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Biodiversity is a measure of the variety of living organisms and their genetic differences.
Defining biodiversity is not easy. The number of different species is a useful basic measure of
biodiversity, but the concept is more complex than this. The differences between individuals
in a species, between populations of the same species, between communities and between
ecosystems are examples of biodiversity. Biodiversity can be assessed on different scales,
from species level in a habitat to the genetic level within a population.

Why is biodiversity important?

• All organisms in an ecosystem are interdependent, and they can affect the physical
conditions around them. Rich biodiversity allows large-scale ecosystems to function
and self-regulate.
• If biodiversity is reduced in one area, the natural balance may be destroyed
elsewhere.
• Biodiversity provides the genetic variation that has allowed us to develop crops,
livestock, fisheries and forests
Assessing Biodiversity at the Species Level
Biodiversity can be measured in several ways. There are two main factors which needed to
be considered when measuring biodiversity:

• The species richness

o Wet tropics and coral reefs are generally areas of highest biodiversity
• The relative species abundance
o Distribution of different species

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Endemism
Species found only on one place, for example,
kangaroos and koala bear are well-known
endemic animals of Australia

Why some areas have very rich

biodiversity?
• A very stable ecosystem
• High levels of productivity
• When organisms grow and reproduce
rapidly, it is more likely that mutations
occur

Endemic Species of Madagascar

• Madagascar is a large island off the cost of
East Africa. Almost all the species found
there are endemic to the island
• Imported species can cause many
problems

Species Abundance
• The absolute number of species is not the
only important factor in biodiversity.
Relative number of species is also very
important.
• The risks to biodiversity are not evenly
spread around the world. Certain areas are
much more vulnerable to damage and loss.
• If biodiversity hotspots are damaged, many
species will be lost

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The Diversity Index

How Biodiversity Varies?

High biodiversity is seen in:

• A very stable ecosystem

• High levels of productivity
• When organisms grow and reproduce rapidly, it is more likely that mutations occur

• Severe frost, a flood or a new pathogen can devastate or even wipe out one or more
populations
• In less hostile environments, biodiversity can be very high
o Very stable ecosystem
o New species moving in or out will have almost no effect
• Biodiversity is not constant
o Biodiversity in an area will change considerably through the year
• Modern DNA analysis allows us to measure biodiversity on different scale, at genetic
level
o Discovering genetic diversity within species is very important
• Mutations can increase the gene pool of a population by increasing the number of
different alleles available
• Relative allele frequency: the relative frequency of a particular allele in a population

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Measuring Genetic Biodiversity
• Without variation population is vulnerable
• Genetic variation is analyzed by comparing particular DNA regions for differences and
similarities
• Scientists look at the proportion of population which is heterozygous for given
feature
• When DNA is analyzed, only one band will show up if an organism is a homozygote.
For heterozygotes, two bands will appear
• This can be used to calculate the heterozygous index
• High heterozygous index suggests that the population is healthy

Maps like these can be generated for

overall biodiversity or for the diversity of
particular population. It is used to
highlight areas that need protection and
provide a way of monitoring changes.

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Every species is a part of the complex system of interactions between the physical word and
other living organisms. We call this system ecology. Each species exists in a specific niche.
The niche occupied by an organism is its role in the community

Successful Adaptation
A successful species is well adapted, because it has characteristics that increase their
chances of survival and reproduction.

• Anatomical structure- the form and structure of the organism

• Physiological adaptation- the way the body of the organism works and include the
differences in bio chemical pathways or enzymes
• Behavioral adaptations- changes to programmed or instinctive behavior making
organisms better adapted for survival

Camels: The Ultimate Survivors

They live and breed in some of the hottest, driest
and most inhospitable niches available. Camels a
have huge range of anatomical, psychological and
behavioral adaptations, and the combination of all
of them means they are the ultimate survivors.

Some Anatomical Adaptations

• Good vision and eyes are protected by long
lashes from the sand
• Nostrils are large and slit-like and the camel can close them to protect against the
wind and sand
• The upper lip is split, hairy and sensitive
• A hump helps to insulate the animal from the heat of the sun
• Feet are large and flat with tough pads
• Tough pads on the knees prevent damage from the sand when camel rests

Some Physiological adaptations

Thermoregulation

• Supple skin is covered in fine hairs

• The camel can withstand a wide variation of internal body temperatures
• Camels can lose 30% of their body weight through water loss and then make it up in
10 minutes drinking water
• Camels have hump on the back where the mostly fatty tissue is found. Water is
produced as by-product of respiration

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Water balance
Camels has to survive without water for long periods of time

• Camel body tissue can withstand a loss of up to 30% of the body water without
damage
• The fat hump acts as energy store. 20kg of fat is 21kg of water
• Kidneys are adapted to produce very concentrated urine
• Camels can continue to produce dilute milk even when they are dehydrated

Some Behavioral Adaptations

• They sit down on the cool ground in the morning
• Camels orientate themselves towards the sun as little as possible
• They may lay down together to minimize the surface exposed to the sun
• They eat wide range of vegetation

A population is a group of individuals of the same species occupying a habitat and a

particular niche within the habitat. The habitat of an organism is the place where it lives and
includes both physical and biological elements of the surroundings. The niche of an organism
is its place within the ecosystem, including the habitat and its effects on other organisms.

• We take the unit of evolution and look at how the genetic composition of a
population evolves over time
• The sum of all the alleles in a population at a given time is called the gene pool
• Evolution can be considered as a permanent change in allele frequencies within a
population
• As the environment changes so the frequency of different alleles changes through
the process of natural selection and adaptation
o For example, when warfarin was introduced, some rats already carried a
mutation that, by a chance, gave them resistance to the poison. The poison
acted as powerful selection pressure
o Selection pressure occurs when a change occurs in environment
o Eventually, the majority of rats became resistant to warfarin and a new, more
powerful poisons had to be developed
• The frequency of an allele in the population is not correlated with whether it is
dominant ore recessive phenotype
p=dominant allele
q= recessive allele

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The Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium
The amount of change that takes place in the frequency of alleles in a population indicates
whether the population is stable or is evolving. It states that in population that is not
evolving, the allele frequencies in the population will remain stable from one generation to
the next if there are no evolutionary influences.

Condition for The Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium

• There are no mutations
• There is random mating
• The population is large
• The population is isolated
• There is no selection pressure
Upsetting the gene-pool equilibrium results in the formation of new species

• Speciation is the formation of new species

• Important factor in this process is reproductive isolation
• The two isolated populations experience different conditions, and this means that
different selection pressures act on the different populations
• Both the genotype and the phenotype of the isolated groups will change
• They can no longer successfully interbreed
• Speciation can also occur as a result of hybridization and this is particularly common
in plants
• Two closely related species may interbreed and form a fertile hydride
o May be better adapted to the niche

Isolating Mechanisms
Different populations of the species usually have to become reproductively slotted from
each other

• Geographic isolation: a physical barrier such as a river or a mountain range can

separate individuals from an original population

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 • Ecological isolation: two populations inhabit the same region but develop
preferences for different parts of the habitat
• Seasonal isolation: the timing of flowering or sexual receptiveness in some parts of a
population becomes different from usual timing for the group. This can eventually
lead to the group reproducing several months apart
• Behavioral isolation: changes occur in the courtship ritual, display or mating pattern
so that animals do not recognize others as being potential mating mates
• Mechanical isolation: a mutation occurs that changes the genitalia of animals, so
they can only mate successfully with some members of the group

Allopatric Speciation
• Occurs when population become physically or geography isolation

Adaptive Radiation
• Allopatric speciation is often followed by adaptive radiation
• It occurs when one species develops rapidly to form several different species

Sympatric Speciation
• Occurs between populations of a living in the same place that become reproductively
isolated by mechanical, behavioral or seasonal changes

Population Bottlenecks
• A large population is needed to maintain a large and diverse gene pool
• The size of a population may be dramatically reduced by an environmental disaster, a
new disease, or hunting humans→ population bottleneck

The Founder Effect

• Is the loss of genetic variation that occurs when a small number of individuals leave
the main population and set up a separate new population, producing a voluntary
population bottleneck.
• Any unusual genes in
the founder members
of the new population
may become more
frequent as the
population grows

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 • Every Individual contributes some
greenhouse gases to the atmosphere
• The pollution produced has a massive
effect on ecosystems all around the
world
• The extinction of species and loss of
biodiversity in many areas of the world
are clear examples of human influence
on a wide range of ecosystems
• Humans effects on ecosystems are many
and widespread.
o Global temperatures are rising
o High frequency of extreme weather event
▪ Many plants and animals will no longer survive
▪ Biological resources are being depleted and ecosystems destroyed, both
on land and in the oceans.
▪ Biodiversity is destroyed along with ecosystems

Conservation
It means keeping and protecting a living and changing environment

• Reclaiming land after industrial use

• Set up sustainable agriculture system
• Protection of a single threatened species
• Global legislation on pollution levels and greenhouse gas emissions

• Ex-situ conservation
o We can conserve them outside their natural habitat, in zoos or seed banks
• In-situ conservation
o Takes place in the natural habitat of the organism

Ex-situ conservation
• When organism is threated with extinction, there is no time to conserve their natural
habitat or protect them in situ
• At worst, this enables their genetic material to be conserved, and at best a breeding
enables their genetic material to be returned to their natural habitat

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Ex-situ Conservation of Plants
• Plants are vital importance to all our lives
• The genetic material of these extinct species would be lost forever
• This would be a disaster for the plants and possible for human survival
• A seed bank can preserve many plants in a state of effective suspended animation
• Seeds are usually small, so large numbers of them can be stored quite cheaply in a
small space.
• However, some seeds do not store well (many crop plants)
o They may be grown where they are found naturally, in field gene banks such
as plantations, orchards and arboretums or as tissue cultures
o Using tissue cultures to conserve plants and growing plants on as needed
takes up lot of space and time, and allows more variety to be conserved

Ex-situ conservation of Animals

• Zoos and wildlife parks used to exist just for people to look at the animals, but today
they are very important in animal conservation
o Captive breeding programs
• The ultimate attempt is to reintroduce the captive-bred animals into the wild to
restore the original populations

There are several problems with captive breeding and reintroduction programs:

• There is not enough space or sufficient resources

• It is difficult to provide right conditions for breeding
• Reintroduction may be unsuccessful
• Animals may have great problem adjusting
• Population may be small, the gene pool in reduced, and this can cause serious
problems
• It may be expensive and time consuming

Sustainability
• Habitats and ecosystems can be conserved with less conflict encouraging sustainable
methods of land use
• The soil is soon exhausted and biodiversity is lost
• If we harvest the trees selectively and replant, the biodiversity can be maintained
→sustainable forestry
• Sustainable agriculture includes farming methods that minimize damage to the
environment and avoid monoculture
o Use organic fertilizers
• It is important to get our priorities right

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The Importance of Education
People have to work hard to reduce pollution and support conservation programs. To help
them understand why it is important to conserve biodiversity they need to learn about:

• The impact of human activities on the natural world

• Ways in which people can act to protect animals, plants and habitats
When people learn about the damage they are doing to the environment, they often want to
change. Maintaining biodiversity is the major issue of 21st century

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