Biodiversity is the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem.
Genetic diversity benefits populations by assuring some diverse organisms of the same species will have traits and adaptations that will allow them to survive, that will then assure that species won't die out.
Why is biodiversity valuable to humans?
Why might a species be valuable someday?
Genetic Variation in Populations
Gene shuffling is a way to rapidly propagate beneficial mutations in a directed evolution experiment.
Mutations are when a DNA gene is damaged or changed in such a way as to alter the genetic message carried by that gene.
Mutations are when a DNA gene is damaged or changed in such a way as to alter the genetic message carried by that gene.
Gene shuffling increases the number of genotypes that can appear in an offspring, which will contribute to making different or more advantageous traits.
Mutations can contribute to genetic variation by creating entirely new alleles in a population which could possibly give the organism advantageous traits.
Conservation
Many people around the world are involved in efforts to protect biodiversity and use resources in a sustainable way.
5 ways to personally reduce the amount of resources I use are
- Take shorter showers to preserve water
- Recycle paper and cans to reutalize materials
- Keep track of pencils to use them to their full poteintial
- Use washable dishes versus plastic to avoid using and throwing out harmful plastics
- Refill water bottles to use them more than once and avoid using anymore plastic
Hotspots
There's about 10-15% of the world's land that is actually protected and only about 1.7% of oceans are protected.
National parks protect biodiversity by restoring ecosystems, controlling pests, and controlling invasive species that could harm endangered species.