Lesson Overview

6.3 Biodiversity
21.8 Recognize the importance of biodiversity

The Value of Biodiversity

Why is biodiversity important?

Biodiversity’s benefits to society include contributions to

medicine and agriculture, and the provision of ecosystem
goods and services.

Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is the total of all the

genetically based variation in all organisms in the
biosphere.

Ecosystem diversity refers to the variety of habitats,

communities, and ecological processes in the biosphere.
 21.9 Identify current threats to biodiversity

Threats to Biodiversity
What are the most significant threats to biodiversity?

Humans reduce biodiversity by:

1. altering habitats,
2. hunting,
3. Development often splits ecosystems into pieces, a
process called habitat fragmentation
4. introducing invasive species,
5. releasing pollution into food webs, and
6. contributing to climate change.
21.10 Suggest methods to preserve biodiversity

Conserving Biodiversity

How do we preserve biodiversity?

To conserve biodiversity, we must:

1. protect individual species,
2. preserve habitats and ecosystems
3. make certain that human neighbors of protected areas
benefit from participating in conservation efforts.