Biodiversity
Hello friends welcome to "Home Learning Hub-Great Home Learning For All". In this article we are going to study about an introduction to biodiversity, importance of biodiversity, classification of biodiversity, aims of classification, basis of classification, taxonomic hierarchy, two kingdom classification system, three kingdom classification system and five kingdom classification system so let's gets started.
Introduction To Biodiversity
What is Biodiversity
Importance of Biodiversity
Classification of Biodiversity
Aims of Classification
Basis of Classification
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Two Kingdom Classification System
Three Kingdom Classification System
Five Kingdom Classification System
What is biodiversity:
Biodiversity can be defined as a measure of variety of different living organisms present in different ecosystems depending upon climate, altitude, soils and the presence of other species.
It is not evenly distributed on earth as is richest in tropics but there are few species in polar regions while temperate regions also have many species.
Importance of Biodiversity:
Biodiversity is very important as it provides food for different living organisms and a large amount of drugs are derived from biological sources either directly or indirectly. A large amount of industrial materials such as building materials, fibres, dyes, resins, gums, rubber, adhesives and oil are being directly derived from different plants.
Biodiversity plays a major role in maintaining different ecosystems, important for the regulation of chemistry of atmosphere and water supply and it is also involved for the recycling of nutrients directly and providing fertile soils.
Classification of Living Organisms:
Biologists classify different living organisms into different groups and sub groups to study a large number of different types of living organisms and for this reason they require some system known as biological classification that is biological classification is a method in which biologists classify different living organisms into different groups and subgroups.
Aims of Classification:
The major aims of classification are two, firstly to find out the similarities and differences between different types of living organisms so that they can be studied easily and secondly to determine the evolutionary relationships between living organisms.
Basis of Classification:
Classification is based on the relationship between different types of living organisms and this relationship is obtained by knowing the similarities and differences in the characteristics of living organisms. Some living organisms are more closely related to other living organisms while some organisms are less closely related to other living organisms.
Taxonomic Hierarchy:
The different types of groups into which different living organisms are classified are known as taxonomic categories and these categories form a ladder known as taxonomic hierarchy. All living organisms are divided into five different types of kingdoms and each kingdom is divided into following taxa on the basis of similarities.
Hence each kingdom is further divided into phylum(group of related classes), class(group of related orders), order(group of related families), family(group of related genera), genus(group of related species) and species(group of similar organisms).
For example lets talk about kingdom Animalia, its phylum is Chordata, class is Mammalia, order is primates, family is Homonidae and species is H.sapiens.
Two Kingdom Classification System:
Two kingdom classification system is the oldest classification system it includes all of the living organisms into two groups namely kingdom plantae and kingdom animalia. Those living organisms that can prepare their own food from simple inorganic materials and are known as autotrophs are included in kingdom plantae.
While on the other hand, those living organisms that cannot prepare their own food from simple inorganic materials and are known as heterotrophs are included in kingdom animalia and these depend upon autotrophs for their food.
According to this type of two kingdom classification system bacteria, fungi and algae were included in kingdom plantae. According to some scientists, this system was unworkable because many unicellular living organisms such as Euglena have both plant-like and animal-like characteristics, plant-like(presence of chlorophyll) and animal-like(absence of cell wall) so their should be a separate kingdom for these types of living organisms.
Three Kingdom Classification System:
When three kingdom classification system came, euglena-like organisms and bacteria were included into the third kingdom that is kingdom protista but fungi were still included in kingdom plantae.
Some scientists were disagree from the position of fungi in kingdom plantae as they resemble plants in many ways but are not autotrophs and similarly they do not have cellulose in their cell walls but contain chitin.
Five Kingdom Classification System:
Five kingdom classification system was based on; firstly the levels of cellular organization that is either the cell is prokaryotic, unicellular eukaryotic or multicellular eukaryotic and secondly the principle modes of nutrition that is either the cell can carry out the process of photosynthesis or take food by absorption or ingestion.
Hence on this basis different living organisms are divided into five different kingdoms which are kingdom monera, kingdom protista, kingdom fungi, kingdom plantae and kingdom animalia.
Kingdom Monera:
Kingdom monera includes prokaryotic living organisms that is those living organisms which are made up of prokaryotic cells. Living organisms in this kingdom are unicellular but some types form chains, clusters or colonies of cells.
Most of them are heterotrophic but some are autotrophs and perform photosynthesis as they have chlorophyll in their chloroplasts. Examples of kingdom monera include bacteria and cyanobacteria.
Kingdom Protista:
Kingdom protista includes eukaryotic unicellular and simple multicellular living organisms that is those living organisms which have eukaryotic cells.
Protists may be plant-like, animal-like or fungi-like such as algae which resemble plant cells in having cell wall and chlorophyll in chloroplast and similarly protozoans which resemble animals as they lack chlorophyll and cell wall.
Kingdom Fungi:
In kingdom fungi, living organisms are eukaryotic multicellular heterotrophs(that is those living organisms which have eukaryotic cells and cannot prepare their own food) which are absorptive in their mode of nutrition such as mushrooms.
Most of the fungi are decomposers and mainly live on organic material and secrete digestive enzymes.
Kingdom Plantae:
Kingdom plantae includes eukaryotic multicellular autotrophs(that is those living organisms which have eukaryotic cells and can prepare their own food by the process of photosynthesis) and these are autotrophic in their mode of nutrition preparing their own food by photosynthesis.
Plants have multicellular sex organs and form embryos during their life cycles such as mosses, ferns and flowering plants, these are the examples which can be included in kingdom plantae.
Kingdom Animalia:
Kingdom animalia includes eukaryotic multicellular consumers(that is those living organisms which have eukaryotic cells and cannot prepare their own food as they cannot perform photosynthesis) and their mode of nutrition is ingestion and digest food with the help of specialized cavities. Animals lack cell wall and show movements.
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