Biodiversity measurements
There are three measurable components of biodiversity:
- genetic diversity
- species diversity
- ecosystem diversity
Genetic diversity
Genetic diversity relates to genetic variation of the number and frequency of alleles of a specific gene, as the image below illustrates.
This image demonstrates genetic diversity. The different coloured circles represent different alleles in the population. From this the number and frequency of alleles determines the genetic diversity of the population.
If one population of a species dies out then the species may lose some of its genetic diversity. This may impact the species ability to adapt to changing conditions.
Species diversity
Species diversity is made up of two factors - the number of different species in an ecosystem and the proportion of each species in the ecosystem.
These represent the richness of the species and the relative abundance respectively. When a dominant species is present in a community it will have a lower species diversity than a community with the same species richness and no particularly dominant species.
Ecosystem
Ecosystem diversity is the number of distinct ecosystems in a defined area.
Biodiversity measurements can be used to monitor ecosystem change and for conservationists to decide on species to support.