Tuesday, 6 April 2010

Biodiversity

 

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are home to king penguins. Britain has been ignoring its ‘moral duty’ to protect the island’s biodiversity according to MPs

Biodiversity is the variety of life on earth at all levels. Photographer: Paul A Souders/Corbis

What is biodiversity?

Biodiversity is the variety of life on earth at all levels: from genes to species to ecosystems. An apple variety is an example of biodiversity; so is Siberian coastal tundra. Most of the time, though, biodiversity is spoken about in terms of species.

Q&A: Biodiversity | Science | guardian.co.uk