Editing Biodiversity (section)

==Definitions==
[[File:Biodiversity by Dano.jpg|thumb|214x214px|Shown in a museum, various models of species across various taxa and orders visualize the variety of life on earth.]]
Biologists most often define ''biodiversity'' as the "totality of [[gene]]s, [[species]] and [[ecosystems]] of a region".<ref name="Larsson2001">{{cite book|author=Tor-Björn Larsson|title=Biodiversity evaluation tools for European forests|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=zeTU8QauENcC|page=178}}|access-date=28 June 2011|year=2001|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|isbn=978-87-16-16434-6|page=178}}</ref><ref name="Davis">{{cite book|author=Davis|title=Intro To Env Engg (Sie), 4E|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=n0FvYeoHtAIC|page=40}}|access-date=28 June 2011|publisher=McGraw-Hill Education (India) Pvt Ltd|isbn=978-0-07-067117-1|pages=4}}</ref> An advantage of this definition is that it presents a unified view of the traditional types of biological variety previously identified:
* [[taxonomic diversity]] (usually measured at the species diversity level)<ref name="Sahney, S. 2010" />
* [[ecological diversity]] (often viewed from the perspective of [[ecosystem diversity]])<ref name="Sahney, S. 2010" />
* morphological diversity (which stems from [[genetic diversity]] and [[Molecular biology|molecular diversity]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Campbell |first=AK |journal=Journal of Applied Ecology |year=2003 |volume=40 |issue=2 | doi = 10.1046/j.1365-2664.2003.00803.x |pages=193–203 |title=Save those molecules: molecular biodiversity and life|bibcode=2003JApEc..40..193C |doi-access=free }}</ref>)
* [[Functional group (ecology)|functional diversity]] (which is a measure of the number of functionally disparate species within a population (e.g. different feeding mechanism, different motility, predator vs prey, etc.)<ref>{{Cite web|title = What is functional diversity, and why do we care?|url = http://jonlefcheck.net/2014/10/20/what-is-functional-diversity-and-why-do-we-care-2/|website = sample(ECOLOGY)|access-date = 22 December 2015|first = Jon|last = Lefcheck|date = 20 October 2014}}</ref>)

''Biodiversity'' is most commonly used to replace the more clearly-defined and long-established terms, [[species diversity]] and [[species richness]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Walker |first=Brian H. |date=1992 |title=Biodiversity and Ecological Redundancy |url=https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1992.610018.x |journal=Conservation Biology |language=en |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=18–23 |doi=10.1046/j.1523-1739.1992.610018.x |bibcode=1992ConBi...6...18W |issn=1523-1739}}</ref> However, there is no concrete definition for biodiversity, as its definition continues to be reimagined and redefined. To give a couple examples, the [[Food and Agriculture Organization|Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations]] (FAO) defined biodiversity in 2019 as "the variability that exists among living organisms (both within and between species) and the ecosystems of which they are part." The [[World Health Organization]] updated their website’s definition of biodiversity to be the “variability among living organisms from all sources.”<ref>{{Cite web |title=Biodiversity |url=https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/biodiversity |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=www.who.int |language=en}}</ref> Both these definitions, although broad, give a current understanding of what is meant by the term biodiversity.