Biodiversity and Evolution: Introduction
Look in any crook or crevice in a rainforest and you'll find life revealed! On every branch, under every layer of soil and water, you can find hundreds of different living things; some so tiny you would need a powerful microscope to identify them. In fact there are 1.9 million identified species on earth, but scientists estimate that there may be 10-100 million remaining that have not been identified. This multitude of living things has existed for at least 3.5 billion years, adapting and changing as the earth changes. This incredible diversity of life makes our lives on earth possible.
"...whilst this planet has gone cycling on…endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."
– Charles Darwin
Section Objectives
After you have completed this section, you will be able to:
- Define biodiversity and explain the importance of biodiversity to the health of the biosphere.
- Describe the role of adaptation, natural selection, and extinction in the process of evolution.
- Calculate growth rates and doubling times of populations as well as project the future population size of a community.
- Analyze factors that limit the growth of populations.
Section Warm-Up: Earthships
Wildlife in the modern world often gets pushed into the least habitable corners of the globe.
Read the video transcript to find out how this might affect our lives and the health of the earth's life support systems.
Transcript: One Man’s Trash, Another Man’s ‘Earthship’
Want more State of the Planet's Wildlife:
State of the Planet’s Wildlife - Narrated by Matt Damon
Transcript: The State of the Planet’s Wildlife