Biodiversity

Identifying Species and Plant Life

The number of species that survives on this Earth runs into the millions. In his 2002 book, The Future of Life, Edward Wilson writes that we have only begun to explore life on Earth. Marine biodiversity of our vast oceans, and invertebrates in particular, remains largely unexplored. The bacteria of the genus prochlorococcus—the most abundant organism on the planet—belongs to a group called picoplankton, and are responsible for a large part of organic production in the ocean. The ocean also teems with little known bacteria, aracheans and protozoans. Among the multicellular organisms of Earth in all environments, the smallest species are also the least known. Of fungi, 69,000 have been identified and named, but as many as 1.6 million are thought to exist. Nematode worms make up four out of every five animal species of the world. Fifteen thousand species are known, but millions more await discovery. In the world of flowering plants, 272,000 species have been identified, and the actual number may be 300,000 or more. Every year, 2,000 new species are added to the known list of plant species. In the world of fauna, new species are continually added to the list. Mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles continue to be added to the world's biodiversity inventory.

Biodiversity exists at different levels, genes, and species, as well as in ecosystems called alpha, beta, and gama diversity. This encompasses the ecological services that ecosystems provide and caters to the requirements of our food, raw materials, a wide range of our goods and services, genetic material for agriculture, medicines, and industry. Many indexes exist to measure biological diversity, and the Shannon-Wiener index is often used.

...