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• Biodiversity


  Describes the variety of species in an ecosystem
• Higher variety of species in an ecosystem

  Higher biodiversity
• Factors of biodiversity


  • Species diversity
  • Genetic diversity
• Biodiversity


  • High biodiversity allows ecosystems to withstand stress and recover from disturbances
  • The more species there are, the more stress an ecosystem can handle
• Stresses on ecosystems


  • Climate change
  • Human activity
• Many species are at risk of dying out due to major stresses on ecosystems that are human-caused
• Stresses on ecosystems


  • Habitat Loss
  • Habitat Fragmentation
  • Invasive species
  • Pollution
• Once one species is impacted, the entire ecosystem gets disrupted
• Impact of high vs low biodiversity: Bees


  • If an ecosystem only had one bee species, if it were to disappear the pollination of many of the flowers might not occur
  • In an ecosystem with a variety of bee species, if one species is lost, there are still many others that can potentially pollinate the flowers
• Impact of high vs low biodiversity: Elm Trees

  • Some elm trees had a variation in their genes that gave them resistance to Dutch elm disease
  • Without this genetic variation, the North American species of tree would have become extinct
  • If a species has a high genetic variety, it is more likely to survive stresses from its environment
• High biodiversity


  High sustainability
• Less biodiversity


  Less sustainability
• High biodiversity means that an ecosystem has a great variety of genes and species to defend itself from the threat of environmental stresses