Chapter 6: The Living World: Biodiversity

Genetic diversity

Diversity within a species. Example: unless you are a twin you look different than all other humans on the planet.

Species diversity

Number of species and abundance in a community. Example: the bears, rabbits, toads, ferns, and oak trees in an area.

Habitat diversity

How many different habitats are in a region. Example: tropical rain forest, tropical dry forest, grasslands.

Population bottleneck

A population that has been reduced because of an environmental event. Ecosystems with many different species are more likely to recover from an environmental event than ecosystems with fewer species.

Species richness

The number of species per sample. The more species present in a sample, the “richer” the sample.

Provisioning service

Ecosystem services that give humans what they need to survive, like food and clean water

Regulating service

Ecosystem services that indirectly benefit humans, such as plants cleaning the air and bees pollinating plants

Cultural service

Ecosystem services that provide humans beauty, art, and enjoyment

Supporting service

Ecosystem services such as producing oxygen, water cycling, and other services that support human life

Island biogeography

Study of the species and distribution that would occur on islands. There are usually more species on islands closer to the mainland (more migration from the mainland) and larger islands that can hold more species.

Specialists

Organisms that require specific habitats, food, etc., like a koala

Generalists

Organisms that can live in many places and eat many things, like a cockroach

Ecological tolerance

The total range of conditions organisms can live in. Each species has its own ecological tolerance before it dies.

Adaptations

Biological and behavioral ways organisms adapt over time to survive

Primary succession

Bare rock, such as after a volcanic eruption, over time becomes a climax community. Moss or lichen usually inhabit first, break down rock to make soil, and afterward larger and larger plants move in. This is a slow process.

Secondary succession

After a fire or flood destroys the habitat, but the soil remains. Over time it becomes a climax community as new plants begin move in. This is faster than primary succession.

Keystone species

Species that many other species depend on

Indicator species

Species that indicate an environmental problem

Pioneer members

First members into an area after a fire, etc

Climax community

The stable stage of the environment after a disruption

Provisioning

services like food and clean water

Regulating

services like plants cleaning the air, bees pollinating flowers, plants holding soil in place to prevent erosion, or the regulation of climate by natural processes

Cultural

Services that are not tangible things that benefit us but rather interactions with nature, such as taking a walk and enjoying what you see or art that comes from looking at nature, and so on

Supporting

These are harder to understand but are the ecosystem services that support all other others, such as producing oxygen, water cycling, and so on

Periodic

This is a change that occurs at regular intervals, for example, the tides that comes in every day at a predictable time

Episodic

This means it happens in irregular intervals. It repeats but irregularly, for example, El Niño and La Niña

Random

This is something that is totally random and can’t be guaranteed to repeat. It might happen once or multiple times, for example, a meteor striking the Earth