Question

How and why is this diversity important to the biosphere?

Answer 1

Part 1: Significance of diversity
Biodiversity is important to the biosphere in the following ways

• Stability-A species rich community is more stable than one that has less species diversity.Such a biosphere is more resilient or resistant to natural or man made disturbances.
• Higher productivity - A biodiverse community has a high rate of biomass production which means that organisms in each trophic level will have a better growth rate. David Tilman found that more species diversity showed less variation in total biomass.
• Advantage to each species- Since ecosystem functions on the efficient working of food webs, a destruction or extinction of a non keystone species will not affect the food source of another organism.
• Services- Biodiversity supports a lot of ecosystem services like
• Carbon sequestration
• Purifying the air
• Controlling of floods
• Formation of soil
• Climate regulation