Biodiversity is the measure of health in biological systems that consists of many millions of biological species which have evolved over billions of years. Everywhere from Earth’s luscious green forests to Earth‘s hot and dry deserts biodiversity has a major impact on all of our every day lives. A simple way to put this would be a variation of life at all levels of biological organization. There are several ways to measure biodiversity, ways to show the evolution and distribution of biodiversity, and there are many benefits of biodiversity.

Biodiversity is a extremely broad concept so a large number of measures have been created to measure it. There are three ways in which ecologists judge biodiversity : alpha diversity, beta diversity, and gamma diversity.

Alpha Diversity refers to a statistical diversity within a particular area, community, or ecosystem. This is measured by counting the number of taxa which is a grouping of organisms (given a formal name such as species or family) within the ecosystem. Such estimates of species samples, however, are strongly influenced by size. For this, a number of statistical techniques are used to increase accuracy in sample size and regional sizes.

Beta diversity is a species diversity between ecosystems. Beta diversity involves comparing the number of groups or organisms that are given a formal taxonomic name in which certain groups or taxa would be specifically unique to a single ecosystem. Beta diversity is a measure of the rate of change in a species’ balance in a single ecosystem which can pass an idea of the rate at which the environment is experiencing change. This works only by comparing the species diversity between ecosystems.

While Alpha and Beta diversity focus on smaller regions and communities, gamma diversity focuses on a much broader range of areas and regions. Gamma diversity is a measure of the overall diversity for different ecosystems within larger areas or regions.

Biodiversity on today’s earth is part of many billions of years of evolution. There is no known origin of life but it is widely believed that life on earth started from single-celled organisms. It was only until about six hundred million years ago had single-celled organisms shown evolution. For the next four hundred and fifty years of life on earth evolution was quite minor as single-celled organisms become primitive multi-celled organisms.

In the last couple million years biodiversity shown dramatic surges in growth. This is arguable though because most, if not all, records are dramatically inaccurate showing a range that can span over one hundred million years. The first explosion of life is believed to have been between some thirteen and fourteen million years ago, in which between two and one hundred million new species had evolved. Most biologists agree that the period since the emergence of humans is part of a new mass extinction caused mostly by the impact humans had on the environment. Today’s rate of extinction may eliminate a vast majority of today’s diverse species on Earth within one hundred years. An average rate between five and ten thousand new species are discovered each year, though, most being insects; many of which are not classified. Most all regions of high biodiversity arise from extremely specialized areas which require unusual adaptation. The widest range of biodiversity is being found in tropical locations around the equator. A great example of biodiversity in a tropical environment can be found in the Galapagos Islands, where Charles Darwin developed his theories of natural selection explaining evolution

The Galapagos Island, are arguably the host of the most diverse forms of life in the world. This may be because the Galapagos Islands also hold host to the second largest marine conservational environment in the world; spanning nearly forty-four thousand square miles. On a set of islands that cover only four thousand and forty-three square miles, the Galapagos Islands lay home to over thirteen hundred separate species. A little over six hundred being animals and over seven hundred being plants on the land, not including marine life. These numbers continue to grow.

Diversity depends on climate, altitude, soil, and presence of other species. The most wide range of biodiversity is seen in geographical hotspots. These hot spots are normally forests, near the equator, or in the tropics. Two other great examples of extremely diverse lands are the Madagascar Islands and the Atlantic Forest. The Atlantic Forest contains millions of different species, ranging from about twenty thousand plants, thirteen hundred vertebrates, and millions of insects; a vast majority of which can be seen no where else in the world. And the Madagascar Islands separated from mainland Africa, most of the species have evolved independently. This has produced species slightly different from those of the same family, in other parts of Africa.

Wouldn’t you get bored if you had to eat the same vegetables every meal? How about when you got sick and there was no medicine to cure you? What about cotton, silk, and wool used to make clothing? What would mankind do without such an array of resources?

Human life would not be the same today, if earth did not have such a wide range of biodiversity. Food, medicines, and raw materials may not be held in a way they can be today if it was not for earth diversity. It is because of Earth’s biodiversity we are blessed with a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and meats. Economically, the biodiversity of earth gives a huge impact. Crops such as rice and corn have supplied humans with both food and trade. Without many of the agricultural diversity in which we can use to our advantage, the world could be thrown into a famine. Most of the human food supply comes from only twenty kinds of plants; humans use about forty thousand types of plants and animals for food every day.

On top of the great amount of food supplied by Earth’s biodiversity, we are supplied medications as well. Nearly forty percent of all medications used in the United States are found in plants, animals, and microorganisms. This is so, even though a great amount of the known populous of plants has not been researched thoroughly for medicinal use. Raw materials are also part of our great world’s biodiversity. What would you do without oil? You think today’s gas prices are horrible, but what if there was no oil to begin with. A wide range of widely used natural materials are created in areas of just right biodiversity. Some of which include rubbers(not condoms you pervert!), dyes, oil, fibers such as cotton and silk, and many building materials.

Biodiversity has many effects on the earth and its ecosystems. Without a great diversity in our ecosystem the looks about our medications, foods, and raw materials would be extremely different. Thanks to Earth’s great biodiversity we live our life’s the way we see them as today. It is important to maintain a biodiversity in which each species, no matter the size of the role, plays an important part in maintaining biodiversity. Doing so gives that ability to prevent a breakdown in the food chain. The larger the number of plant plays directly with the variety of crops, and a balance of species of animals allows for a sustained ecosystem. Even though we are on the top of the food chain and control this planet, it is extremely important to preserve the diversity of our ecosystem. If humans were the only species on the food chain it wouldn’t matter if we had nothing below us giving support in maintaining diversity of Earth.

Sorry I couldn’t give you anymore input during the review but it turned out pretty well.  It was a little short, but it had good flow.  You could have mentioned what can be done to solve the problem to make your essay longer and more informative. Some grammar mistakes throughout the reflection paragraph and cover sheet, posted below.  But overall good essay, I enjoyed reading it.

Reflection Paragraph

Again, I did not really receiver much information/feedback on my essay but I fixed all the grammatical error and then I fixed up what Lauren and Scott “thought” (you don’t have to change your essay, I was just giving you input) was wrong with my essay. I believe that all together the input that I did receive made for a better essay! Scott helped with my closing paragraph and Lauren helped my fix the formation of my essay and helped me spice up my opening paragraph. Thanks ladies and gentlemen for the help and your input.

Cover Sheet

-Upon reviewing your completed composition (and process), what aspect of your work (or it's process) most surprised you?

I thought that writing this would be a chore but I was surprised that I kind of enjoyed writing on this subject. I also surprised that I was not critiqued as much as I thought I would be(I don't know if that is good or bad).

             4                                      5                                        4                                  5                                  5                                                 23/25

Graded by Scott