Changes in Biodiversity: Lower Organisms, Vegetation and Flora

Abstract

Biodiversity is a framework concept, referring to the variety of life on Earth, and in this sense the concept is neither measurable nor quantifiable. However, specific features of biodiversity, e.g. species richness of taxonomic groups can be quantified. Circa 2% of the total number of identified species on Earth, roughly 35,000 species of plants and animals, live in the Delta, comprising roughly 25,000 species of animals (and among them 18,000 insects), and more than 10,000 plants, and among them ca. 1,400 higher plants (seed-plants or Spermatophyta). For a few hundreds of species the Delta has a (great) international significance, and this counts in particular for waterfowl (Chapter 19) (www.mnp.nl/natuurcompendium).