by Erica Jobman

Created on: September 11, 2009

An iridescent school of fish gliding through a coral reef; a flock of birds navigating by the moonlight's gleam; a horde of monkeys chattering from the safety of treetops; tiny yellow flowers beckoning to passing insects these are just a few of nature's glories the term biodiversity tries to encompass with one word.

A quick definition of biodiversity would be diversity among animals and plants in a given environment, but what does that mean? Life is pretty complex to be described with one mere word.

Biodiversity is a relatively new term that has come into existence when the public's concerns about the environment are at their highest. And so, biodiversity has many definitions. It also has many words associated with it that help us understand biodiversity's full spectrum.

Biologists think of biodiversity as dealing with the variety of life in all of its forms and levels of organization. Everything from complex humans, to the bacteria living in our mouths, to the very genes that make us up. Because of the enormous complexity that this entails, biologists define biodiversity in three different ways: genetic, species, and ecosystems.

Although the category is named for genetics, biologists do not value the actual gene. It is the diversity that they bestow upon a species the biologists prize. It is these different genes that give us the many breeds of dogs for instance, and this genetic diversity allows one dog to excel at herding livestock and another at guarding its home. Just think if there was only one breed of dog! As a rule of thumb, the larger the gene pool is, the better the biodiversity is because it allows a species to change and adapt.

Biodiversity is also explained by the number of different species in an environment. Many species are tightly connected to one another: what happens to one will affect the other, and sometimes in ways we don't fully understand.

For instance, there is an endangered bird called the Red Knot that makes a long migration north to feed on the eggs laid by the Horseshoe Crab. One of the reasons experts believe the Red Knot is declining is because the Horseshoe Crab is also declining. One thriving species became endangered because another had.

The third way biologists define biodiversity, is by ecosystems. An ecosystem is a group of organisms and the physical environment they interact with. A lake or a forest would be examples of an ecosystem. Ecosystems are essential because they protect biodiversity at all other levels.

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