Diversity may relate to the number of species present in a community. The influence of deforestation and the impact of agriculture on species diversity

Community- all the different species living in an area.

Diversity is the variation in species living in an area: it is important to look at the amount of different species but it is also important to look at the size of each of the species.

This is because there could be many species, but some could be very unsuccessful or endangered and others could be successful and dominant.

An example of where this is important is in an agricultural setting where a certain crop is cultivated. For example in a wheat field, there will be some insects and mammals so potentially lots of species, but they will all have a relatively small number of members compared to the wheat which will have a huge number of individuals. Here, even though there are many species the biodiversity is low.

Deforestation causes disruption to the relationships in a community by removing on species (trees) and decreasing the biodiversity. Important things such as food and habitat are lost which can cause a decrease in the population of other species.