Funnily enough, I was recently faced with exactly that problem - though on a very small-scale, non-Nobel Prize winning level. The task was to write a brief intro for an online article directory about Biodiversity, aimed at the general web-browsing public. I came up with:
"Biodiversity can refer to genetic diversity within a species, species diversity within an ecosystem, ecosystem diversity within a region, or all three of them taken together. In each case, it's a combination measure of the total number of genes, species, or ecosystems (called "richness") and their abundances relative to each other. For example, an ecosystem where one species comprises 99% of the total number of individuals isn't very diverse, even if there are hundreds of other species in the other 1%. Likewise, high genetic diversity within a species is crucial to how well it can adapt to changing environmental conditions - and its survival in the long term. Biodiversity has become an increasingly important part of policy planning for issues in resource and environmental conservation. The loss of biodiversity has an impact in other areas, like medicine and bioinformatics. Learn more about all aspects of biodiversity with the articles below." I'm open to suggestions on how to improve this if anyone has any. The live version is at http://www.brighthub.com/guides/biodiversity.aspx. Bright Hub is one of the few content sites with basic science articles; the article topics are based on what people actually search about (as opposed to what people probably ought to be searching about). Regards, Mimi Tzeng ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Ritchie, Euan" <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: segunda-feira, 13 de Dezembro de 2010 23:05 > Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Defining biodiversity, and does the term capture the > public's attention? > > > Hi everyone, > > I have just returned from the Ecological Society of Australia meeting and > among other issues, there was much discussion about the term biodiversity. > Many people argue that this term is hard to define, and importantly, the > public have no idea what it actually means and therefore they have less > connection/concern to preserve/conserve species and habitats. I thought it > would be interesting to hear how others define biodiversity, and if this > term isn't helpful for conveying the importance of species diversity to the > public, what term(s) should we use? > > Over to you, > > Euan > >
