What is biodiversity?
The term biodiversity is short for biological diversity. It s the astounding variety of life on Earth the plants, animals, habitats, and human cultures that populate the planet. And it s all the interconnections that support and link these living things in a fragile web of life. Only in the past few decades have we begun to realize the amazing abundance and variety of life we coexist with and how many more species are yet to be discovered! And only recently have we truly begun to understand the interdependent relationships shared by all living things. The web of life is like a house of cards remove one member and the entire system may suffer. Biodiversity includes: Species Diversity: the sheer numbers and kinds of plants, animals, and other forms of life that share our world and the interactions between these species Ecosystem Diversity: the habitats where these plants, animals, and other organisms live and evolve and the interconnections between them Genetic Diversity: the inherited t
Biodiversity has three components: • All forms of life: biodiversity includes all living things — including bacteria, fungi, plants, insects and other invertebrates, and vertebrates — regardless of how similar they are to other species or how useful they are to people. • All levels of organization of living things: biodiversity includes individual organisms and their genetic material; groups of similar organisms, such as populations and species; and groups of species in communities, ecosystems and landscapes (groups of adjacent ecosystems). • All the interactions among the forms of life and their levels of organization: biodiversity is more than just the parts of a living system, such as genes, individuals and species — biodiversity also includes the ways the various parts interact with each other, including competition, predation and symbiosis.
Biodiversity is the variety of species, their genetic make-up, and the natural communities in which they occur. It includes all of the native plants and animals in Pennsylvania and the processes that sustain life on Earth. Pennsylvania is home to over 25,000 different species of organisms, and of this total, over 800 are considered to be rare, threatened, or endangered. For many groups of organisms, such as insects, fungi, and algae, very little is known about them – not even what species occur in Pennsylvania! The need to understand the state’s rich natural resources has never been more critical.
Biodiversity, short for “biological diversity,” refers to the variety of life on Earth. There are many levels of diversity—from DNA and genes to species, populations, ecosystems, and communities. Genetic diversity refers to the variety of genes within individual plants and animals and between different species. Think of the seedlings that grow from a packet of new seeds—or the variety of people within your own family. No two plants—and no two people—are exactly alike. Species diversity refers to the variety of different types of plants and animals, including bacteria, fungi, insects, mammals, plants, and everything in between. Differences occur within and between populations of species. Ecosystem diversity refers to the variety of habitats and climates on Earth. The interactions between these ecosystems and the species that live in them underpin all life on Earth. In fact, Earth’s biodiversity helps keep our air and water clean, regulates our climate, and provides us (and other plants
