COURSE: INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

LECTURE 8: An Introduction to
Biodiversity and Conservation

Dr. Saida Aliyeva

Fulbright Alumni
saaliyeva@ada.edu.az

11.09.2023
 Biodiversity
• The word biodiversity is a
contraction of the phrase
"biological diversity"
• It was first coined in 1985 by
Walter Rosen of the National
Research Council as a title
word in a seminar he was
organizing to discuss biological
diversity.

Biodiversity is a measure of the diversity of life

forms on Earth.
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 Scales of biodiversity

• SPECIES
• GENETIC
• ECOSYSTEM

Species diversity is often used as an

environmental indicator for the health of
ecosystems!
 Levels of biodiversity
• Species diversity - biodiversity covers
the full range of species on earth.

• Genetic diversity - genetic variation

within species, both among individuals
of same population and among
geographically separated populations.

• Ecosystem diversity describes the

variety of communities or habitats that
exist in the geographical communities.

Ecosystem diversity is much harder to measure

because the boundaries of many communities or
habitats are not usually fixed like that of a pond, but
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-kx2MWFCpU&feature=em
rather they gradually change from one type to another
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over a transition zone.
 Species diversity
• To date, a total of 1.3 million species have been
identified and described.
• The most accurate census, conducted by the
Hawaii’s University estimates that a total of 8.7
million species live on the planet.
• If we take this figure as good, it means that we have
described only 15% of all the organisms that live on
Earth.
• To be more precise, we still have 86% of the
terrestrial species to be described and 91% of the
marine species.
• Species diversity is often used as an environmental
indicator for the health of ecosystems.
• Why?
 Genetic diversity
• Genetic diversity is a measure of genetic variation
among individuals in a population. Populations
with higher genetic diversity are better able to
respond to environmental changes.
• Gene pool is a complete set of genetic
information within a population of a given
species or within species itself.
• The higher the gene pool the greater the genetic
diversity.
• What happens when gene pool is much smaller?
– Genetic make-up becomes more uniform.
– Disabilities that same individuals might be carrying in
their genetic information become expressed or appear in
the population more frequently and this is known as
inbreeding.
• Preserving genetic diversity ensures the continuing
existence of a wide-range of crops that may be
able to withstand disease.
 Natural Selection vs Genetic drift Bottleneck effect, and
founder effect
• Natural Selection – change in heritable
traits of population over generations.
• Genetic drift – random changes (more
likely with small populations).

– Bottleneck effect, disaster strikes,

an ecosystem can change very
quickly, and an event causes a
drastic decreases in a population.

– Founder effect, In population

genetics, the founder effect is the
loss of genetic variation that occurs
when a new population is
established by a very small number
of individuals from a larger
population.
 Ecosystem diversity
• Same ecosystems in different
location consist of different
species
• There are complex webs of
interactions among the species
that make each type of
ecosystem unique.
• There are also webs of
interactions among ecosystems
themselves.
• A greater number of healthy and
productive ecosystems means a
healthier environment overall.
 Richness and Evenness of Biodiversity
• Mathematically the two components of
biodiversity are
– Richness is measure of how many organisms
exist in a given area.
– Evenness is measures whether each species in a
community is represented by about the same
number of individuals, or whether one or two
species have very large populations and other
species have smaller populations.
 Measuring biodiversity
• Alpha Diversity = richness and evenness of individuals within a habitat unit. For example
in the figure below, Alpha Diversity of Site A = 7 species, Site B = 5 species, Site C = 7
species. Compare number of species in different communities.
• Beta Diversity = expression of diversity between habitats. In the example below, the
greatest Beta Diversity is observed between Site A and C with 10 species that differ
between them and only 2 species in common. Changes in species composition.
• Gamma Diversity = landscape diversity or diversity of habitats within a landscape or
region. In this example, the gamma diversity is 3 habitats with 12 species total diversity.
Species turnover rate with distance between sites of similar habitat or with expanding
geographical area.
 Biodiversity Hotspot
• is a biogeographic region that is both a significant reservoir of biodiversity and is
threatened with destruction.
• An area is designated as a hotspot when it contains at least 0.5% of species as endemic
• The term biodiversity hotspot specifically refers to 25 biologically rich areas around the
world that have lost most of their original habitat.
• A biogeographic region which has lost at least 70% of its original habitat yet contains at
least 1500 endemic species of vascular plants.
• Hotspot covers 2% of earth and contents 50%of terrestrial biodiversity.
 Biological Conservation
• Saving life on Earth in all its forms and keeping
natural ecosystems functional and healthy.

• In-situ conservation
• Ex-situ conservation

https://www.calacademy.org/explore-science/studying-biodiversity-in-the-lab
 Genebanks
• Genebanks are technical facilities, where plants
(either as seeds, or as plantlets in test tubes) are
catalogued, conserved for the long term, and
made available to scientists for breeding more
nutritious, productive, and resilient varieties.

The Alliance's Genebanks: Teaser

https://youtu.be/RFEY9cU-_dI