2.1 Biodiversity
^^Biodiversity:^^ variety of life on earth
Three Scales of Biodiversity
Genetic Diversity: Genetic variation among individuals in a population
Species Diversity: The number of
species in a region or habitat (in a
community or ecosystem)- A species can interbreed and produce viable offspring.
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