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Student

Activity 4.7. What is biodiversity?

Purpose
To explore the range of meanings for the term biodiversity.
To investigate biodiversity in terms of the number of known species of different
organisms.
Defining biodiversity
Biodiversity is a very difficult idea to define in words and people use it to mean a
number of different things. Lots of people just use the term as the number of different
species, but there is a range of definitions and although we do not need to learn them
all it is useful to be aware of them when discussing biodiversity and the conservation
of biodiversity.
1 Look up the word biodiversity in your AS textbook and write down any definitions
it gives for biodiversity.
2 Look up the word in any biological dictionaries you have access to and make a
note of the definition.
3 Using the Natural History Museum website Exploring Biodiversity, look at the
section on biodiversity definitions accessed as supplementary information. The
website is in the weblinks that accompany this activity.
4 Using all the information you have collected, put together your own definition of
biodiversity that accurately reflects the different interpretations of the term, using
no more than 30 words.

Questions
How many species?
Q1

Read the key biological principles box on pages 144145 of your AS textbook and make
a note of what is meant by the term species.

Table 1 on page 2 gives data for the number of species described and the estimated totals in
some groups of organisms.
Q2 Use these data to answer the following questions:
a Which is the group with the largest proportion of the likely total number of species that
have been described to date?
b Can you suggest why this group has the largest proportion of species described?
c Which two groups have the lowest proportion of species described?
d Can you suggest why these groups are not being described as quickly as other groups?

If you have time

Q3 Explore the species-scape on the Natural History Museum Exploring Biodiversity
website and find out why it is drawn as it is.
Q4 The numbers of species described on the Natural History Museum species-scape do
not always agree with those in Table 1. Suggest a reason why this is the case.

Salters-Nuffield Advanced Biology, Pearson Education Ltd 2008. University of York Science Education Group.
This sheet may have been altered from the original.

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A4.07S

Student

Activity 4.7 What is biodiversity?

Table 1 Estimated number of species

Group
Bacteria
Protoctista
Animalia
Vertebrates total
Mammals
Birds
Reptiles
Amphibians
Fishes

Number of species
described
4000
80 000
52 000
4630
9946
7400
4950
25 000

963 000
Insects and myriapods
75 000
Arachnids
70 000
Molluscs
40 000
Crustaceans
25 000
Nematodes
Fungi
72 000
Plantae
270 000
Total in the five kingdoms
1 750 000
Source: Data from UNEP-WCMC; n/a data not available

Estimated total
1 000 000
600 000
55 000
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
8 000 000
750 000
200 000
150 000
400 000
1 500 000
320 000
14 000 000

Salters-Nuffield Advanced Biology, Pearson Education Ltd 2008. University of York Science Education Group.
This sheet may have been altered from the original.

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