BIOL 103 Chapter Notes - Chapter 55: Inbreeding Depression, Overfishing, Speciation
25 Aug 2016
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Discuss the reasons for the current high rates of species extinction. Discuss efforts to protect and conserve biodiversity. Biodiversity is quantified at the level of allelic diversity and ecosystem diversity. 6th mass extinction in history of life is happening due to habitat loss, overexploitation and global climate change. Humans depend on biodiversity for the products that wild species provide and for ecosystem services that protect the quality of the abiotic environment. When biodiversity increases branches & tips are added to the tree of life & when extinction occurs tips and branches are removed. Biologists recognize and analyze biodiversity at 3 levels . Genetic diversity is total genetic information contained within all individuals of a species. Measured as the number and relative frequency of all alleles present in a species. No 2 members of the same species are genetically identical most species are repository of an immense array of alleles.
