Genetic diversity is not species diversity
- The idea
- Predict
- See it
- Why
- Check
The idea
“Diversity means lots of species, so one species can't be very diverse.”
Biodiversity is usually told as a count of species. It's easy to forget the variation inside each one.
The short version
The mistake: Diversity means lots of species, so one species can't be very diverse.
What's actually true: Genetic diversity is allele variation within one species. Species diversity is the variety of species in a community.
- Genetic diversity is the variety of alleles among members of one species.
- Species diversity is how many species live in a community and how even their numbers are. It says nothing about alleles.
- A species with many alleles is more likely to have some members survive a new disease.
On the exam: Counting species is species diversity. Comparing alleles within one species is genetic diversity.