BIODIVERSITY

INTRODUCTION LEVELS OF BIODIVERSITY GENETIC DIVERSITY SPECIES DIVERSITY ECOSYSTEM DIVERSITY



INTRODUCTION
 

Biodiversity is derived from bios means life and diversity means variety refers to wide variety of life on earth to all plants, animals and micro organisms. Definition: Biodiversity is defined as the variety and variability among living organisms and the ecological complexes in which they occur. The science of biodiversity originates largely from ecology (the study of the relationship between organisms and their environment) and evolution (the study of the origin of diversity). The science of biodiversity originates largely from ecology (the study of the relationship between organisms and their environment) and evolution (the study of the origin of diversity).

  

Three levels of biodiversity



Genetic diversity Species diversity Ecosystem diversity

GENETIC DIVERSITY
What is genetic diversity? Genetic diversity is the variety present at the level of genes. Genes, made of DNA (right), are the building blocks that determine how an organism will develop and what its traits and abilities will be. This level of diversity can differ by alleles (different variants of the same gene, such as blue or brown eyes), by entire genes (which determine traits, such as the ability to metabolize a particular substance), or by units larger than genes such as chromosomal structure.

RELATED TO GENETIC DIVERSITY



Within species, genetic ithin diversity often increases with environmental variability, which can be expected. If the environment often changes, different genes will have an advantage at different times or places .

SPECIES DIVERSITY


Biodiversity studies typically focus on species. They do so not because species diversity is more important than the other two types, but because species diversity is easier to work with. Species are relatively easy to identify by eye in the field, whereas genetic diversity requires laboratories, time and resources to identify and ecosystem diversity needs many complex measurements to be taken over a long period of time. Species are also easier to conceptualize and have been the basis of much of the evolutionary and ecological research that biodiversity draws on .

ECOSYSTEM DIVERSITY


EcosystemEcosystem-level theory deals with species distributions and community patterns, the role and function of key species, and combines species functions and interactions. The term "ecosystem" here represents all levels greater than species: associations, communities, ecosystems, and the like. Different names are used for this level and it is sometimes divided into several different levels, such as community and ecosystem levels; all these levels are included in this overview. This is the least-understood level of leastthe three described here due to the complexity of the interactions

Related to ecosystem diversity



One of the difficulties in examining communities is that the transitions between them are usually not very sharp. A lake may have a very sharp boundary between it and the deciduous forest it is in, but the deciduous forest will shift much more gradually to grasslands or to a coniferous forest. This lack of sharp boundaries is known as "open communities" (as opposed to "closed communities," which would have sudden transitions) and makes studying ecosystems difficult, since even defining and delimiting them can be problematic.

Measuring diversity


  

To detect changes in biodiversity there has to be a way to measure it. Although at first glance biological diversity seems to be an obvious idea, quantifying it is much more difficult. Making an attempt to express it as a single number is futile, as a single number cannot hope to convey the different components. There are three common ways to measure diversity: Numbers . Evenness. Difference.

NUMBERS


It is possible to measure how many species are found in an area, or how many alleles (defined above) a species has for a single locus, or how many functional groups (defined below) or taxonomic groups higher than species are present in an ecosystem

EVENNESS


If almost every individual in an area is from the same species, the diversity would not seem high, even if there are many species present. Evenness measures to what extent individuals are evenly distributed among species (if one is looking at the species level).

DIFFERENCE


A site with many species is considered to have high diversity, but what if those species are all very closely related? If another site had fewer species, but those species were more distantly related, would that second site have a lower or higher diversity? Measuring the evolutionary distance between the different units is important, as it is on a different level than something like species number, which doesn't measure how different the species are.

 

 

Gaining Biodiversity Mutation Mutations increase genetic diversity by altering the genetic material (almost always DNA) of organisms. Once mutations arise, they are passed on to the mutated organism's offspring, and in they time may either disappear if the line dies out Speciation The creation of a new species is known as speciation. Species are typically defined as being unable to successfully breed with other species (the so-called Biological Species Concept), with other soalthough there are other ways of defining species. Geographical Isolation: Geographical isolation, such as new mountain chains or a lake whose level lowers enough that it splits into two separate lakes, can divide a population into two Isolation: lakes, separate populations. The two isolated populations continue to evolve separately from one another. Competition: Competition: If a new resource, such as a new food source, becomes available to a population, some part of the population may become specialized in obtaining that resource. Being specialized specialized in obtaining either the new resource or the original resource may be better than trying to obtain both. If so, then the specialists would be better off mating with the other then specialists on the same resource, as mating with someone who uses the other resources will result in offspring that aren't specialized for either resource and at a disadvantage. In time, there is specialized a chance that the population will split into two species, each specialized on one of the two resources. This can happen, but it is probably a fairly rare event. Polyploidy: Polyploidy: Speciation through polyploidy happens far more often in plants than in animals, as animals are much more sensitive to large changes in their genetic structure. Most species are changes diploid, meaning they have two ("di" meaning two) copies of each chromosome (large packages of DNA), one from each of their parents. An individual in a normally diploid species may parents. have more copies of these chromosomes, being polyploid ("poly" meaning many), through errors at the cellular level. The additional copies of the chromosomes render them unable to additional produce functional offspring with normal members of their species. Plants often fertilize themselves to at least some extent, so polyploid species can arise from a single individual. This method of speciation is almost instantaneous, happening in a single generation, and is more common in plants than animals. Immigration Immigration increases diversity as new individuals and perhaps even new species enter an area, increasing its diversity. The rate at which immigration happens depends on the size of the rate area in question, how many species are there already, and how close the area in question is to the source of immigration. Even if a species is unable to survive in an area, a constant flow of Even if immigrants to the area can keep the species present indefinitely. Island biogeography is the classic theory on the topic of how these factors affect immigration and more, and is explained how above. Most species that immigrate to a new ecosystem have only minor effects on their new system, though some drastically change it. Zebra mussels, native to the Caspian Sea and Ural river, it. Zebra were first recognized in the Great Lakes in 1988. It is most likely that they were brought over in ballast water. Since then they have spread throughout the Great Lakes and beyond, killing they native mussel populations and fouling all manner of pipes and intakes. Succession Succession is the process through which an area gains species as successive communities of organisms replace one another until an endpoint is reached. This endpoint, or climax community, until an is commonly a forest in southern Canada. Succession may begin on bare rock, an abandoned field, the burned remnants of a forest, or any stage before the endpoint. A hypothetical bare field forest, isn't bare for long before annual plants appear. They are replaced within a few years by perennial plants and shrubs, who in turn are replaced by pine trees. Eventually, hardwood trees invade turn and replace the pines, forming the hardwood climax community. Different regions have varying climax communities; the tundra of the north is extremely different from the grasslands of the prairies or the west coast rainforests, though they are all the local prairies endpoints of succession. One usually refers to the different stages of succession in terms of the plants rather than the animals because the plants precede the animals and provide the structure animals and environment that the animals live in. One exception to this is aquatic communities, where sponges, corals, bivalves and other animals are responsible for much of the three-dimensional other threestructure of the community. The climax community is typically the most diverse stage of succession, and each stage of succession is more diverse than the one preceding it. This pattern succession depends on the group being looked at; plant diversity actually decreases at the final stage, while animal diversity increases to the end. Species that were common in the early stages of succession will not be common in the later stages, but may still be found if small disturbances in the area effectively set the disturbed area back to an earlier successional stage (see the page the on Abundance and Composition for more details). Losing Diversity Extinction Extinction is more an outcome than a process. Once a species goes extinct, all the diversity that it represented is lost forever. The vast majority of species that have ever existed are now forever. extinct through natural processes, whether by mass extinction or by the more common individual extinction. Genes also go extinct if they fail to get passed on to the next generation, though extinct it's not necessary for the entire species to go extinct as well. Ecosystems may be destroyed by severe disturbances, but they don't really go extinct unless the species that make them up are don't lost. Species can also go locally extinct; in this case, they are said to be extirpated. Although the local loss of diversity is the same, the species still exists elsewhere and may be able to return in the same, the future through immigration. Much the same thing can happen to genetic diversity, as particular alleles are lost in a population. population. Competition If one species outcompetes others to a dramatic extent, the result may be extirpation or perhaps even extinction of the other species and a reduction of diversity. Diversity, in the sense of species evenness, will also be lowered if other species have their populations greatly reduced by a competitor or predator, even if the species aren't extirpated. As species that have been eliminated the simply aren't around, it's rare to see this process happening unless a species has recently invaded or conditions have recently changed. recently