YOU ARE LEARNING:
What Is Biodiversity?
What Is Biodiversity?
A stable, healthy ecosystem is one that is biodiverse. Biodiversity is important for every organism on Earth, however the impact of the ever-growing human population threatens global biodiversity.
If for example a city's population is very diverse, it means that there is a lot of ______________ between the people that live in it.
So diversity means variety. Which one of these ecosystems do you think has higher biodiversity, then? Answer A or B.
So biodiversity refers to...
A) the number of individuals in a species. B) the variety of species in an ecosystem. C) the variation between individuals within a species.
High biodiversity leads to a stable ecosystem
There are a few reasons for this.
The foxes in this ecosystem eat squirrels. What do they do if one day there are no squirrels anymore?
A) They start to eat rabbits. B) They become vegetarians. C) They starve or leave.
The foxes in this ecosystem eat squirrels and rabbits. What do these foxes do if one day there are no squirrels?
A) They eat more rabbits. B) They start to eat fish. C) They starve or leave.
So ecosystems with higher biodiversity offer more food options
If there are more animals or plants that you can eat in the ecosystem, it's not a catastrophe if one of those options is one day unavailable. You can just eat one of the other things in your diet.
Apart from offering more food options, how else do you think high biodiversity leads to a stable ecosystem?
To recap! What does biodiversity mean?
Biodiversity refers to the variety of species (animals, plants and microorganisms) within an ecosystem.
High biodiversity is important for ecosystems
It means that the ecosystem can offer more food and shelter options for the species that live in it.
Food options
If you favourite food is unavailable that day, you can just eat something else. You don't have to starve or leave the ecosystem.
Shelter options
If you favourite resting place is occupied by someone else, you can just go and sleep elsewhere. You don't have to leave the ecosystem.
Finally!
Ecosystems with high biodiversity are also well maintained because of the rich culture of microorganisms (for example bacteria) that live in them and clean up dead animals and plants.
Now, how do you think humans have impacted biodiversity around the world?
Pick all the options you think are examples of what humans have done that has damaged biodiversity.
You can select multiple answers
Summary!
Biodiversity refers to the variety of species (animals, plants and microorganisms) within an ecosystem.
High biodiversity leads to stable ecosystems
Ecosystems with high biodiversity offer more food and shelter options and they are better maintained by microorganisms.
Humans have caused a lot of damage to biodiversity
For hundreds of years, we have cut down trees, dumped waste, excessively hunted animals and taken away land from animals and plants to use for living or agriculture.
But it's not all bad!
In recent years, humans around the world have started looking very carefully at what we can do to reverse some of the damage we have caused to ecosystems.