The Importance Of Species Diversity

Species diversity is characterised by the diversity within an ecological community (McGinley, 2014) that incorporates both the total number of species in a region and the degree to which the abundance of each of the species is similar; these concepts are termed species richness and species evenness respectively. The Simpson’s Index of Diversity is a measure of the biodiversity within a community and is derived the number of species and their relative abundances (Knox et al., 2014). The Simpson’s Index of Diversity score ranges from 0-1; the higher the score indicates a higher diversity.

Every forest has a story to tell. By looking closely at its habitants, that story can be interpreted. Much of this narrative is written in the trees: their age, their tolerance to shade, and the rate at which they grow are all characteristics that can imply a lot about their environment. Exploring these relationships and how they connect with each other can indicate the health and history of the land. Heiberg Forest, located in northern New York, was once used for agricultural purposes in the 1800-1900’s. (Nowak, Lecture Notes) Much of the land once used for farming was left to regrow back into a young forest. The life history of different tree species can be determined by examining the most common species in Heiberg.

Plants are found everywhere on earth, up high on the ridge and down low in caves and caverns. The types of plants that live in these places depends on many factors. These factors are separated into two different categories, the biotic factors and the abiotic factors. Some of the biotic factors include, predation, competition, and habitat destruction. Plants with limited competition and large amounts of resources will be in a higher abundance than plants with limited resources and higher competition rates will be confined to areas and either out competed or will be the dominant species. Certain plants adapt to these factors and thrive and others don’t do as well. Some of the abiotic factors include, sunlight, water, temperature, and wind. These

The purpose of this experiment is to observe secondary succession at Umass Dartmouth and test the prediction that diversity increases through ecological succession. Students went outside to the lawn underneath the wind mill on campus. 3 transect sites were located by the instructor. Students predicted the species and percent cover of each species on each trail site. Bar charts were made to compare the number of species in each transect. Pi-charts were made to compare the percent coverage of species in each transect.

In Idlewood, the open area was the second to least populous and had the least number of different species. While Tyler State park’s open area has the second to most diverse and populous recorded number of birds. The open area in Idlewood included a grassy field that was cultivated by humans for recreational reasons, but the open area in Tyler State Park included a farmland and the shrubs alongside of it which is the cause for the difference in population and diversity among the two areas. All habitats have limited space because of their boundaries (which were established in the classroom and can be found in the Field Study) but some habitats, such as the young forest, are able to provide more space for more species than other habitats, such as the wetlands. In regards to species diversity, Idlewood’s mature forest has the highest species diversity percentage at 8.52 because of the species: population ratio. Tyler State Park’s young forest has the highest species diversity percentage at 12.88 because it had a higher number of different species than the other

One advantage of sexual reproduction is that these organisms generally have greater genetic diversity. Organisms who reproduce asexually, on the other hand, are essentially clones of each other. This means that their predators can adapt to hunt them easily. The diversity of sexually reproducing organisms allows them to stay a step ahead of their predators because of their genetic variations and their ability to adapt via natural selection (Brockmyre 2015).

“Biological diversity is of fundamental importance to the functioning of all natural and human-engineered ecosystems, and by extension to the ecosystem services that nature provides free of charge to human society ”(Lloyd, 2014). Biodiversity is very important to both plants, animals and humans on Earth and if one species is destroyed it throw the balance off .

Biodiversity loss threatens to disrupt the function of ecosystems, with the potential of consequences for humans as well. Often this loss is measured by species extinction rates, but considerations should be made to include population diversity with measures including changes in size, number, distribution and genetic composition of population and potential implications those changes may have (Luck et al., 2003). Avise (2004) goes as far as to say biodiversity is genetic

Forest communities like Battle Park have different environmental factors within their area. On different slopes, depending on the direction it is facing, the soil and area could be wetter or drier. This study is looking to see if the north-facing and south-facing sites have differences in basal area, density, species richness, and diversity. Also, there may be some similarities in the area since both are from the same park.

Vegetation is a key factor in determining the structure of an ecosystem. It determines many ecological parameters within a plant community such as microclimate, energy budged, photosynthesis, water regimes, surface runoff and soil temperature (Tappeiner and Cernusca, 1996). Vegetation of an area varies from place to place according to habitat heterogeneity of the area itself. The description and classification of the plant community in an ecosystem is known as Phytosociology (Braun-Blanquet, 1932; Odum, 1971). It’s an important characteristic in describing vegetation that offers a preliminary picture of the ecological character of the vegetation (Kershaw, 1973). Each site of study

In Area 2, the species with the highest dominance value was the Oregon White Oak (70.6%). Oregon White Oaks provide shelter, housing, and food to various animals as well. Diversity of birds is often higher in Oregon White Oaks than in an adjacent coniferous forest. Using the dominance data, it tells us that at this moment in time Oregon Oak and

This pristine environment also provided habitat for great diversity of plants and wildlife. Hundreds of species of native plants thrived in forest, marsh, and meadow. But now, in scarcely a

Comparison of the species and their importance values in the sampled communities of the opposing sides of Coal Road clearly showed a dominant species in the burned region while a more shared community in the unburned region. In the burned region, chestnut oak dominated the area with an importance value of 157.84 compared to the rest of the tree species ranging from 11 to 49. On the other hand, in the unburned side the species were similarly distributed with chestnut oak and scarlet oak having the largest importance values of 58.67 and 53.40 respectively. However, the other tree species followed rather closely; mockernut hickory had an importance value of 37.67, blackgum had an importance value of 35.34, and the rest of the species’ importance values ranged from 10 to 25. Species diversity is usually characterized by an absence of a dominant species. This implicates the unburned side of Coal Road has greater diversity than the burned side. This differs from our hypothesis, as we predicted the prescribed fire region would produce more species diversity while the unburned side would exhibit less species

Diversity dependence depends on trophic cascades and the top down (natural enemies) or bottom up (resources available). Top down is the approach where species increase and so does peats and predators and as a result of increased pests the plant density decrease. Bottom up is the approach where the plant population increases, resources will run out, such as nutrients, water and light due to the competition of a higher populated area. The vegetable block would have higher nutrient contents due to added fertiliser during the season and low competition due to a lower plant population is shown by the higher percentage of bare ground demonstrated in figure two. This land area will also have a lower water due to tillage, which dries out the soil moisture. A resource that would be available in the woodland would be shade due to a highly populated area. As the smaller plant species would be in shade most of the time, it would result in a lower photosynthetic rate resulting in a slower development (Martins et al.,

Franck and Brownstone define biological diversity as 'the variety and variability of living organisms and the biological communities in which they live' (36). Decades of progress in both the scientific and political arenas have advanced environmental legislation to protect biodiversity at not only the ecosystem level, but for specific species and genetic material as well. Research has shown the importance of every organism and their role in the global ecosystem, and legislation has gradually matured to protect not only species which may become endangered, but the habitats they need to survive as well. Growing consciousness surrounding environmental issues has enabled these protections to be