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What is biodiversity?

Biodiversity is the variety of living being species of an ecosystem. In ecosystems with great biodiversity, like tropical forests, a great variety of plants, microorganisms and animals live; in ecosystems with less biodiversity, like deserts, there are less variety of living beings.

How does biodiversity relate to the characteristics of the abiotic factors of an ecosystem?

The availability of abiotic factors, like light, moisture, mineral salts, heat and carbon dioxide, conditions more or less biodiversity of an ecosystem. Photosynthesis depends on water and light, and plants also need mineral salts, carbon dioxide and adequate temperature for their cells to work. In environments where these factor are not restrictive the synthesis of organic material (by photosynthesis) is maximum, plants and algae can reproduce easier, the population of these beings increase, potential ecological niches multiply and new species emerge. The large mass of producers makes viable the appearing of a diversity of consumers of several orders. In environments with restrictive abiotic factors, like deserts, the producers exist in few number and less diversity, a feature that thus extends to consumers and conditions fewer ecological niches to be explored.

How does the vegetal stratification of an ecosystem influence biodiversity?

The vegetal stratification of an ecosystem, like the strata of the Amazon Rainforest, creates vertical layers with peculiar abiotic and biotic factors, dividing the ecosystem into several different environments. Therefore in the superior layer near the crowns of big trees the exposition to light, rain and wind is greater but moisture is lower comparing to the inferior layers. As one goes down the strata the penetration of light diminishes and moisture increases. Regarding the biotic factors, communities of each stratum present composition and features, food habits, reproduction strategies, etc., also different. Such variations in the abiotic and biotic factors make the selective pressure upon the living beings also diversified, there are more ecological niches to be explored and more varied beings emerge during the evolutionary process.