Genetic Diversity - Importance of Genetic Diversity

Importance of Genetic Diversity

There are many different ways to measure genetic diversity. The modern causes for the loss of animal genetic diversity have also been studied and identified. A 2007 study conducted by the National Science Foundation found that genetic diversity and biodiversity (Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem) ] are dependent upon each other—that diversity within a species is necessary to maintain diversity among species, and vice versa. According to the lead researcher in the study, Dr. Richard Lankau, "If any one type is removed from the system, the cycle can break down, and the community becomes dominated by a single species."

The interdependence between genetic and biological diversity is delicate. Changes in biological diversity lead to changes in the environment, leading to adaptation of the remaining species. Changes in genetic diversity, such as in loss of species, leads to a loss of biological diversity.

Read more about this topic:  Genetic Diversity

Famous quotes containing the words importance of, importance, genetic and/or diversity:

    Never before has a generation of parents faced such awesome competition with the mass media for their children’s attention. While parents tout the virtues of premarital virginity, drug-free living, nonviolent resolution of social conflict, or character over physical appearance, their values are daily challenged by television soaps, rock music lyrics, tabloid headlines, and movie scenes extolling the importance of physical appearance and conformity.
    Marianne E. Neifert (20th century)

    Whoever deliberately attempts to insure confidentiality with another person is usually in doubt as to whether he inspires that person’s confidence in him. One who is sure that he inspires confidence attaches little importance to confidentiality.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

    Man is not merely the sum of his masks. Behind the shifting face of personality is a hard nugget of self, a genetic gift.... The self is malleable but elastic, snapping back to its original shape like a rubber band. Mental illness is no myth, as some have claimed. It is a disturbance in our sense of possession of a stable inner self that survives its personae.
    Camille Paglia (b. 1947)

    The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.
    James Madison (1751–1836)