Introduction to Biodiversity

Introduction to Biodiversity

• Biodiversity is the total variety of life on Earth, measuring variation at genetic, species, and ecosystem levels.
• An example of species diversity is a sampling of fungi, leaf lichens, and mosses collected in Northern Saskatchewan.
• Carolus Linnaeus developed a classification scheme, Systema Naturae, using morphology to categorize organisms hierarchically.
• Taxonomy is the scientific study of naming, defining, and classifying organisms based on shared characteristics.
• Organisms are categorized into three Domains: Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya.
• Domain Archaea are microscopic, unicellular prokaryotes, often extremophiles, having genetic differences from bacteria.
• Domain Bacteria are microscopic, unicellular prokaryotes, some being autotrophs and others heterotrophs.
• Domain Eukarya comprises unicellular and multicellular organisms with eukaryotic cells, including plants, animals, fungi, and protists.
• Evolution by natural selection explains how populations change over time, leading to new species and billions of years of life on Earth.
• Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace independently discovered evolutionary theory, using extensive global observations and specimen collection.

Origin of Biodiversity

• Natural selection is a mechanism enabling populations to evolve through trait variations.
• Individuals with advantageous traits better suited to their environment survive, reproduce, and pass these traits.
• Over time, advantageous traits become common, and those that are not beneficial become rarer.
• The background extinction rate is estimated to be about 1 per million species-years, based on the fossil record.
• Current extinction rates significantly exceed the background rate, potentially indicating a sixth mass extinction event.
• Most current extinctions are tied to anthropogenic (human-caused) factors.

Biodiversity and Extinction

• High extinction rates currently point towards an ongoing 6th mass extinction event.
• Most extinctions are now attributed to human activities.

Introduction to Biotechnology

• Biotechnology is the broad area of biology using living systems to make products.
• Genetic engineering (or genetic modification) directly alters an organism's genome.
• Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are organisms with altered characteristics that don't arise naturally through mating.
• Transgenes are genes transferred naturally or through genetic engineering.
• Traditional breeding practices (selective breeding) have been used for thousands of years to modify crops and animals.
• Modern examples of this artificial selection are crops and livestock, often with traits dissimilar from those of their wild ancestors.
• Maize/corn evolved from a wild species called teosinte, likely starting over 8000 years ago.
• 60-70% of processed foods in the USA contain genetically modified ingredients.
• Examples of GM foods include Starlink corn.

Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering

• Benefits of Genetic Engineering include enhanced nutrition, increased food supply (cheaper production), increased pest and disease resistance (reduced pesticides), ability to grow food in harsh climates, and production of drugs.
• A 2016 NASEM report reviewed over 900 research articles, finding no evidence of ecological harm from genetic transfer to wild species or harmful effects to human health, compared to traditionally bred crops.

Explore the diversity of life on Earth with our quiz on biodiversity. Test your understanding of genetic, species, and ecosystem levels, as well as the classification schemes developed by Carolus Linnaeus. Dive into the three domains of life and their unique characteristics.