Class 12 Biology — Chapter 13: Biodiversity and Conservation

What you'll learn

• ▸Levels of Biodiversity
• ▸Global Species Richness Estimates
• ▸Taxonomic Distribution of Species
• ▸India as a Mega-Diversity Nation
• ▸Latitudinal Gradients of Biodiversity
• ▸Species-Area Relationship

Chapter Summary

--- PAGE 1 --- CHAPTER 13 BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION 12083CH15 Invertebrates Vertebrates Plants 13.1 Biodiversity 13.2 Biodiversity Conservation If an alien from a distant galaxy were to visit our planet Earth, the first thing that would amaze and baffle him would most probably be the enormous diversity of life that he would encounter. Even for humans, the rich variety of living organisms with which they share this planet never ceases to astonish and fascinate us. The common man would find it hard to believe that there are more than 20,000 species of ants, 3,00,000 species of beetles, 28,000 species of fishes and nearly 20,000 species of orchids. Ecologists and evolutionary biologists have been trying to understand the significance of such diversity by asking important questions– Why are there so many species? Did such great diversity exist throughout earth’s history? How did this diversification come about? How and why is this diversity important to the biosphere? Would it func…

Practice Questions from this Chapter

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1. Explain biodiversity simply? Get Solution →
2. List species extinction causes? Get Solution →
3. Describe India's ecosystem diversity? Get Solution →
4. Who is credited with popularizing the term 'biodiversity'? Get Solution →
5. According to the text, what is the estimated number of ant species? Get Solution →
6. As per the IUCN (2004), the total number of plant and animal species described is slightly more than what figure? Get Solution →
7. What percentage of the world's land area does India occupy? Get Solution →
8. Which level of biodiversity is exemplified by the 50,000 genetically different strains of rice in India? Get Solution →

Did you know?

• 💡 Out of every ten animals on Earth, seven are insects.
• 💡 There are more fungi species than all fish, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals put together.
• 💡 India holds 8.1% of global species diversity with only 2.4% of the world's land.
• 💡 Millions of tiny species exist in a single spoonful of soil.
• 💡 All life forms today descended from a single common ancestor over billions of years.

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