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Concept of an Ecosystem | Assignment
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Added on 2019-10-01
Concept of an Ecosystem | Assignment
Added on 2019-10-01
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Alpha Diversity18th July 2019Concept of an EcosystemThe concept of an ecosystem was proposed by Robert Whittaker who was an American psychologist and researcher in the domain of succession and vegetation gradients. According to him, there are three measures of diversity in an ecosystem such as alpha, beta and gamma diversities. Alpha diversity within an ecosystem refers to the number of species. Beta diversity encompasses the comparison of diverse ecosystems in environmental gradients. For instance, in amountainous area that is situated within a coastal area. Beta diversity depicts the size in the change of species from one ecosystem to the other. Gamma diversity reflects the total diversity in a region such as geography diversity. It is the total of the Alpha diversity about diverse ecosystems.Concept of BiodiversityBiodiversity is referred to as the various existing within and among the various forms of life on asite, landscape or ecosystem. Biodiversity can be termed as and measured like an attribute consisting of two components such as richness and evenness. Richness refers to the number of groups of genetically are functionally related individuals in the species. It has been found in mostof the surveys conducted on vegetation that richness is depicted in the form of the number of species and it is normally referred to as species richness. Evenness consists of the proportion of species for functional groups that exist on a site. The more is the equal species in proportion to one another, the greater will be the evenness of the site. A site having low evenness reflects that there are a few dominant species located in the site.Diversity is used for describing variation in diverse forms such as genetic, life form and functional group. Genetic diversity consists of species and varieties. Life from diversity consists of mosses, trees, grasses, and forbs. The functional group consists of evergreen vegetation, deep-rooted plantation, nitrogen-fixing and soil crust. Biodiversity is measured to identify a combination of richness and evenness existing across a species. One of the main reasons for 2
measuring biodiversity is high biodiversity is often considered synonymous with the health of an ecosystem.Commonly, diverse communities are considered to have enhanced stability, productivity, and resistance to innovation and other types of disturbances. A diverse habitat consisting of a variety of plants have multiple advantages such as follows:Offering foraging ground for a large variety of vertebrate and insect species.Achieving stability that generous from the plants in the community that can survive insect plagues, disease outbreaks or drought such that the site has some protection of its soil and forage during those years.There are plants which contain diverse genetic material that can be used in long term survival and achieving stability of the community.The community will benefit from having a mixture of plants. For example, the condition of the soil improves when there are nitrogen-fixing deep-rooted plants that permeate nutrients up towards the surface from the layers of soil below other plant roots. Some species of plant functions together for achieving effective survival which is referred to as commensalism and thereby more stability is achieved in diverse communities.Plant communities which are healthy and diverse usually have their niches filled and theyare theoretically less exposed to invasions by noxious and opportunistic species those hadbeen introduced in the region.Concept of Alpha DiversityAlpha diversity (α-diversity) refers to the mean diversity in species in different sites or habitats within a local scale. The terminology was founded by R. H. Whittaker, along with the terminologies of beta diversity (β-diversity) and gamma diversity (γ-diversity). The idea of Whittaker encompassed the concept that the diversity of species in totality within a given landscape that is the gamma diversity can be determined by two diverse concepts. The mean diversity of species at different sites or habitats within a more local scale which is referred to as alpha diversity. The differentiation existing between the habitats is referred to as beta diversity. 3
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