Biodiversity

Rainforests are an example of biodiversity on the planet, and typically possess a great deal of species diversity. This is the Gambia River in Senegal's Niokolo-Koba National Park. Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions support fewer species. Rapid environmental changes typically cause mass extinctions. One estimate is that less than 1% of the species that have existed on Earth are extant.[1] Since life began on Earth, five major mass extinctions and several minor events have led to large and sudden drops in biodiversity. The Phanerozoic eon (the last 540 million years) marked a rapid growth in biodiversity via the Cambrian explosiona period during which nearly every phylum of multicellular organisms first appeared. The next 400 million years included repeated, massive biodiversity losses classified as mass extinction events. In the Carboniferous, rainforest collapse led to a great loss of plant and animal life.[2] The PermianTriassic extinction event, 251 million years ago, was the worst; vertebrate recovery took 30 million years.[3] The most recent, the CretaceousTertiary extinction event, occurred 65 million years ago, and has often attracted more attention than others because it resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs.[4] The period since the emergence of humans has displayed an ongoing biodiversity reduction and an accompanying loss of genetic diversity. Named the Holocene extinction, the reduction is caused primarily by human impacts, particularly habitat destruction. Conversely, biodiversity impacts human health in a number of ways, both positively and negatively.[5]

Bioaccumulation occurs within a trophic level, and is the increase in concentration of a substance in certain tissues of organisms' bodies due to absorption from food and the environment. Bioconcentration is defined as occurring when uptake from the water is greater than excretion (Landrum and Fisher, 1999)

Thus bioconcentration and bioaccumulation occur within an organism, and biomagnification occurs across trophic (food chain) levels. Biodilution is also a process that occurs to all trophic levels in an aquatic environment; it is the opposite of biomagnification, thus a pollutant gets smaller in concentration as it progresses up a food web. Lipid, (lipophilic) or fat soluble substances cannot be diluted, broken down, or excreted in urine, a waterbased medium, and so accumulate in fatty tissues of an organism if the organism lacks enzymes to degrade them. When eaten by another organism, fats are absorbed in the gut, carrying the substance, which then accumulates in the fats of the predator. Since at each level of the food chain there is a lot of energy loss, a predator must consume many prey, including all of their lipophilic substances. For example, though mercury is only present in small amounts in seawater, it is absorbed by algae (generally as methylmercury). It is efficiently absorbed, but only very slowly excreted by organisms (Croteau et al., 2005). Bioaccumulation and bioconcentration result in buildup in the adipose tissue of successive trophic levels: zooplankton, small nekton, larger fish etc. Anything which eats these fish also consumes the higher level of mercury the fish have accumulated. This process explains why predatory fish such as swordfish and sharks or birds like osprey and eagles have higher concentrations of mercury in their tissue than could be accounted for by direct exposure alone. For example, herring contains mercury at approximately 0.01 ppm and shark contains mercury at greater than 1 ppm (EPA 1997).

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There are several different factors that control the primary productivity of energy and biomass flow. Energy flow is the amount of energy that moves through a food chain. The energy input, or energy that enters the ecosystem, is measured in Joules or calories. Accordingly, the energy flow is also called calorific flow. In the study of energy flow, ecologists try to quantify the importance of different species and feeding relationships. The largest source of energy for an ecosystem is the sun. Energy that is not used in an ecosystem is eventually lost as heat. Energy and nutrients are passed around through the food chain, when one organism eats another organism. Any energy remaining in a dead organism is consumed by decomposers. Nutrients can be cycled through an ecosystem but energy is simply lost over time. An example of energy flow in an ecosystem would begin with the autotrophs that take energy from the sun. Herbivores then feed on the autotrophs and change the energy from the plant into energy that they can use. Carnivores subsequently feed on the herbivores and, finally, other carnivores prey on the carnivores. In each case, energy is passed on from one trophic level to the next trophic level and each time some energy is lost as heat into the environment. This is due to the fact that each organism must use some energy that they received from other organisms in order to survive. The top consumer of a food chain will be the organism that receives the least amount of energy. Hairston and Hairston (1993)^ , believe that there is a cause and effect relationship that results in any given trophic structure. Specifically, they state that it is trophic structure, rather than energetics that controls the amount of energy consumed at each trophic level and that "ecological efficiencies" are the product of a trophic structure, not a determining factor. Further, they state that trophic structure is instead the result of competition and predator-prey interactions. It is important to remember that many species may occupy each trophic level and are so subject to interspecific competition. This is especially true for producers, carnivores, and decomposers (Hairston, Smith, and Slobodkin, 1960)^ . An ecological pyramid (also trophic pyramid or energy pyramid) is a graphical representation designed to show the biomass or biomass productivity at each trophic level in a given ecosystem. Biomass is the amount of living or organic matter present in an organism. Biomass pyramids show how much biomass is present in the organisms at each trophic level, while productivity pyramids show the production or turnover in biomass. Ecological pyramids begin with producers on the bottom (such as plants) and proceed through the various trophic levels (such as herbivores that eat plants, then carnivores that eat herbivores, then carnivores that eat those carnivores, and so on). The highest level is the top of the food chain Species diversity is an index that incorporates the number of species in an area and also their relative abundance. It is a more comprehensive value than species richness.[1] The most common index of species diversity is a family of equations called Simpson's Diversity Index.[2] Here is one such example[1] D = (n / N)2 Where n is the total number of organisms of a particular species and N is the total number of organisms of all species. D is the value of diversity. It can range between 0 and 1, where 0 is infinite diversity, and 1 is the least diverse an ecosystem can possibly be (i.e. only one species present). Humans have a huge effect on species diversity; the main reasons are:

Destruction, modification and fragmentation of habitat Introduction of exotic species Overharvesting Global climate change

Categories: Genetic diversity, the level of biodiversity, refers to the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species. It is distinguished from genetic variability, which describes the tendency of genetic characteristics to vary. Genetic diversity serves as a way for populations to adapt to changing environments. With more variation, it is more likely that some individuals in a population will possess variations of alleles that are suited for the environment. Those individuals are more likely to survive to produce offspring bearing that allele. The population will continue for more generations because of the success of these individuals.[1] The academic field of population genetics includes several hypotheses and theories regarding genetic diversity. The neutral theory of evolution proposes that diversity is the result of the accumulation of neutral substitutions. Diversifying selection is the hypothesis that two subpopulations of a species live in different environments that select for different alleles at a particular locus. This may occur, for instance, if a species has a large range relative to the mobility of individuals within it. Frequency-dependent selection is the hypothesis that as alleles become more common, they become more vulnerable. This is often invoked in host-pathogen interactions, where a high frequency of a defensive allele among the host means that it is more likely that a pathogen will spread if it is able to overcome that allele.

Importance of genetic diversity

There are many different ways to measure genetic diversity. The modern causes for the loss of animal genetic diversity have also been studied and identified.[2][3] A 2007 study conducted by the National Science Foundation found that genetic diversity and biodiversity are dependent upon each otherthat diversity within a species is necessary to maintain diversity among species, and vice versa. According to the lead researcher in the study, Dr. Richard Lankau, "If any one type is removed from the system, the cycle can break down, and the community becomes dominated by a single species."[4] The interdependence between genetic and biological diversity is delicate. Changes in biological diversity lead to changes in the environment, leading to adaptation of the remaining species. Changes in genetic diversity, such as in loss of species, leads to a loss of biological diversity.[1] Ecosystem diversity refers to the diversity of a place at the level of ecosystems. The term differs from biodiversity, which refers to variation in species rather than ecosystems. Ecosystem diversity can also refer to the variety of ecosystems present in a biosphere, the variety of species and ecological processes that occur in different physical settings.

Examples
Some examples of ecosystems that are rich in diversity are:

Deserts Forests Large marine ecosystems Marine ecosystems Old growth forests Rainforests Tundra

Coral Reefs

Ecosystem diversity refers to the diversity of a place at the level of ecosystems. The term differs from biodiversity, which refers to variation in species rather than ecosystems. Ecosystem diversity can also refer to the variety of ecosystems present in a biosphere, the variety of species and ecological processes that occur in different physical settings.

[edit] Examples
Some examples of ecosystems that are rich in diversity are:

Deserts Forests Large marine ecosystems Marine ecosystems Old growth forests Rainforests Tundra

Coral ReefsDDT (from its trivial name, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) is one of the most well-known

synthetic insecticides. It is a chemical with a long, unique, and controversial history. First synthesized in 1874, DDT's insecticidal properties were not discovered until 1939, and it was used with great success in the second half of World War II to control malaria and typhus among civilians and troops. The Swiss chemist Paul Hermann Mller was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1948 "for his discovery of the high efficiency of DDT as a contact poison against several arthropods."[2] After the war, DDT was made available for use as an agricultural insecticide, and soon its production and use skyrocketed.[3] In 1962, Silent Spring by American biologist Rachel Carson was published. The book catalogued the environmental impacts of the indiscriminate spraying of DDT in the US and questioned the logic of releasing large amounts of chemicals into the environment without fully understanding their effects on ecology or human health. The book suggested that DDT and other pesticides may cause cancer and that their agricultural use was a threat to wildlife, particularly birds. Its publication was one of the signature events in the birth of the environmental movement, and resulted in a large public outcry that eventually led to DDT being banned in the US in 1972.[4] DDT was subsequently banned for agricultural use worldwide under the Stockholm Convention, but its limited use in disease vector control continues to this day and remains controversial.[5][6] Along with the passage of the Endangered Species Act, the US ban on DDT is cited by scientists as a major factor in the comeback of the bald eagle, the national bird of the United States, from near-extinction in the contiguous US