Species Diversity

 Species Diversity is a very important thing and crucial in biology for many reasons.  

“Species diversity is the number of different species in a particular area and their relative abundance. The area in question could be a habitat, a biome or the entire biosphere.” 

For one reason it is important to have diversity, because diverse ecosystems are more resilient to environmental changes. These environmental could be climate change or a natural disaster like flooding or a forest fire which can happen very easily. Species diversity is also important for the food chain. As there are more food alternatives for animals, they are more likely to survive. A large variety of plants like tree plants is also very important as they store carbon and produce oxygen for better air quality. 

But for species diversity there must also be species interactions. There are a few types of species interactions. 

Competition- A competition is an interaction between organisms, populations or even species in which birth/growth/death depend on gaining a share of limited environmental resource. An example for that is a lion defending its kill from a pack of hyenas. They both eat the same food. 

Predation- Here the individuals of one population kill and then consume the individuals or another population. The Population size is not constant and may vary in cycles that appear to be related 

Mutualism- Interactions between individuals of different species. Both species benefit from that interaction. Bees collect nectar and pollen from flowers, while they also pollinate them. That is an important process as bees need the nectar from flowers as a food source and flowers need bees to reproduce as they pollinate them. 


Amensalism- Here the outcome of the interaction between two species is that one is harmed with no impact on the other. An easy example of that are trees and smaller plants. The tree gives shade to smaller plants. The sunlight does not affect the tree in a bad way. But the smaller plants get affected in a negative way. The lack of sunlight and cannot grow properly as the big tree blocks most of the sunlight with its leaves. 

Parasitism- That is the interaction that can be shown easily. Everyone had them at least once in their life – head lice. They are a perfect example of parasitism. They benefit from living on our heads as they rely on our blood. These are blood sucking insects and eggs laying on our scalp. They are not dangerous at all for us, but they make us feel uncomfortable and distressed. 

 


Commensalism- Two species interact with each other and only one species benefits from it. The other species is neither benefited nor harmed. It stays the same. Birds build their nests in trees. They use the branches of a tree to build their nests and lay their eggs in those nests as it is a safe place high up to raise the baby birds. The tree is not affected by that at all, and it stays the same. 












  1. BD Editors (2018). Competition. biology dictionary.  https://biologydictionary.net/competition/ petition (Biology) - Definition, Examples, Quiz | Biology Dictionary 
  2. Samantha Smith B.S. (2021). 10 examples of mutualism relationships. Wildlife informer. https://wildlifeinformer.com/examples-of-mutualism-relationships/onships - Wildlife Informer 
  3. Melissa Ha and Rachel Schleiger (2019). 9.2; species diversity. LibreTexts Biology. https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Ecology/Environmental_Science_(Ha_and_Schleiger) 

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