For the_Ideas Bio-Diversity

Case Assignment

I. First read the following definitions of biodiversity:

In Jones and Stokes Associates' “Sliding Toward Extinction: The State of California's Natural Heritage,” 1987:

Natural diversity, as used in this report, is synonymous with biological diversity...To the scientist, natural diversity has a variety of meanings. These include:

1. The number of different native species and individuals in a habitat or geographical area;
2. The variety of different habitats within an area;
3. The variety of interactions that occur between different species in a habitat; and
4. The range of genetic variation among individuals within a species.

In D. B. Jensen, M. Torn, and J. Harte, “In Our Own Hands: A Strategy for Conserving Biological Diversity in California,” 1990:

Biological diversity, simply stated, is the diversity of life...As defined in the proposed U.S. Congressional Biodiversity Act, HR1268 (1990), “biological diversity means the full range of variety and variability within and among living organisms and the ecological complexes in which they occur, and encompasses ecosystem or community diversity, species diversity, and genetic diversity.”

• Genetic diversity is the combination of different genes found within a population of a single species, and the pattern of variation found within different populations of the same species. Coastal populations of Douglas fir are genetically different from Sierra populations. Genetic adaptations to local conditions such as the summer fog along the coast or hot summer days in the Sierra result in genetic differences between the two populations of the same species.
• Species diversity is the variety and abundance of different types of organisms which inhabit an area. A ten square mile area of Modoc County contains different species than does a similar sized area in San Bernardino County.
• Ecosystem diversity encompasses the variety of habitats that occur within a region, or the mosaic of patches found within a landscape. A familiar example is the variety of habitats and environmental parameters that constitute the San Francisco Bay-Delta ecosystem: grasslands, wetlands, rivers, estuaries, fresh and salt water.