Life on earth is incredibly diverse. Biological diversity is the variety of life on earth. This includes all the different plants, animals, and microorganisms; the genes they contain; and the ecosystems they form on land and in water. Biological diversity is constantly changing.

Biodiversity is a term used to describe the enormous variety of life on Earth. It can be used more specifically to refer to all of the species in one region or ecosystem. Biodiversity refers to every living thing, including plants, bacteria, animals, and humans.

The source of this diversity is evolution, the process of gradual change during which new species arise from older species. Evolutionary biologists study the evolution of living things in everything from the microscopic world to ecosystems.

It is the variation in the ecosystems found in a region or the variation in ecosystems over the whole planet. Ecological diversity includes the variation in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Amazonia

Greater variety of plants means more food and habitat for the herbivores. An increase in herbivores means more food for carnivores. Decomposers help to maintain the supply of nutrients to the soil and to the growing plants. This wide variety makes forest a dynamic living entity.

Human uses of living things, including animals plants, fungi, and microbes, take many forms, both practical, such as the production of food and clothing, and symbolic, as in art, mythology, and religion. The skills and practices involved are transmitted by human culture through social learning.

All living organisms share several key characteristics or functions: order, sensitivity or response to the environment, reproduction, growth and development, regulation, homeostasis, and energy processing. When viewed together, these characteristics serve to define life.

The seven characteristics of life include:

• responsiveness to the environment;
• growth and change;
• ability to reproduce;
• have a metabolism and breathe;
• maintain homeostasis;
• being made of cells; and.
• passing traits onto offspring.

There are seven characteristics of living things: movement, breathing or respiration, excretion, growth, sensitivity and reproduction. Some non-living things may show one or two of these characteristics but living things show all seven characteristics.

Those characteristics are cellular organization, reproduction, metabolism, homeostasis, heredity, response to stimuli, growth and development, and adaptation through evolution. Some things, such as a virus, demonstrate only a few of these characteristics and are, therefore, not alive.

In order for something to be classified as living, it must grow and develop, use energy, reproduce, be made of cells, respond to its environment, and adapt.

Non-living things are inanimate objects or forces with the ability to influence, shape, alter a habitat, and impact its life. Some examples of non-living things include rocks, water, weather, climate, and natural events such as rockfalls or earthquakes.

Cells are sacs of fluid surrounded by cell membranes. But, the structures inside the cell cannot perform these functions on their own, so the cell is considered the lowest level. Each cell is capable of converting fuel to useable energy. Therefore, cells not only make up living things; they are living things.

Viruses are not living things. Viruses are complicated assemblies of molecules, including proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and carbohydrates, but on their own they can do nothing until they enter a living cell. Without cells, viruses would not be able to multiply. Therefore, viruses are not living things.

The length of a cell’s life can vary. For example, white blood cells live for about thirteen days, cells in the top layer of your skin live about 30 days, red blood cells live for about 120 days, and liver cells live about 18 months.