Biodiversity: Biodiversity or "biological diversity" is the diversity of species, ecosystems and genes that exist on earth.

Reasons to Conserve Biodiversity:

Example #1 - Tropical Rainforest:

A) Ethical Reason:

a) Wrong to deprive future generations of the biodiversity that exists in the rainforest now.

B) Ecological Reason:

a) Conservation of rainforest trees helps lessen impacts of global warming. Replanting trees removes CO2 from the air via photosynthesis.

C) Economic Reason:

a) Rainforests have the greatest biodiversity of biomes on earth. Some of the creatures that live there may produce substances that can be used as medicines.

b) EcoTourism. Promotion of tourism to such biodiverse places brings money into the economies of rainforest countries.

D) Aesthetic Reason:

a) Composers, artists & writers are inspired by the biodiversity and beauty of the rainforest

b) Natural ecosystems and species are beautiful and provide us great enjoyment. .

The higher the numerical biodiversity that is calculated, the higher the rating of the biodiversity for that site. Undisturbed natural areas should have higher biodiversity marks than those that are very disturbed. Generally, the biodiversity mark should increase as succession proceeds from the pioneer species towards the climax species. Although a zoo has a high number of different species, it would score lower than a natural ecosystem because it only has a few members of each species present!