Earth Sciences 2240F/G Chapter Notes - Chapter Unit 4: Extinction Event, Ordovician, Geologic Time Scale
16 Dec 2017
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Species: a group of organisms capable of interbreeding to produce fertile offspring, and separated from other such groups which interbreeding does not normally occur. Biodiversity: variation of life forms within a given ecosystem or even on the entire earth. Biodiversity is often quoted in a discussion of the health of an ecosystem. As you might expect biodiversity in desert regions (cold ones, such as arctic or hot ones such as the sahara) is very limited when compared to that of the tropics. Any rapid environmental change in regions of limited biodiversity will likely promote species extinction. Extinction: the end of an organism or group. The moment of death of the last individual marks the extinction, but because this is virtually impossible to determine, we define that last death by projection of population decline o. Background extinctions: extinctions caused by moderate environmental changes or normal biological interactions these are occurring routinely all the time.
