Biodiversity Overview Quiz

Study Notes

Biodiversity is the variation within and between all forms of life.
It can be assessed at three levels: ecosystem, species, and genetic diversity.
High biodiversity enhances ecosystem resilience and allows them to resist change.

This is the range of different ecosystems or habitats within a particular area or region.
Areas with a large number of diverse habitats generally have high biodiversity, like a coral reef.
Areas with only one or two habitats usually have low biodiversity, like a large sandy desert.

High species richness indicates a high number of different species in an ecosystem.
Evenness of abundance, known as species evenness, also plays a role in species diversity.
Greater the number of species and more evenly distributed the individuals, the greater the species diversity.
Ecosystems with high species diversity are more stable and resilient to changes.

Genetic diversity within a species is the variation of alleles and genes in its genome.
Although individuals of the same species have the same genes, they may have different alleles for each gene.
Genetic diversity is measured by the proportion of genes with multiple alleles and the number of possible alleles per gene.
Genetic diversity can differ within and between populations.
Genetic diversity helps populations adapt to changes in the environment, biotic (new predators, pathogens, competition) and abiotic (temperature, humidity, rainfall).
Small and isolated populations, due to inbreeding, have limited genetic diversity, leading to high proportion of homozygous individuals and potentially more genetic diseases.