• Fires occur naturally in forests and

could destroy and entire forest

ecosystem.
 Can the same
devastating event
occur in the seas?
• In 1970s, marine biologists were alarmed
by such a phenomenon. Vast kilometers of
coral reefs in Guam and the Great Barrier
Reef in Australia were being destroyed
and a certain species of starfish, Crown-
of-thorns (Acanthaster planci) was
responsible.
• In March 2013, the Australian government
even spent more than $1.4 million just to
remove 60,000 starfish out of the Great
Barrier Reef.
• Verde Island Passage a 100-kilometer long
and 20-kilometer wide corridor between
Batangas, Mindoro, Marinduque and
Romblon has declared “the center of the
center” of the world’s ocean diversity. The
passage is found at the top of Coral Triangle,
an area spanning across Indonesia, Papua
New Guinea and East Timor.
• It is considered to be the “Amazon of the
Seas’’
• In April 2013, the Verde Island Passage
was reported that at least 500 square
meters (around 5400 square feet) of
corals have been destroyed by the coral-
killing starfish population
• Is a contraction of the word
“biological diversity”
• We share the planet with millions of
species of living things
Species- is a set of individuals that have the same
distinct characteristics and are able to mate and
produce fertile offspring

• To date, about 2 million species were formally

named and classified by taxonomists.
• Humans do not know exactly how many
organisms exists on Earth but scientists estimateit
to be 8.7 million, which give a good idea of
how rich Earth’s biodiversity.
Biodiversity consists of the entire
range of living organisms across
levels of organizations:
1. Genes
2. Species
3. Ecosystems
1.Ecosystem Diversity
2.Genetic Diversity
3.Species Diversity
4.Functional Diversity
• This refers to the totality of the variety of
genes or inheritable characteristics present
in a population of organisms.
• A healthy population possess a diversity
of traits. (e.g. differences in color, size,
ability to run fast from predators or
ability to fight off diseases)
•It refers to the variety of life
forms and the number of each
species present in a biological
community.
SPECIES RICHNESS
- The number of different kinds of species in a
particular area

SPECIES ABUNDANCE
- The number of the individual members within a
particular species

SPECIES EVENNESS
- How close in numbers each species in an
environment is
NICHES
-the size of an area, climate
and diversity of functional
roles contribute to
biodiversity?
The tropical forests of Southeast Asia,
Latin America and Central Africa most
diverse ecosystems in the planet.

Biologists hypothesize that a tropical

climate contributes to continuous supply of
food because it entails a fairly constant
temperature and large amounts of
rainfall all year round.
The species diversity is high near the
equator (tropical rainforest, ocean
bottom zone, and large tropical lakes)
but declines towards the poles, which
receives less sunlight
• This refers to the variety of
ecosystem in a biosphere
• Includes the terrestrial ecosystem
known as biomes such as tropical
rainforest, grasslands as well as
aquatic ecosystem like coral reefs,
mangrove forest, vast seas and lakes
• This refers to the biological and
chemical processes that includes
energy flow, biogeochemical or
nutrient cycles and interactions of
organisms which is important for
the survival of species,
population, communities and the
entire ecosystem
• Species interact with each other to
create relationship like:
1. Mutualism
2. Competition
3. Parasitism
4. Commensalism
5. Predation
•Organisms functioning as
producers, consumers and
decomposers are vital to
the interactions for the
cycling of nutrients in food
webs