2.1 Biodiversity

^^Biodiversity:^^ variety of life on earth

Three Scales of Biodiversity

1. $Genetic Diversity:$ Genetic variation among individuals in a population
2. $Species Diversity:$ The number of    species in a region or habitat (in a    community or ecosystem)

1. A species can interbreed and produce viable offspring.
   3. $Habitat/ Ecosystem Diversity:$ The variety of habitats that exist within a given region

Environmental Stressors

• Physical Stress (natural disasters)
• Wildfires
• Pollution
• Thermal stress
• Radiation
• Climatic (light, temperature)
• Biological (predation, competition, parasitism, lack of mates)

^^Bottleneck Effect:^^ A drastic and sudden reduction in the size of a population leads to a change in the gene pool

• Can be natural or anthropogenic

^^Generalist species:^^ can live under a wide range of biotic/abiotic conditions

^^Specialists species:^^ live under a very narrow range of conditions or feed on one or a very small group of species

^^Species Richness:^^ # of total species

^^Species Evenness:^^ abundance of individuals within each species