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9 - Biodiversity, conservation, and sustainable timber harvest: can we have it all?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
S.P. Campbell ,
D.A. Patrick  and
J.P. Gibbs
Edited by
John D. Castello  and
Stephen A. Teale
S.P. Campbell
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
D.A. Patrick
Affiliation:
Paul Smith's College
J.P. Gibbs
Affiliation:
State University of New York
John D. Castello
Affiliation:
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Stephen A. Teale
Affiliation:
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
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Summary

What is biodiversity?

Biodiversity is the variety of life at all levels of its organization, including genes, species, ecosystems, and their interactions. The description of every component of biodiversity yields a hierarchical structure (Figure 9.1). At the finest level of resolution are genes and their different forms (i.e., alleles) found by the thousands to millions within the nucleus of each and every cell of every individual organism. Scaling up we would see morphological variation among individuals of the same species, which is the physical expression of each individual's underlying genetic constitution. Groups of individuals are distinguished by shared genetic traits distinct from those shared by other such groups. These groups, typically called evolutionary significant units or ESUs, are less likely to breed with members of other such groups usually because of some kind of barrier, such as a mountain range (Ryder 1986). ESUs often are the precursors to new species, which are groups of individuals that are incapable of successfully interbreeding due to physical or behavioral incompatibilities (Mayr 1963). Species assemble into communities, which are groups of species that predictably occur together, and are linked to one another through energy/nutrient transfer, competition, mutualisms, predation, and other interactions. These linkages can be extremely tight (e.g., mutualisms) or very diffuse (e.g., species that simply occur at the same place and time but do not effectively interact). Finally, a biome encompasses all communities found within a larger region, and represents the highest level of the biodiversity hierarchy.

Type
Chapter
Information
Forest Health
An Integrated Perspective
 , pp. 277 - 320
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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