Biodiversity

Biodiversity refers to the totality of genes, species and ecosystems of a region. Biodiversity differs from place to place. The living world abounds with enormous biodiversity.

Magnitude Of Biodiversity

Systematic work on identifying and naming the many species has been in progress for the last 250 -300 years. But the known and described number of species of all organisms on the earth is between 1.7 and 1.8 million which is just about 15% of the total number existing. New species are being discovered faster than ever before due to the efforts of projects like global biodiversity information facility.

Approximate Numbers of Species

Group	Number of Species
Higher plants	2,70,000
Algae	40,000
Fungi	72,000
Bacteria (including cyanobacteria)	4,000
Viruses	1,550
Mammals	4650
Birds	9700
Reptiles	7150
Fish	26,959
Amphibians	4780
Insects	10,25,000
Crustaceans	43,000
Molluscs	70000
Nematodes and worms	25,000
Protozoa	40,000
Others	1,10,000

 

 

Number of plants and animal species in different groups recorded in India