Researchers generally
accept three levels of biodiversity:1- genetic Biodiversity., 2-species Biodiversity., and 3-ecosystem Biodiversity.
These levels are all interrelated yet distinct enough that they can be
studied as three separate components. Some researchers believe that there
are fewer or more levels than these, but the consensus is that three levels
is a good number to work with. Most studies, either theoretical or experimental,
focus on the species level, as it is the easiest to work on both conceptually
and in practice. The following parts will cover all levels of diversity,
though examples will generally use the species level.
1- Genetic
diversity is the variety present at the level of genes. Genes, made of
DNA (right), are the building blocks that determine how an organism will
develop and what its traits and abilities will be. This level of diversity
can differ by alleles (different variants of the same gene, such as blue
or brown eyes), by entire genes (which determine traits, such as the ability
to metabolize a particular substance), or by units larger than genes such
as chromosomal structure.
Genetic diversity can be measured
at many different levels, including population, species, community, and biome. Which level is used depends upon what is being examined and why,
but genetic diversity is important at each of these levels.
2- Species Diversity. Species are well known and
are distinct units of diversity. Each species can be considered to have
a particular "role" in the ecosystem, so the addition or loss of single
species may have consequences for the system as a whole. Conservation
efforts often begin with the recognition that a species is endangered
in some way, and a change in the number of species in an ecosystem is
a readily obtainable and easily comprehensible measure of how healthy
the ecosystem is. Biodiversity studies typically
focus on species. They do so not because species diversity is more important
than the other two
3-Ecosystems Diversity: Ecosystem-level
theory deals with species distributions and community patterns, the role
and function of key species, and combines species functions and interactions.
The term "ecosystem" here represents all levels greater than species:
associations, communities, ecosystems, and the like. Different names are
used for this level and it is sometimes divided into several different
levels, such as community and ecosystem levels; all these levels are included
in this overview. This is the least-understood level of the three described
here due to the complexity of the interactions. Trying to understand all
the species in an ecosystem and how they affect each other and their surroundings
while at the same time being affected themselves, is extremely complex.
One of the difficulties in
examining communities is that the transitions between them are usually
not very sharp. A lake may have a very sharp boundary between it and the
deciduous forest it is in, but the deciduous forest will shift much more
gradually to grasslands or to a coniferous forest. This lack of sharp
boundaries is known as "open communities" (as opposed to "closed communities,"
which would have sudden transitions) and makes studying ecosystems difficult,
since even defining and delimiting them can be problematic.
Some researchers think of
communities as simply the sum of their species and processes, and don't
think that any of the properties found in communities are special to that
level. Many others disagree, claiming that many of the characteristics
of communities are unique and cannot be extrapolated from the species
level. Examples of these characteristics include the levels of the food
chain and the species at each of those levels, guilds (species in a community
that are functionally similar), and other interactions.
No comments:
Post a Comment