Biologically diverse communities are also more likely to contain species that confer resilience to that ecosystem because as a community accumulates species, there is a higher chance of any one of them having traits that enable them to adapt to a changing environment.
How does biodiversity increase the stability of an ecosystem?
Greater biodiversity in ecosystems, species, and individuals leads to greater stability. For example, species with high genetic diversity and many populations that are adapted to a wide variety of conditions are more likely to be able to weather disturbances, disease, and climate change.
Why are more diverse communities more stable?
Diverse communities could maintain consistently high function because the species driving function change over time (functional turnover) or because they are more likely to contain key species with temporally stable functioning.
How does biodiversity affect the stability of an ecosystem quizlet?
How does biodiversity affect the stability of an ecosystem? Having a number of different organisms increases the stability of an ecosystem, because a change in the population of one organism will have less effect on the population of an organism that depends on it.
What makes an ecosystem more stable?
Stability Important
The two key components of ecosystem stability are resilience and resistance. Resistance is an ecosystem’s ability to remain stable when confronted with a disturbance. Resilience is the speed at which an ecosystem recovers from a disturbance.
How does low species diversity affect ecosystem stability?
A decrease in biodiversity causes a decrease in ecosystem stability, because a change to one organism will have a greater impact on the entire ecosystem. With greater biodiversity, the loss of one type of organism could be moderated by the adaptation of other organisms to fill its role.
How will increasing diversity affect ecosystem?
Explanation: By increasing species diversity in an ecosystem, both the efficiency and the productivity of an ecosystem will increase. A greater species richness and diversity may cause ecosystems to function more efficiently and productively by making more resources available for other species.
Why does the biodiversity of an ecosystem affect its resilience?
Diversity-Stability Theory
Biologically diverse communities are also more likely to contain species that confer resilience to that ecosystem because as a community accumulates species, there is a higher chance of any one of them having traits that enable them to adapt to a changing environment.
Why might an increase in biodiversity lead to a decrease in the stability of an ecosystem?
Migration can negatively impact an ecosystem if the migration is permanent and leads to the loss of native species. … A decrease in biodiversity causes a decrease in ecosystem stability, because a change to one organism will have a greater impact on the entire ecosystem.
Why is biodiversity important to ecosystems?
Ecological life support— biodiversity provides functioning ecosystems that supply oxygen, clean air and water, pollination of plants, pest control, wastewater treatment and many ecosystem services. … Our tourism industry also depends on biodiversity .
Why is an ecosystem with higher levels of biodiversity more stable than an ecosystem with lower levels of biodiversity?
Generally speaking, greater species diversity (alpha diversity) leads to greater ecosystem stability. This is termed the “diversity–stability hypothesis.” An ecosystem that has a greater number of species is more likely to withstand a disturbance than an ecosystem of the same size with a lower number of species.
What ecosystems are most stable?
Oceans is stable ecosystems since it stays unchanged over the long term. Various natural geological and anthropogenic forces build and damage mountains, deserts and forests but oceans have remained stable over the long history of the Earth.
What causes an ecosystem to become unstable?
Important direct drivers include habitat change, climate change, invasive species, overexploitation, and pollution. Most of the direct drivers of degradation in ecosystems and biodiversity currently remain constant or are growing in intensity in most ecosystems (see Figure 4.3).