Download Ecosystem and Genetic Diversity

Ecosystem and Genetic Diversity
Remember that an ecosystem is a community of populations of different species plus their physical
environment that it lives in at a given time. Ecosystems can exist at any size, from a small tidal pool to the
entire polar region.
Ecosystem diversity depends on three things:
First: The physical characteristics of the environment. The physical characteristics of an
environment that affect ecosystem diversity include temperature, precipitation, and the structure
of the land itself. Therefore, there is a general trend for warmer, more tropical ecosystems to be
richer in the number of species.
Second: The number and diversity of the species present (remember “species richness”).
The more types of species that a certain ecosystem has, the more complex that ecosystem tends
to be.
Third: The interactions that those species have with each other and their environment.
Even though the physical environment determines what types of species can live there, species
in these areas can also modify the physical characteristics of the ecosystem they live in. For
example, coral polyps build extensive reef systems by secreting calcium. These coral reefs are
the basis for extensive ecosystems that can extend for thousands of miles, such as the Great
Barrier Reef.
Genetic diversity is the scientific driver of biodiversity.
In review, Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by means of Natural Selection is based
on the view that organisms that are more suited (physically or behaviorally) for their
environment have a better chance of surviving and reproducing than those that are not
(remember “survival of the fittest?”)
Individuals within the same species vary from one another. This causes some to have
different characteristics, either physical or behavioral, that may cause one to have a better
chance to survive as conditions in their ecosystem change.
This is why it is important for there to be diversity not only among the different species,
but within the species as well. If all the individuals of a species were identical in every way, and
there was an extreme change in the physical environment in which they couldn’t survive, this
would cause the extinction of that species.
By individuals within a species having genetic diversity, this increases their hope of
keeping the species alive with environmental changes. Thus, the individuals that can adapt have
the best chance of survival.