Academics

Biodiversity can be defined as the variability of living organisms from all sources and the ecological complexes they are a part of, such as diversity between species and ecosystems, and within species (Titley et al., 2017). Most diversity is discussed at the species level, as that is the complex that correlates best with species richness. Species richness on the other hand is the number of different species that are present in a specific area. Species richness is a good measure of species biodiversity because it provides researchers or scientists with a measure of how assorted a population is. Species richness across regions can only be changed and explained based on speciation, extinction, and dispersal (Pyron and Wiens, 2013). Once there is a general idea of how many different species there are present in the region of study, species’ abundance can be observed. Species’ abundance is a measure of how many individuals there are from one species relative to the entire population. These concepts can be used to understand complex habitats and provide reasons for varied biodiversity across numerous regions such as the tropics or temperate zones. 

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