Biodiversity in an ecosystem refers to all member species in an environment. Each member has an
important role to play within the ecosystem and the lack of any member can have negative consequences
for the whole. It also includes all the different habitats, biological communities, and ecological processes
within the ecosystem. Biodiversity enables an ecosystem to have the ability to prevent and recover from a
variety of disasters such as fire, disease, or major climate changes. Maintaining ecosystem biodiversity is
very important for many reasons. One reason for protecting biodiversity is because of the benefits to
humans such as resources that provide goods for human use like medicines, foods, and products for shelter.
Other important benefits to humankind include the production by healthy ecosystems of drinkable water,
clean air, and fertile soils. Predators that can help control pests and pollinators that are vital to agriculture
are yet another product of biodiverse ecosystems.
The Earth flag is not an official flag, since ther...
Northernmost natural population
Genetic diversityFinally, the primary reason that species become
endangered is due to the loss or alteration of their habitat or ecosystem. If biodiversity is threatened then
endangered species are threatened, possibly leading to extinction of a species.
Biodiversity can also refer to genetic diversity. Genetic diversity is all the different genes contained in
all the individual plants or animals, occurring within a species as well as between species. Preserving the
natural genetic variation that exists among the individuals of species is also very important. Without gentic
diversity an organism's ability to adapt to changes is compromised. Genetic diversity provides a natural
survival mechanism that breeds resistance to disease, avoidance of predation and adaptablity to
environmental stresses into future generations. For humans this means stronger and more vigorous food
crops and healthier livestock. Maintaining genetic diversity also means that a situation that is devastating
to one group might barely...