B Diversity of

Science Terms
diversity
preservation
animals

Organisms in an
Ecosystem
Diversity of Organisms is
Observed Due to the Differences
A great number of organisms live on earth. Life
exists everywhere, in the air, land, in soil, and on the
ground. Name organisms around your house. You will
find many kinds of organims there. People, cats, dogs,
hens, banana trees are some examples. How many kinds
of species do you know? Perhaps you know 20 or 30
kinds of species in the world. How do biologists identify
a particular species? There are approximately 1.4 millions
species that have been identified. Biologists estimate that
there are more than one million species in the world that
have not been identified. Figure 7.14 shows the diversity
of organisms.
Diversity of organisms exists because there
are some differences among species, such as the size,
structure, forms, colors, and functions. Based on your
observation it is clear that your classmates also vary. Why
does it happen? The diversity exists because there are
varieties among species and among individuals within
a species. For instance, the structure of dogs is different
from the structure of cats.

Figure 7.14

The diversity of organism in the world

246/Chapter 7 Ecosystems

 The colours of cats fur are different from one

another. The varieties among species are determined
by their genetic structure. What is a variety? A variety
is the appearance of a particular
characteristic that makes one
organism different from the other
within the same species. There are
even organ differences within an
individual. For example, a tree has
different sizes of leaves. Figure 7.15
shows a variety of cats fur. How can
some varieties help organisms to
survive?

Figure 7.15

Variation of the colour of

cats fur.

The Importance of Diversity for

Organism Preservation
Diversity of organisms are also found among
the members of a particular species. Diversity is very
important for organism preservation. Animals or plants
having more varieties will be more everlasting and they
will survive more in the environment. On the other hand,
animals and plant having fewer varieties will be less
everlasting. Let us pay a close attention to the following
example.
Two populations live in a particular habitat.
Population A have 10 species while population B has only
4 species. During their interaction with their environment,
it is found out that there are only 5 varieties of population A
successful. At the same time only 1 variety of population B
is successful. So, which population has better opportunity
to continue to exist? Is it true that organisms having more
varieties will have a better chance to exist?

Chapter 7 Ecosystems/247

Human Activities that

Can Affect the Variety
of Organisms
The variety of each group of
organisms is not stable and always changes.
There are organisms whose varieties
increase, decrease or even remain the
same.
The degradation of variety can
happen naturally or due to human
interference. Human interference has
great contribution in reducing the varieties
of organism nowadays. Human activities
may threaten the variety of organism.

1. Explain the variety of organisms.

2. Explain the similarities and
differences of a certain organisms
characteristics in your surroundings.
3. Mention the adaptive feature of a
fish.
4. Application: Which variety is
advantageous to animals in a hot
climate area: having thick feathers,
black color, or light color? Elaborate
your answer.

Deforestation for crop, farms, factory, road

constructions, housing, and overuse of pesticides,
insecticides, and fungicides are examples of human
activities that can threaten varieties of organisms.

Human Efforts to
Preserve Varieties of
Organisms
The varieties of organisms benefit people
economically, socially, or even culturally. Therefore,
we should preserve the existence of varieties. The
followings are some ways to preserve varieties of
organisms.

Be active
visit the website and

find out endangered

species in Indonesia

write down some ways

to preserve it

248/Chapter 7 Ecosystems

Do you
know?

C The Influence of
Science Terms

Population
Carrying capacity
Environment
Limiting factor

Population Density
on the Environment

The number of human population keeps on

increasing year after year. No one knows exactly how
many people live on earth and when the population
growth will stop. The human population rapidly grows
after several hundred years. More population needs more
things to be provided. The Figure below shows the chart
of human population growth for years.

Chapter 7 Ecosystems/249

Activity
7.6

Counting the Average of

Population Change per Year
The population change rate (CR) per year can be shown
by percentage. This rate is obtained by counting birth rate (BR)
and death rate (DR). The formula of CR is

Count the % (CR) of several continents or regions based
on the following data :

Continents/regions

Africa

Asia

North america

USA

Europe

World

BR (per 1000)
48
29
15
13
14
27

DR (per 1000)
18
12
8
8
10
9

% CR

Discussion
1. Which continents or regions have higher population than
the average growth in the world?
2. Which continents or regions have lower population than the
average growth in the world?

250/Chapter 7 Ecosystems

HUMAN POPULATION GROWTH IN

INDONESIA
According to the population cencus in 2000 there
are 203.5 million people living in Indonesia. It became
206.1 million people in 2001. Indonesia is the fourth
country having great numbers of population in the world.
Take a look at Table 7.3.

NO
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

COUNTRIES
CHINA
INDIA
USA
INDONESIA
BRAZIL
PAKISTAN
RUSSIA
BANGLADESH
JAPAN
NIGERIA

POPULATION
1.273,3
1.003,0
284,5
206,1
171,8
145,0
144,4
133,5
127,1
126,6

Table 7.3 World population (in million)

The average of population growth is approximately
2.3% per year. If this growth remains, the Indonesian
population will be doubled in 20 years, so it would be
300 million people in 2010. If the growth is continuing
it will lead to population explosion. This is surely not
expected. Therefore, the family planning programme has
to be encouraged to slow down the population growth.

Figure 7.16

The growing human population

Chapter 7 Ecosystems/251

Problem arising from population density

The population density will lead to some problems
in living since people will do anything to support their
living. The figures below will give some examples of
problems arising from population density.

Summary

The human population grows very fast while the width of the earth remains the
same. Human needs more food, space, and other necessities to live. This may have some
negative effects on the ecosystem. People cut forests to get more space for housing and for
farming. Therefore, human beings must control their population growth and activities to
make the ecosystem sustainable.

252/Chapter 7 Ecosystems