Components to biodiversity

Question 1

What are the 3 components to biodiversity?

Answer 1

• genetic diversity
• species diversity
• ecosystem diversity

Question 2

Describe ‘genetic diversity’?

Answer 2

Genetic diversity is the number and
frequency of all the alleles within a
population.

If one population of a species dies out
then the species may have lost some of
its genetic diversity, and this may limit its
ability to adapt to changing conditions.

Question 3

Describe ‘species diversity’?

Answer 3

Species diversity comprises the number
of different species in an ecosystem (the
species richness) and the proportion of
each species in the ecosystem (the
relative abundance).

A community with a dominant species has
a lower species diversity than one with the
same species richness but no particularly
dominant species.

Question 4

Describe ‘ecosystem diversity’?

Answer 4

Ecosystem diversity refers to the number
of distinct ecosystems within a defined
area.