GEOG M109 Final: GeogM109FinalStudyGuide
Document Summary
Three fundamental levels of biodiversity and problems in understanding diversity. Biodiversity: the variability among living organisms from all sources including terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems, and the ecological complexes of which they are a part; this includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystem. Genetic diversity: variation between individuals and between populations within a species. Species diversity: different types of animals, plants and other life forms within a region. Ecosystem diversity: the variety of habitats found in an area. (1) no single measure of ecological community diversity can be uniformly applied to all ecosystems; (2) how the diversity affects the functioning of ecosystems is unknown; (3) genetic diversity is even less well understood, except for a handful species having direct importance to ecology. Human causes of loss of biodiversity (including islands, fragmentations). (1) the high rate of human population growth and natural resource construction; (2) a narrowing spectrum of products from agriculture, forestry and fishing;
