Ecosystem and

biodiversity
Unit 3 Part 3
Biodiversity

 Biodiversity, a shortened form of Biological diversity, refers to the existence of

number of different species of plants and animals in an environment.
 Biodiversity is also defined as the existence of variability among living organisms
on the earth, including the variability within and between species, and within
and between ecosystems.
 The Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) of the United Nations gives a
formal definition of biodiversity in its Article 2: "Biological diversity means the
variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia,
terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes
of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species
and of ecosystems."
 The term biodiversity was coined in 1985.
Types of biodiversity

 There are the following three different types of biodiversity:

 Genetic Biodiversity
 Species Biodiversity
 Ecological Biodiversity
Genetic Biodiversity

 It refers to the variations among the genetic resources of the organisms.

 Every individual of a particular species differs from each other in their
genetic constitution.
 That is why every human looks different from each other.
 Similarly, there are different varieties in the same species of rice, wheat,
maize, barley, etc.
 Note - Genetics is the study of heredity, or how certain features pass from
parents to their offspring, or young. Every kind of plant and animal produces
young of its own species, or type.
Species Diversity

 Species diversity refers to the variety of different types of species found in a

particular area.
 It is the biodiversity at the most basic level.
 It includes all the species ranging from plants to different microorganism.
 No two individuals of the same species are exactly similar. For example,
humans show a lot of diversity among themselves. 
Ecological diversity 

 An ecosystem is a collection of living and non-living organisms and their

interaction with each other. Ecological biodiversity refers to the variations in
the plant and animal species living together and connected by food chains
and food webs.
 It is the diversity observed among the different ecosystems in a region.
Diversity in different ecosystems like deserts, rainforests, mangroves, etc.,
include ecological diversity.
Levels of biodiversity

 A variety of objective measures have been developed in order to measure

biodiversity empirically. Each measure of biodiversity relates to a particular
use of the data.
 Most commonly used indicators for measuring biodiversity
 Alpha biodiversity
 Beta biodiversity
 Gamma biodiversity
 Alpha Biodiversity
 Diversity within a particular area , community or ecosystem measured by
counting the number of taxa within the ecosystem usually species.
 Beta Biodiversity
 Diversity of species among various ecosystem . It involves comparing the
number of taxa that are unique to each of the ecosystem.
 Gamma Biodiversity
 It is the measurement of overall diversity for different ecosystem within a
region.
 Whittaker described following three common matrix to measure species
diversity
 Species richness
 Simpson index
 Shannon – wiener index
 Recently new index mean species abundance index (MSA) is used.
Value of biodiversity

 Biodiversity and its maintenance are very important for sustaining life on
earth.
 Few of the reasons explaining the importance of biodiversity are:
 Ecological Stability
 Economic Importance
 Ethical Importance
The value of biodiversity in various
fields like
 Agriculture
 Human health
 Business and industry
 Leisure, cultural and aesthetic value
 Other ecological services