Key Definitions.
Biodiversity: Variety amongst species and other biological elements such as alleles and gene complexes, populations, ecosystems, communities, landscapes, the biosphere and biogeographical regions.
Genetic Diversity: Variation of genes within a species.
Species Diversity/Richness: Variation of number and evenness of a species within a region.
Ecosystem Diversity: The broad range of ecosystems and types of habitats.
Levels of Organisation:
1. Atoms - the smallest unit of an element with the chemical properties. All matter is composed of this.
2. (Macro)/molecules - Atoms bond together to form molecules, many of these bonded to form a polymer are macromolecules (nucleic acids, macronutrients etc.)
3. Cells - (macro)/molecules associate with each other, forming larger structures such as membranes of a cell (the simplest unit of life), which is also composed of other varieties of (macro)molecules.
4. Tissues - In plants and animals, multiple cells associate with each other to form different types of tissue (e.g. muscle tissue).
5. Organs - Organs are composed of at least two different types of tissue in complex multicellular organisms. Examples are the nervous, connective and muscle tissue.
6. Organisms - Biologists classify organisms belong to a particular species each, species being a related group of organisms sharing a distinctive form and set of attributes in nature, all members of the species are closely related genetically.
7. Populations - Group of organisms of the same species occupying the same environment.
8. Communities - all of the populations of different species assembled, the special range being determined by the environment as well as the interactions between each species.
9. Ecosystems - the Interactions between communities of organisms and their physical environment.
10. Biosphere - Includes all of the places on earth where living organisms exist; the soil, air, oceans and land!
Crisis and Conservation:
- Species loss --> diminished biodiversity on all levels (genetic and local scales to global and regional ones) --> ecosystem complexity diminishes, so do the inter-relationships.
- There's an ethnic responsibility to conserve biodiversity as well as potential benefits from organisms to gain. Preserving essential services from ecosystems such as air and water is also crucial.
- The Linnean shortfall demonstrates how underestimated biodiversity loss is occurring even though there is little doubt how human activity has negatively impacted earth's life support systems leading to the current crisis.
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