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14 - Biological diversity

from Part VI - Broad patterns in nature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Peter W. Price
Affiliation:
Northern Arizona University
Robert F. Denno
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
Micky D. Eubanks
Affiliation:
Texas A & M University
Deborah L. Finke
Affiliation:
University of Missouri, Columbia
Ian Kaplan
Affiliation:
Purdue University, Indiana
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Summary

Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is the number and variety of species and other taxa in any locality, ecosystem, region or the biosphere. The commonest measure of biodiversity is the number of species present in the area of interest. Species number, species richness and species diversity are used almost interchangeably in the ecological literature, although diversity may be employed when considering both the species number and their abundances in a sample (see below) (Calow 1998, 1999).

Learning how many species there are in a particular locality has formed a major basis of enquiry in ecology. Once descriptive data are available another basic question becomes why numbers of species differ in different localities, on different plant species, or in different lakes? With increasing knowledge we can begin to ask questions about the total number of species on this earth, and on the patterns of their distribution in space and time. Thus, the subject of biological diversity reaches the local, to regional, to global scale, encompassing species richness in component communities to the biogeography of species and interactions among species and the physical environment.

Type
Chapter
Information
Insect Ecology
Behavior, Populations and Communities
, pp. 537 - 582
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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References

Foottit, R. G. Adler, P. H. 2009 Insect Biodiversity: Science and Society Oxford Blackwell
Hawkins, B. A. Field, R. Cornell, H. V. 2003 Energy, water, and broad-scale geographic patterns of species richness Ecology 84 3105 Google Scholar
Ricklefs, R. E. Schluter, D. 1993 Species Diversity in Ecological Communities: Historical and Geographic Perspectives Chicago University of Chicago Press
Rosenzweig, M. L. 1995 Species Diversity in Space and Time Cambridge Cambridge University Press
Smith, M. A. Rodriguez, J. J. Whitfield, J. B. 2008 Extreme diversity of tropical parasitoid wasps exposed by iterative integration of natural history, DNA barcoding, morphology, and collections P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105 12 359 Google Scholar

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