Biodiversity can be defined as the variation of taxonomic life forms within a given ecosystem or biome, or for the entire Earth. It can be used as a measure of the health of an ecosystem, to indicate what has existed from past to present, and to use native populations as a barometer for detecting introduced or invasive species. This chapter keeps the background and methods of measuring biodiversity on a fundamental level while providing an introduction to basic quantitative measures for practical fieldwork.
Details
Type Book ChapterPub Date 3/1/2010Stock # PB273X_6