Chapter 12- Biodiversity

Biodiversity

=The number of ecosystems and habitats in an area, the number of species within those ecosystems and the genetic variation within each species 

Species diversity

Different definitions of species:

• A group of organisms of common ancestry that interbreed to give rise to fertile offspring
• A group of organisms that share many physical features that distinguish them from others

Species diversity refers to the variety os species with an area. Taxonomic diversity is a common measurement of species diversity

Genetic diversity

Refers to the genetic variation within a species

Assessing genetic diversity:

• Genetic polymorphism (number of alleles for gene loci)
• Proportion of heterozygous for a gene locus
• Allele richness

Calculating the proportion of polymorphic gene loci:

• Genetic polymorphism is the existence of different alleles of a gene, where the rarest allele has a frequency of more than 1% or 5% (dependent on scientist judgement)
• Number of gene loci that are polymorphic/total of gene loci investigated

Habitat…