Biodiversity Key Terms

Taxonomy = theory of biological classification

• Taxa = groups
• Taxon = each group with a phylogenetic classification

Phylogenetics = classification of organisms based on evolutionary relationships

Species = a group of organisms that can breed together to produce offspring

Binomial name = a name with two parts

Biodiversity = the number and variety of living organisms in a certain area, has three components

• Species diversity = the number of different species and the number of individuals within any one community
• Genetic diversity = the variety of genes possessed by the individuals that make up the population of a species
• Ecosystem diversity = the range of different habitats, from a small location to the whole range of the earth

Species evenness = a comparison of the size of the population

Species richness = the number of different species on a particular area, the greater the number of species the richer the area

Habitat = the range of physical, biological and environmental factors within which a species can survive

Community = all the populations of all the species within a particular ecosystem

Index of diversity = a measurement of species diversity, the probability that two randomly selected individuals will belong to the same species

Gene pool = total number of alleles in a particular population at a specific time

Population = a group of individuals of the same species that live in the same place and can interbreed

Genome = the entirety of an organisms DNA nucleotide base sequence