The diversity of living organisms present on the Earth is very vast. According to an estimate by researchers it is about seven millions.
The total number of species present in the world is calculated by ecologists by statistical comparison between a species richness of a well studied group of insects of temperate and tropical regions. Then these ratios are extrapolated with other groups of plants and animals to calculate the total species richness present on the Earth.
List-I | List-II |
A. Biodiversity hotspot | I. Khasi and Jantia hills in Meghalaya |
B. Sacred groves | II. World Summit on Sustainable |
C. Johannesburg South Africa | III. Parthenium |
D. Alien species invasion | IV. Western Ghats |
The term ‘biodiversity’ is derived from the two words- ‘bios' which means life and ‘diversity’ i.e, differentiation or variation. Edward Wilson, the sociobiologist was the first to popularise the term ‘biodiversity’ in the year 1992. The term implies the occurrence of various plants and animals along with their variants such as biotypes, ecotypes and genes on earth. In our biosphere, the immense diversity or heterogeneity remains not only at the species level but also, at every level of biological organization that ranges from macromolecules in the cells to biomes.
Biodiversity and Conservation is a topic covered under the fifteenth chapter and Unit 5 of NCERT class 12 biology.