Title: biodiversity
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - biodiversity
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.14479
Status: current

Definition
Occurrence of a number of species within a given ecosystem or biome, or the presence of a number of community types in a given area.

Notes
1) In special cases, biodiversity may include a degree of genetic variation within a single species.
2) Biodiversity is often a measure of the health of biological systems.
3) Biodiversity can be measured on many biological levels, but the term most commonly refers to the number of different species in a defined area (species richness) and is quantified by calculating a diversity index which takes into account the relative abundance of individuals of each species.

Related Terms
- abundance: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/14415
- biome: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/14489
- community: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/14531
- diversity index: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/14599
- ecosystem: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/14619
- species richness: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/15051

Source
- PAC, 2009, 81, 829. 'Glossary of terms used in ecotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2009)' on page 847 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-08-07-09)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14479/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14479/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/14479/xml

Citation: Citation: 'biodiversity' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.14479
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Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-04-21T09:31:17+00:00