Biodiversity is a lot more than just the number of different plant and animal species. This refers to the diversity of life from genes, the genetic building blocks of life, to Blue Whales, the largest animal that has ever lived, to large ecosystems, such as the Great Barrier Reef. While many people think about this variety in terms of the number of species , it also includes the genes that make up the species, and the ecosystems they form. Web of Life. This refers to the connections that bind all living things.
Many species depend on each other for their survival.
It is the most common way people think about biodiversity. Scientists estimate that Australia has over 1 million different species. These range from tiny algae to humpback whales, from zoo plankton to towering eucalyptus trees. Our knowledge about the number of species that live on Earth is even more vague. Estimates range from 5 to 30 million or more, though one well accepted estimate is 13.6 million.