Advertisements
Advertisements
Question
How is biodiversity important for ecosystem functioning?
Advertisements
Solution
- For the stability of ecosystems: A diverse ecosystem utilizes natural resources (like sunlight, water, and soil nutrients) more efficiently because different species have different needs. This maximising of resources leads to greater overall plant growth and energy production.
- For higher productivity: High biodiversity acts as an insurance policy. If a disease or climate disaster affects one species, other resilient species can step in to perform the same ecological role, preventing the entire system from collapsing.
APPEARS IN
RELATED QUESTIONS
What characteristics make a community stable?
According to David Tilman, greater the diversity, greater is the primary productivity. Can you think of a very low diversity man-made ecosystem that has high productivity?
Elaborate how invasion by an alien species reduces the species diversity of an area.
Can you think of a scientific explanation, besides analogy used by Paul Ehrlich, for the direct relationship between diversity and stability of an ecosystem?
Explain briefly the ‘rivet popper hypothesis’ of Paul Ehrlich.
Match List I with List II-
| List-I | List-II |
| A. Robert May | I. Species-Area relationship |
| B. Alexander von Humboldt | II. Long term ecosystem experiment using outdoor plots |
| C. Paul Ehrlich | III. Global species diversity at about 7 million |
| D. David Tilman | IV. Rivet popper hypothesis |
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Identify the INCORRECT statement.
Among ‘The Evil Quartet’, which one is considered the most important cause driving extinction of species?
