1. Patterns, Practicality & Preservation
BIODIVERSITY
Patterns, Practicality
&
Preservation

2. LEVELS OF DIVERSITY
GENETIC

3. LEVELS OF DIVERSITY
SPECIES

4. LEVELS OF DIVERSITY
ECOSYSTEM

5. How many species are there on Earth?
Formally described (means written up in a scientific publication, identified as new and placed in a taxonomic category):
1,750,000 (roughly)
Estimates for the real number?

7. How estimate??

8. How estimate?? Explore new areas and collect organisms
What fraction of the collected organisms are new?
If low, eg, 2 of 100 insect specimens are new to science, then estimate that most of the insects in that area are already known.
If high, eg 44 of 100 insect specimens are new to science, then estimate that many new species are waiting to be discovered and estimate of total insect species in the area must be high

9. Arachnophobia

11. 70 percent of the world's species are in 12 countries:
Australia, Brazil, China, Columbia, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mexico, Peru, and Zaire.

12. A species is all individuals that can interbreed freely in nature and produce fertile offspring.

13. Richness vs. evenness
Species richness: the overall number of species in a defined area
Species evenness: Uniformity of abundance. Also called ``equitability’’
Greatest when all species present are equally abundant

14. Measuring biodiversity
D =Sum (n / N)2
n= number of individuals of a particular species
N= number of indivduals of all species
Simpsons index of diversity = 1-D
(D measures the probability that two individuals selected from a sample belong to the same species)

16. Where are the species?

17. Where are the species? Peru: 1,804 spp birds US, Canada, Europe:

18. Where are the species?
One hectare of Amazon rain forest (about the size of a standard football field):
More tree species than are found in all of Europe
Amazon: > 750 spp in a single hectare
North America: about 1,000 species
Europe: < 800 spp.

19. Benefits of biodiversity?

20. Why are species endangered?

21. Why are species endangered?
habitat loss
Rangeland in the Amazon, still smoldering after being cut and burned

25. Why are species endangered?
Invasives