A Level Biology

Biodiversity within a
community

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Biodiversity
▪ Biodiversity can be defined as the degree of
variation of life forms in an ecosystem. This is
usually taken to include diversity in three levels:
1. The variation in ecosystems or habitats.
2. The number of different species in the
ecosystem and their relative abundance.
3. The genetic variation within each species.
▪ Some areas of the world have very high biodiversity.
▪ Examples of these include Congo basin in Africa,
South-East Asia, the Caribbean and Central
America, Amazonia and south-west Australia. These
areas have many endemic species- that is, species
that are only found in these areas and nowhere else.
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Species diversity
▪ The number of species in a community is
known as species richness. Species diversity
takes species richness into account, but also
includes a measure of the evenness of the
abundance of the different species. The more
species there are, and the more evenly the
number of organisms are distributed among
the different species, the greater the species
diversity.
▪ Species diversity is considered important
because ecosystems with high species
diversity tend to be more stable than the ones
with limited diversity; they are more able to
resist changes.
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Simpson’s index of diversity
When you have collected information about the abundance of the species in the area you
are studying, you can use your results to calculate a value for the species diversity in that
area. We can do this using Simpson’s index of diversity, d. one formula for this is:

Where n is the total number of organisms of a particular species, and N is the total
number of organisms of all species.
Values of d range from 0 to 1. A value near 0 represents a very low species diversity. A
value near 1 represents a very high species diversity. One advantage of this method is
that you do not need to identify all, or even any, of the organisms present to the level of
species. The higher the number we get for d, the greater the diversity.
Comparisons using this diversity index should be on a ‘like for like’ basis, so the
communities should be similar and the organisms chosen should also be similar. For
example, it should not be used to compare the diversity of fish in a lake with the diversity
of moths in a forest.
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Farming and biodiversity
Certain farming techniques reduce biodiversity.
a) Monoculture - if one type of plant is grown on
fields, it will support only a few organisms.
Single type of plant decreases biodiversity
directly.
b) Clearing woodlands - this is majorly done to
expand the area of farming. This will cause a
reduction in the number of trees or different
species of trees in a direct manner.
c) Removal of hedgerows - this is done to
increase the farmland area by converting
many small fields into a few larger ones.

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d) Pesticides - when chemicals
that kill pests which feed on
crops are used, it decreases
the biodiversity by killing
them directly. Other species
feeding on these pests will
also lose their source of food.
e) Herbicides - when using
chemicals to kill unwanted
plants like weeds, plant
biodiversity is reduced and
the organisms that feed on
them will also decrease.
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A healthy balance between farming and
biodiversity is essential for the conservation
of agriculture and nature.
Below are some examples of conservation
schemes.
 Providing legal protection for
endangered species.
 Creation of protected areas like AONBs
(Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty)
and SSSIs (Sites of Special Scientific
Interest).
 The Environmental Stewardship
Scheme to encourage biodiversity
conservation among farmers. A map of all AONBs in England, Wales and
Northern Ireland.
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Greystone Farm Nature Reserve. In the
meadows between Bourton-on-the-Water
and Wyck Rissington is Greystone Farm
Nature Reserve. The area is marked on
the OS map as Salmonsbury Meadows
Nature Reserve and is an SSSI.
Environmental Stewardship Scheme
Field margin near Hunter's Hill Farm
clearly showing the strips of different
planting between hedgerow and crop.
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