts have elevated the rate of extinction by at least a thousand, possibly several thousand, times the natural rate. Mass extinctions of this magnitude have only occurred five times in the history of our planet; the last brought the end of the dinosaur age. In a world where conservation budgets are insufficient given the number of species threatened with extinction, identifying conservation priorities is crucial. British ecologist Norman Myers defined the biodiversity hotspot concept in 1988 to address the dilemma that conservationists face: what areas are the most immediately important for conserving biodiversity?

The biodiversity hotspots hold especially high numbers of endemic species, yet their combined area of remaining habitat covers only 2.3 percent of the Earth's land surface. Each hotspot faces extreme threats and has already lost at least 70 percent of its original natural vegetation. Over 50 percent of the worlds plant species and 42 percent of all terrestrial vertebrate species are endemic to the 34 biodiversity hotspots.

What are the Threats to Biodiversity?

Extinction is a natural event and, from a geological perspective, routine. We now know that most species that have ever lived have gone extinct. The average rate over the past 200 my is 1-2 species per year, and 3-4 families per my. The average duration of a species is 2-10 million years (based on last 200 million years). There have also been occasional episodes of mass extinction, when many taxa representing a wide array of lifeforms have gone extinct in the same blink of geological time. [see last Fall's lecture on the Emergence Of Complex Life] In the modern era, due to human actions, species and ecosystems are threatened with destruction to an extent rarely seen in earth history. Probably only during the handful of mass extinction events have so many species been threatened, in so short a time. What are these human actions? There are many ways to conceive of these - let's consider two. First, we can attribute the loss of species and ecosystems to the accelerating transformation of the earth by a growing human population (GCII). As the human population passes the six billion mark , we have transformed, degraded or destroyed roughly half of the word's forests (GCII). We appropriate roughly half of the world's net primary productivity for human use (GCII). We appropriate most available fresh water (GCII), and we harvest virtually all of the available productivity of the oceans (GCII). It is little wonder that species are disappearing and ecosystems are being destroyed.

Ex-situ conservation
Ex-situ conservation means literally, "off-site conservation". It is the process of protecting an endangered species of plant or animal outside its natural habitat; for example, by removing part of the population from a threatened habitat and placing it in a new location, which may be a wild area or within the care of humans. While ex-situ conservation comprises some of the oldest and best known conservation methods, it also involves newer, sometimes controversial laboratory methods.

Colony relocation[edit]
The best method of maximizing a species chance of survival (when ex-situ methods are required) is by relocating part of the population to a less threatened location. It is extremely difficult to mimic the environment of the original colony location given the large number of variables defining the original colony (microclimate, soils, symbiotic species, absence of severe predation, etc.). It is also technically challenging to uproot (in the case of plants) or trap (in the case of animals) the required organisms without undue harm. An example of colony relocation in the wild is the case of the endangered Santa Cruz Tarweed, a new colony of which was discovered during a mid-1980s survey at the site of a proposed shopping center in western Contra Costa County in California. Once the city ofPinole had decided to approve the shopping center, the city relied on a relocation plan developed by Earth Metrics scientists to remove the entire [1] colony to a nearby location immediately east of Interstate Highway 80 within the Caltrans right-of-way

Biodiversity conservation
Biodiversity, or biological diversity, is the variety of all species on earth. It is the different plants, animals and micro-organisms, their genes, and the terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems of which they are a part. Biodiversity is both essential for our existence and intrinsically valuable in its own right. This is because biodiversity provides the fundamental building blocks for the many goods and services a healthy environment provides. These include things that are fundamental to our health, like clean air, fresh water and food products, as well as the many other products such as timber and fibre. Other important services provided by our biodiversity include recreational, cultural and spiritual nourishment that maintain our personal and social wellbeing. Looking after our biodiversity is therefore an important task for all people.

Over the last 200 years Australia has suffered the largest documented decline in biodiversity of any continent. Despite efforts to manage threats and pressures to biodiversity in Australia, it is still in decline. The main threats to our biodiversity are: loss, fragmentation and degradation of habitat the spread of invasive species unsustainable use of natural resources climate change inappropriate fire regimes changes to the aquatic environment and water flows