22: Biodiversity
- Page ID
- 69841
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Differentiate among the types of biodiversity
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Learn how to measure diversity using indices
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Understand why biodiversity is not evenly distributed
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Learn how Rarefaction curves are used to estimate species richness
Genetic diversity, ecosystem diversity, and human-derived diversity are measures of biodiversity that currently define life on earth. Because it is often difficult to obtain a full list of species in any given location, various metrics are used to measure biodiversity, including Alpha, Beta, and Gamma diversity, and rarefaction curves. While around 2 million species have been scientifically described globally, estimates of the actual number of species on earth range from 10s of millions to billions.